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Arguably the hottest band on the planet were in town at the weekend to play what many consider to be the best venue in the world.
When Geese fly, they really soar. Pardon the pun. There were times when their Saturday night Barrowland show felt euphoric. Notably the section around halfway through Taxes when Cameron Winter sings you're gonna have to nail me down as guitars begin to ring and chime. He then lifts it further with the doctor, doctor, heal yourself section, ending with the great lyric I will break my own heart from now on.
Guitars are chiming, the bass is holding to down, drums are pounding - Max Bassin, looking good in a King Tuts t-shirt is an outstanding drummer, and Cameron Winter, oooh, oooh, oooh, oooh. is coo-ing oooh.
There are other time when it just doesn't do it for me. I love their melodic, slightly weird and wonky, more than a little stoned, songs with cool grooves. The heavier stuff that Geese play, 'bordering on prog at times' as one friend said, just doesn't connect with me. But it sure did connect with the Barrowland crowd who lapped it up.
Anticipation hung heavily in the Gallowgate air, the queue at 8.15pm stretched round the corner towards Saint Luke's. I hadn't seen anything like that in some time. Loads of people were walking up and down the line with cardboard / digital (on their phone) signs looking for tickets. A few exchanged hands for over £100.
Inside the crowd were singing along with Cameron Winter from the off. Even for songs that I didn't expect sing-songs for. Then there was pogo-ing and multiple crowd surfing moments, people on shoulders. There was also a brief pause around 3/4's of the way through the show where Geese seemed concerned about people down the front being dehydrated/fainting. They threw multiple bottles of water into the crowd before restarting.
Geese kicked off with Husbands, one of their slow melodic stoned jams that I really enjoy. It's slightly wonky, very different and very cool.
Getting Killed is electrifying, before going off on a slow and stone tangent. Islands of Men rides in on a seemingly simple guitar riff, just about hanging together for the instrumental section that is stripped right back, then Winter is singing (about two feet back from the mic) you can't keep, you can't keep running away.
A lot of Geese material sounds fresh, like it has stemmed from jams and improvised lyrics, rather than thought out, constructed and structured songwriting.
Crusades, from their 3D Country album, rides in on a riff that sounds Bowie/Stones inspired. Cameron Winter does a stripped back cover of Primal Scream's Movin' On Up and the band also dedicate a song to King Tuts.
A section of the show doesn't really work for me. It's a bit more heavy, a bit more experimental, but then things change with Cobra, a woozy delight, with the crowd singing in full voice. Au Pairs du Cocaine is glorious, the guitar playing the riff, then bass, drums coming in and Winter crooning his heart out. Then there is the aforementioned Taxes.
The rest of the set is kind of lost on me, I lose connection. Geese go off on a heavier vibe for the remaining couple of songs and then the two song encore. Personally, I always skip Long Island City Here I Come, the closing song on Getting Killed, and Trinidad, the opener, when playing the album.
In a sense, Geese are kind of like two different bands. That's the thrill of it for most people in the audience, while I prefer their more melodic stuff and Cameron Winter's solo album Heavy Metal.
However, what is abundantly clear, is that people have fallen for this band big time! It's going to be really interesting to hear what they do next. I can see them veering off into experimental territory like Radiohead. While maybe Winter will keep his stoned ballads for his solo material. Who knows?!
In spite of the commotion they are creating, Cameron Winter doesn't display a great deal of emotion throughout. Do Geese want to be big? Do they want this kind of adulation?
They'd better get used to it! Geese are hot to trot and are on a constant tour, including two more dates back at the Barrowland in August.
