As the neon lights of Hamburg’s infamously historic Reeperbahn began to flicker to life on a cold March evening, raucously nonchalant Brooklyn rockers Geese tore up the legendary Docks in support of their ‘Getting Killed in Europe’ tour. Just down the road from where four lads from Liverpool cut their teeth in the 60’s, Cameron Winter and his armada explosively cement themselves as the band of this generation, but whether they care or not is difficult to tell.
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| Photo by Max Falvey |
A youthful audience wound along the nefarious clubs of the Reeperbahn, with a few fans scattered off to the side with cardboard signs begging for spare tickets, but any and all once available ones were being clutched tightly by those lucky enough to be in line. The large floor and upper balcony filled up with haste and intense excitement once doors were opened, with the chatter and energy in the room radiating the feeling that this was going to end up being an ‘I was there’ kind of night.
What this indie-hipster crowd didn’t see coming was the wonderful arrival of Westside Cowboy, a Manchester rock outfit hand picked by Geese to take on the most daunting support slot in recent memory. The four-piece took to the stage with nervous smiles, led by the instantly charming Reuben Haycocks, as the intense eyes of the music world momentarily shifted in their direction.
Their heavy-footed drummer Paddy Young kicked off proceedings, with a nine-song set to follow consisting of the band’s singles and unreleased material. Haycocks and lead guitarist Jimmy Bradbury built their heavy rock sound around tough thumping chords sizzled with high pitched, slidey rhythmic riffs, as bassist Aoife Anson O’Connell completed it with a heavy bass buzz and beautifully melodic backing vocals that floated behind the lyrics from the two boys.
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| Photo by Max Falvey |
The stand-out was the *incredible* ‘Don’t Throw Rocks’, with its crescendo-ing solo and overt-emotion evoking a memory of the first time I heard Wunderhorse’s ‘Teal’. An overwhelming chorus of cheers rang out as the set was ended in unplugged form, with everyone in the crowd now having a new ‘Geese-approved’ band to obsess over. An excitable murmur washed over the tightening crowd as the lights came up and the support stage was dismantled, as eager prep was underway for the main event. And after a long, squashed half hour, the lights went out.
The floor of Docks began to shake as five figures emerged in the minimal stage light. The band’s heart and soul Emily Green equipped her telecaster to the left, Dominic Digesu plucked a few bass notes on the right, Sam Revaz sat in a castle of synths, Max Bassin peaked his head out with a smile over his cymbals, and Cameron Winter grabbed his already Rock and Roll Hall of Fame worthy cherry-red Gibson SG Junior. No entrance music, no theatrics, no f*cks given. Just Geese, and a surging audience on the brink of combustion.
“This song’s called ‘Apollo’.” It was obvious that following the skyrocketing success of Getting Killed, Geese were going to try and push the boundary further, and intergalactic is definitely where they’ve set their sights. Performed for the first time the night before in Berlin, a driving steady drum beat is met with the repetitive line from Cameron of ‘I’m goin’ to the moon’, which builds upon a droney bassline and groovy guitar interludes from Digesu and Green. Cameron’s vocal wails continue to layer the track until it builds and expands and climaxes with monstrosity as Winter screams ‘and you’re buying the ticket motherf*cker!’ with drums and guitars exploding around the room as the band breaks the ice of new material with an already-moshing crowd. It ends with a bang, thunderous applause, and a new sound already unleashed.
Opening the set with an unreleased song set the precedent of an unpredictable setlist, but when the beautiful, awe-inspiring riff of ‘Cobra’ floated into the room, the tissues were already out. It was a very soft performance of one of Getting Killed’s best and definitely calmed the crowd, and when ‘Husbands’ was to follow, the room was hanging on Winter’s every word. I feel that the balance between Geese’s quite heavy, chaotic style and these softer, melodic pieces is why they’re such an interesting band, it’s pure diversity that captures such a spectrum of emotion.
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| Photo by Max Falvey |
For the rare Geese fan that dislikes the softer moments, the following 20 minutes of headbanging, crowd-surfing chaos is where they’d feel more comfortable. Getting Killed’s title track erupted from the band's five members, followed by an insane run of 3D Country’s ‘2122’ and the spiky, brilliantly raw ‘100 Horses’. Crowd surges and tension at the barrier didn’t affect the ever ready crowd, who screamed every single lyric and riff melody back at their creators. The band sounded absolutely fantastic, relishing in these smaller, sweaty rooms where they honed their skills, prepping for the upcoming summer of festival crowds high in the five figures.
The Hamburg audience became one of the few from this tour to be treated to two unreleased tracks, as the extremely rare ‘I Will Let You Down’ emerged live for the first time since 2024. The unfamiliar audience enjoyed a rest from the endless movement, and the band seemed to enjoy flexing their malleable ability of switching styles on the fly. Following this, I smiled at the very small but cute moment of a fan simply waving at Cameron while he was tuning, and he smiled and waved back. You could call it nonchalance, but I found it quite sweet.
Moments of calm where breaths could be caught and water cups could be passed around were always gone as soon as they came, as another armed explosive, ‘Bow Down’, my personal favourite, was unleashed. Cameron’s vocals and Dominic’s bass make this one so powerfully emotional, heavy and thumping, yet weirdly groovy, that I feel it mixes all of Geese’s elements so, so perfectly. Fan favourite and Getting Killed’s most emotional ballad, ‘Au Pays du Cocaine’ was to follow, sounding so huge in the room whilst being such a beautifully soft song, where Emily and Revaz really shine, and finally had me wiping tears from my eyes.
For the first time that evening, Cameron retreated from centre-stage into Sam Revaz’s synth area, hunching over the keys and elegantly backed by spotlight as the crowd watched his every move. After a short, sweet moment of messing around with the pitch of the keys and making Emily laugh, Winter kicked off the band’s absolute opus, their longest and most chaotic art-piece, the mind-boggling ‘Long Island City Here I Come’.
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| Photo by Max Falvey |
The closing track off their latest record has every band member not only firing on all cylinders, but playing to their maximum musical ability. It’s a chaotic cacophony that fires up to 200mph as Winter wails like never before, Dominic plays the nastiest bass riff you’ve ever heard and Max is smashing his drums like he has 4 arms. It’s their masterpiece, and once the song crashed to its end as the room eased its apparent elevation, the crowd simply looked on and applauded in disbelief. Off the band walked to an outpouring of adoration, with each one of the 1,500 crowd members aching from limb to limb yet proudly wearing smiles on their faces. But we all knew the best, and most violent, was yet to come.
Geese emerge for their encore, with everyone in the room knowing that only one song must remain. Winter plucks the opening, delicate chime. Green fires off the two-string riff. And with Bassin’s snare hit, ‘Trinidad’ begins. For its three verses and nuclear explosions following the line ‘There’s a bomb in my car!’, I wouldn’t be surprised if Docks' concrete floor cracked. Emily Green’s vicious guitar thrashing and Winter’s wild vocals rattled the crowd into a frenzy. It was joyous to take part in, painful, uncomfortable, chaotic, wild, beautiful. I’m not sure how they can ever close a set with anything else ever again.
So with that, without a goodbye, Geese retreated like nothing had happened. The most talked about band on the planet, clearly worthy of their stature, and still without a single f*ck given. The Reeperbahn hadn’t felt such a shockwave since Lennon and McCartney played the Star Club, and while taking over the mantle, Geese seem fully prepared to go stratospheric.
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