Geese Thrill at Rolling Stone Rock Tour in Denver

Toward the end of Geese’s sold-out Summit Music Hall show Thursday night in Denver, a mosh pit formed a circle during the piano bits in “Long Island City Here I Come,” then waited, waited, waited, finally exploding when the Brooklyn group broke into the song’s raucous climax. The standing-room-only crowd’s spontaneous choreography mirrored Geese’s music: quiet crooning, then something more crazed, then soft again, then loud again. 

Geese’s concert at the 900-capacity Summit, across the street from the Colorado Rockies’ Coors Field stadium, was the second stop on this year’s Rolling Stone Rock Tour, presented by Miller High Life. (Bleachers played New Orleans last month, Die Spitz are at San Diego’s House of Blues next month, and a Wednesday/Mannequin Pussy double bill visits Nashville in November.)

The members of Geese, who famously formed the band during high school, once intended to move on to their respective colleges after graduation, but the DIY tracks they released online took off and drew interest from record labels. Soon, they were playing hip New York clubs and festivals and making a bona fide debut album, 2021’s well-received Projector. Their third proper album, Getting Killed, was one of last year’s best and most-talked-about releases, and they played much of it Thursday night — translating the herky-jerky rhythms and vocal experiments on the LP into effective hard rock that called to mind giants like Nirvana, Television and Radiohead. 

Lead singer Cameron Winter, wearing a blue baseball cap, a track jacket, and sunglasses, opened the show with a full-throated “hoooo hoooo” at the start of “Taxes,” then spent the stomping 2023 blues-rocker “Crusades” rising from deep, talky verses to falsetto choruses and back again. He’s a mesmerizing singer, and it’s tempting to spend an entire Geese show surfing on the dramatic ups and downs of his voice. But Geese have been at this for 10 years, and for a band full of improvisational players, they are surprisingly tight. Bassist Dominic DiGesu and drummer Max Bassin make up a top-notch rhythm section, while guitarist Emily Green constantly solos, sometimes doubling Winter’s playing, other times providing melodic riffs.

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Geese leaned short and tough for the first half of the show. “Islands of Men” was built on staccato power chords, “Husbands” had a soft, train-like rhythm, and “Getting Killed” opened with classic hard-rock guitars. By the end, the band was gloriously stretching out, allowing for a brief Bassin drum solo during “Bow Down” and for Winter to take over from touring keyboardist Sam Revaz by banging relentlessly on a piano on the sprawling “Long Island City.” The band appropriately aired out its spacey side on “Space Race,” a softer song from 2023’s 4D Country, an EP of tracks that didn’t make the band’s 3D Country album that year.

For the encore, “Trinidad,” Winter stood silently for 30 seconds as he waited for the crowd to stop shouting (“Free Bird!” “Cameron!”), then slammed into a massive guitar riff. The last two songs ended in all-out thrash conflagrations, delighting the slam-dancers at the center of the floor.

Geese’s opening act was the mysterious Airy Foist, a trio led by a singer in a baseball cap whose mission seemed to be to provoke the loyal Geese crowd. The performer rambled between songs, hurled obscenities at the crowd, and closed the set by starting a (presumably staged) fight with the drummer, all of which caused considerable debate on social media following the show.
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Winter, meanwhile, said nearly nothing onstage during Geese’s headline set, other than to humorously acknowledge Rolling Stone‘s sponsorship presence. (In addition to being presented by Miller High Life, the Rock Tour is presented in partnership with Sonesta.) Instead, Winter was a focused musical presence, throwing himself into the songs, intensely strumming his guitar on the thrashiest material, moving his frame to match every shift in vocal tone. The rest of the band followed his lead, particularly Green, a relentless head-banger, dropping to her knees to become one with the feedback and leaning back into beatific shred-faces. At one point, however, Winter did hold his phone up to the microphone, streaming Hank Williams Jr.’s 1979 classic “O.D.’d in Denver” without comment.

Just before launching into “2122,” the opening track from 3D Country, Winter thanked “God and Rolling Stone” for putting on Thursday night’s show. “We expect favorable coverage,” he deadpanned. You know what? Geese deserved it.