Geese

This may be one of the most fun shows I have ever seen. The vibes were immaculate. It must be said that any show is a fun show when it mostly features songs from an album that was in your top 5 last year. And it was surely a delight to just fucking dance to these songs that I have spun endlessly since their release—3D Country was my 3rd most listened to album last year with 1,546 scrobbles. Needless to say, I was so, so excited for this show. But even then, DAMN did it deliver even beyond my sky-high expectations. 

Firstly, the venue was the perfect fit for this show. The El Rey Theater is a small, fairly intimate venue with a capacity of only 771. It was originally a single-screen movie theater built in 1936 and definitely feels like it. Just a small stage, big red curtains, and a floor size that hits the sweet spot of intimate, but not claustrophobic. Take the Palladium, for instance, where I sometimes get a scary sense of how packed the crowd is. It is noticeable especially during those shows with particular menace like Death Grips, IDLES, and JPEGMAFIA as there are frequent surges towards the front. Those three specifically certainly have some intense crowds who are there to get down, but it also has to do with the pure size and the frightening ease with which you can get swept up in the sea. At JPEGMAFIA, I felt like my feet spent a comparable amount of time off the ground as they did on. But the El Rey is just right and this show really was exemplary of that since the audience was maybe even more energetic than some Palladium crowds, but I still always felt like I would be seen and picked up instantly if I fell in the pit. 

Now the comforting safety I felt moshing and crowd-surfing certainly had to do with the venue, but also with just how ridiculously nice the crowd was. Geese has an amazing fanbase and it was such a fucking pleasure to dance, sing, and have fun with them all. It was the most septums I have ever seen at a show apart from Mannequin Pussy and the general vibe just gave jubilant, queer cowboy. And it was an earnest crowd, I cannot emphasize enough. We rocked out so goddamn hard: the way the crowd would periodically explode in rapturous excitement was incredibly energizing. There is something so beautiful about the shared exuberance at a show like this one and at no point was it as electric as the start of 2122 when Winter belted out “GOD OF THE SUN I’M TAKING YOU DOWN ON THE INSIDE.” Just instant explosion as bodies flew into each other, each and every one of them sporting the biggest smile. It only got crazier when the band busted out a random interpolation of “American Idiot” in the middle. 

To continue on this point about the crowd, I need to dedicate a whole passage to the utter elation that defined the mosh at this show. Wow. It was a joyous crowd to say the very least and it really showed in the moshing. There were frequent dap ups and moments of looking at each other with excitement in our eyes when a particular song started. The moshing was intense, respectful, raw, and communally invigorating. The closest mosh I’ve experienced to this one was at The Front Bottoms last year and here there was a similar consistency in that you were crashing into the same people frequently. The crowd basically consisted of a chiller back half with drinks and a single, constant sloshing of bodies in front. So those of us in that slurry at the front were basically only ever moving around a 10-foot or so diameter circle and spent most of the show together. And the constant kinetic energy we all fed off each other brought us together in a beautifully intimate way. There was a complete sense of communal abandon that was truly special. Everyone had fun and everyone wanted each other to have fun. 

Nothing exemplified this collective exhilaration more than the pure enthusiasm people had to encourage crowd surfing. I crowd surfed twice and so did many other people. It was also a lot of sustained surfing specifically as people would yell out “Get them up!” and convey us often across half the crowd before finally letting us down to rush back into the pit. Hell, one girl crowd surfed for legitimately several minutes, the longest I’ve ever seen someone in the air. It was just an endless stream of the crowd lifting people up and cheering them on.

As much as the hammering energy of the crowd was certainly a highlight, this was also a really well spaced out show in terms of the setlist’s intensity. Most of the nearly hour and a half show was vigorous as it felt like we repeatedly drained our tanks to empty. But there were some much appreciated reprieves during slower moments like “I See Myself,” “4D Country,” and the unreleased “Taxes.” The ability for us to catch a collective breath ensured the longevity of the crowd’s vigor. It also allowed for some stirring moments, especially during “I See Myself” as we all would point at the stage and join Winter in belting out repeatedly “I see myself in you!” 

Before I end this, I want to shout out a few of my favorite moments. The first was the start of the concert when they played the unreleased “Islands of Men.” It was a really great track, a really solid set opener, and just a really exciting taste of what they got coming next. The second was them playing “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” during the encore, which was particularly fun since a lot of the crowd was wearing their show-exclusive Beatles/Geese mashup shirts. And finally, I really loved when they brought out their guitar tech Liam to celebrate his 21st birthday. They even gave him a cute little birthday cupcake. All in all, it was a fantastic show. The merriment, the invigorating nature, the sense of uniqueness since it was the final show of their tour, it all came together to make it such a special night. And as much as I am a dedicated fan of Geese and know 3D Country by heart, the show was no less enjoyable for the casual listeners. I brought my roommate—whose only Geese exposure was via osmosis from my listening around the house—and he still had a blast. The band and crowd together just created one of the most welcoming environments I have had the pleasure to participate in at a show. I will definitely be thinking about this one for a while and highly recommend catching these guys live if you get a chance.