Inside Geese mania at Union Transfer

Remember the last time you were counting down the days to a show? I bet that’s how many of the attendees of Geese’s sold-out tour felt before it was their night, in their town. For us in Philly, it was last Thursday at Union Transfer. And XPN had a large presence there, among the full room of music connoisseurs fortunate to have bought an early ticket. 

The young New York-based band is no stranger to XPN. Geese visited Free At Noon back in August of 2023, before going on tour for 3D Country–XPN’s Roni Birchak described the set as having “effortless, nonchalant live vocal delivery (courtesy of frontman Cameron Winter), intricate yet powerful moments of noisy tension, and the occasional return to Tennessee dive bar-esque form to round it all out.” And the year before, they played our NON-COMM, and recorded a studio session for World Cafe. Booking Geese these days, however, would cost us a whole lot more.

Even to those of us in the know, Geese was still the year’s surprise breakthrough band. “People are being super normal about this band,” writes one fan, facetiously, on a weekly Stereogum Instagram carousel recapping the band’s headlines. Among those headlines: Cameron Winter, the group’s frontman, recently covered Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” for an Xbox commercial, GQ wants to tell you how to cop Winter’s haircut, and even Patti Smith has remarked how she heard “100 Horses” on the radio and felt “optimistic.” 

Though Geese had rumblings of a cult following since their beginning, and received generous industry support (see paragraph two), what really cemented their mainstream status was Winter’s solo release last year, Heavy Metal. There’s not a music fan, young or old, I’ve met who can’t recognize the brilliance of a song like “Love Takes Miles” or “Nausicaä (Love Will Be Revealed).” Even more remarkable, it’s not because the songs are universally palatable. Winter’s deep drawl challenges the norm, but isn’t too try-hard. His style seems effortlessly unencumbered, like if you never shamed a child for coloring on the walls, and with your support, they drew a masterpiece.

The volume just kept getting turned up from there. Earlier this year, Geese played Newport Folk Festival, and Cameron Winter warmed up with a solo piano set. Then in September, they released Getting Killed, and sold out almost every tour stop scheduled in the US after that. In this era, GQ’s Grayson Haver Currin (yes, if you’re new here, Gentlemen’s Quarterly is now a music publication) called Geese “Gen Z’s first great American rock band.”

Last Thursday night at Union Transfer, there was a line wrapped around the block by 7pm, an hour before doors. This will surely be the last time fans see Geese at the Callowhill venue; next time, it’ll be Franklin Music Hall or greater. Inside, the growing crowd was respectful of opener Dove Ellis, an Irish singer-songwriter with an aesthetic, if you asked me, was too close for comfort to that of Cameron Winter’s. Sure, a good opener should appeal to the headliner’s crowd, but this was too on-the-nose. His crooning set was gorgeous nonetheless.

Then Geese finally came out, and opened with three heavy hitters from Getting Killed: “Husbands,” the first song they recorded for the album, “Getting Killed,” and “Islands of Men.” In the photo pit, I was relieved no one from the crowd used this time to get too rowdy. Security warned us photographers ahead of time that we’d be pulled for our safety if the crowd-surfing began early. During “Half Real,” I snuck out to the merch booth to purchase the LP, and reunited with my crew back on the floor for 3D Country standout “2122.” The crowd surfing surely began around this time.

At this point, dear reader, I’m happy to report that Geese was able to live up to the hype. For a young band being swept off their feet by perhaps an unhealthy fan mania and commercial accolades, Geese has not yet tired of being Geese. The dissociation of relentless touring that I’m sure plagues every sensitive indie act was not standing in their way of putting on a memorable show for everyone that night. Anthems “Au Pays du Cocaine” into “Taxes” lit the crowd on fire, and the encore of “Trinidad,” Getting Killed’s chaotic opener, fit just right.

Unless you travel oversees, the next opportunity to see Geese live will be festival season 2026. The group is scheduled to play Coachella in April, and then who knows. Sit tight, this is not the last you’ll be hearing from this band.