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Archive for the ‘Geese’ Category

Vampire Weekend (The Met Philadelpia, Philadelphia, PA, May 31, 2025)

Posted in Geese, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia, Vampire Weekend on June 1, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 31, 2025] Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend’s first two albums are perfect.  They are two of my favorite albums and any time I listen to them, it makes me smile.  I had wanted to see them for a while, but I wasn’t sure if they would be as good as the records live.  And then suddenly they were selling out bigger venues than I wanted go.  I had tickets to see them in 2019 but couldn’t make it.  Somehow I missed when they played The Mann in 2024 (I was too buys that weekend anyhow) and finally I was able to snag tickets for one of the two nights at The Met.

I saw after that they played a different set for each night, so it’s a bummer I couldn’t go to both.  But having finally gotten so see them I can yell at my younger self because they were fantastic live.

After Geese left the stage, a giant Vampire Weekend banner dropped in front of the dark curtain.  A whole bunch of folks in dayglo yellow set up the stage area–bringing out a piano and drums as well as a mic stand.

Having never seen them I honestly wasn’t sure if this was the show–just a trio in front of the band’s name.  And I was fine with it because they sounded great.

It was just the original trio singer/guitarist Ezra Koenig, drummer Chris Tomson, and bassist Chris Baio.  They opened with  the quiet Hold Me Now and then segued into a far more rollicking Oxford Comma (And I was in heaven because they’d already played on of my favorites songs).  And then they played Blake’s Got a New Face, which my wife and I had just been singing.  It was great.

It was sometime during the next song Ice Cream Piano that I realized that there were more sounds coming from the stage than these three guys could possible make.  And soon after, the pulled back the VW curtain to reveal a huge band behind them.  The revelation was quite a delightful surprise and it wasn’t until they started the next song, Classical (which I never no the name of) that I realized how great the whole huge band sounded.  There were two drummers, keys, several guitars and lots of backing singers.  During the instrumental section of the song, one of the guys in the dayglo shirt did a very sexy dance in the spotlight.  It was pretty fun.

And how to describe the backdrop?  It looked like they were in an underground tunnel, like a concrete bunker with multiple ins and outs.  It looked really convincing.

Ezra typically played guitar but for a few songs, like Connect, he put down the guitar and walked the stage while singing. (more…)

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Geese (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, May 31, 2025) [VAMPIRE WEEKEND]

Posted in Geese, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia, Vampire Weekend on May 31, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 31, 2025] Geese

There had been some buzz around Geese when they were announced as openers for this show.  I knew their song Cowboy Nudes and found it odd but very catchy.

As this show came around, they started playing another song on the radio and I realized that Geese is pretty weird. So I was curious what their live show would be like.  We arrived pretty early, but the pit was already pretty crowded.  Turns out Geese already had a huge fanbase.  The front of the pit was full of big time Geese fans.

They opened their set with Islands of Man, and I thought that the most distinctive thing about the band (Cameron’s voice) was rather subdued. The song starts softly and fairly quietly with interesting guitar parts from Emily Green.

And the rest of the band was amazing too.  As the show went on, I couldn’t take my eyes off of drummer Max Bassin–he was doing some wild and complex parts.  And midway through the show I realized that bassist Dominic DiGesu was playing some amazing fills too.

For Jesse, Cameron continued to sing in a kind of subdued manner, until the bridge where he got a little shouty.  And it worked really well with the jamming music.  Tomorrows Crusades was super catchy with a great guitar line and Cameron singing in a kind of falsetto.  (more…)

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King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard / Geese (The Dell Music Center, Philadelphia PA, August 27, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Dell Music Center, Geese, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Philadelphia, PA on August 27, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 27, 2024] King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard / Geese

I’ve seen King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard three times.  Each time the show has gotten more and more crowded and chaotic (which is great for them but not so much for me).  The last time I saw them, I was pretty far back in the crowd and even that far back there was a lot of mini-pit situations going on.  I basically decided I wasn’t going to see them again, but I’d still love their music.

Then they announced this show at The Dell Music Center, which I’d never been to.  It’s an outdoor venue near the Mann Center.  It has seats (or bench seats at least) and promised that I’d get to see them without having to fight to stand up the whole time.  So I was pretty excited for this one. (more…)

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