[DID NOT ATTEND: November 7 & 8, 2026] Geese / Gwenifer Raymond / Cold Court
My wife and I saw Geese open for Vampire Weekend back in May of 2025. It was about a month before they really blew up. They had a couple of singles that I’d heard and I loved Cowboy Nudes. Soon after that show they released Getting Killed and became the most popular band in America.
I missed when they played Union Transfer and wrote that I probably should have gone to that show because I’m sure the next time they play Philly it will be at a much bigger venue. So not a HUGE venue but two night at the Fillmore is pretty impressive. Especially two nights that sold out before I even heard about the show.
Gwenifer Raymond is a Welsh guitarist. She recently did a Tiny Desk and it is a marvel. She plays acoustic guitar, with a fingerpicking style that includes dramatic and fast chord playing as well.
As the Tiny Desk says,
There’s an understated charm about the Welsh guitarist’s limited banter behind the Desk, but little prepares you for what howls from her instrument. Raymond’s fingerstyle guitar drones with a haunted quality, but her flurry of bends, slides and chord clusters rip open the firmament. Steeped in pre-war blues, but picking up on the acoustic innovations of John Fahey and Jack Rose, Raymond started releasing records a little less than a decade ago. But it’s on Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark, one of NPR Music’s best albums of 2025, where the Cardiff-born and now Brighton-based guitarist forged an unmistakably distinct sound: a controlled recklessness that conjures spells with six strings. Exhilarating, but also terrifying. After the dizzying shred of “Jack Parsons Blues” and the scenic storytelling of “Bliws Afon Tâf,” Raymond comes up for air, suddenly aware of the audience in awe. It’s just her back there, after all, with an acoustic guitar — we’re lost in the trance, too. And then, as if on cue, she takes us to hell.
She’s an intense marvel and a perfect odd but intense choice to open for Geese. Maybe she’ll play at McCarter next year.
I saw Cold Court open for Black Midi and they blew me away. I can’t find much about them, but back then I wrote
How best to describe them? I’ve never seen a band with a viola player inspire a mosh pit before. The mosh pit was pretty much non-stop. Not bad for an opening band.
I was not terribly upset that I couldn’t get tickets to this show, but once these opening acts were announced, I am now pretty bummed to have missed it.
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