An Offbeat by CFUV review
Photo via Pitchfork.
I travelled from Victoria to downtown Vancouver to attend the sold-out Geese concert on Saturday, Oct. 25, at the Hollywood Theatre. It was raining, and attendees were huddled under the awning trying to stay in the queue without getting soaked. Eventually the doors opened, and everyone filed in towards the inviting, red glow of the warm, intimate theatre.
The show started a little after 9:00 p.m., with the band approaching the stage and scarcely looking up at us. They didn’t say a word before they launched into “Husbands,” a languid, steady-paced song with just enough energy to entice the audience as an introduction. After “Getting Killed,” the new album’s title track, bassist Dominic DiGesu set down his guitar and approached the set of bongos in the middle of the stage for “Islands of Men.” He played solo with his back towards the audience before the other members gingerly joined in with the song’s repeating riff and sultry groove.
While the band didn’t address the audience excessively, frontman Cameron Winter entertained the antics of a few audience members who were vying for his attention. He accepted a cellphone from a fan standing at the front, held it up to the microphone, and said,
“Hello?” to the man’s friend on FaceTime. There was no answer.
“He says hi!” shouted the fan, and the audience broke into laughter. Winter smirked and asked teasingly, in his monotone, Southern-sounding drawl, “Are you on Bluetooth right now?”
Eventually, the caller was audible.
“Oh, hello!” Winter repeated, and held the phone back up to the microphone. They had a brief conversation before Winter paused and said, “Okay… I’ll see you later.”
Still, Winter never got too familiar with us, or at least he didn’t gush about Vancouver or our specific audience in a pandering way, like performers often do. Instead, his interactions were improvised and genuine. He seemed to engage with fans because he wanted to, and each exchange felt like one with two equals.
The performance ended with “Taxes,” a single released prior to Getting Killed’s full release. For the encore, they played “Long Island City Here I Come,” the final track on the new album. It began with a spotlight silhouetting Winter, hunched over the piano, playing alone. The band joined in with the song’s seemingly endless build, and chants of the lyrics, “Here I come, here I come,” from the crowd aligned with Winter’s vocals and were heard from every angle.
The song has the ability to take emotional and physical control over you; the lyrics are poignant while remaining inspirational. It’s consistent but chaotic, and it has an unrelenting intensity that continuously builds momentum. The band knows how much tension that song ignites, and they pushed that anticipation.
The song hit its initial crescendo that spotlit guitarist Emily Green, and the crowd released that tension by shoving and flinging their bodies to the music in a sweaty and cathartic floor-wide collision. It was an incredible way to experience that song, and a beautiful, adrenaline-filled closer to the show.
