Yes, there’s some Clap Your Hands Say Yeah raw urgency, a bit of Wolf Parade’s manic musicianship, and even some of Tapes ’n Tapes’ scrappy Midwestern grit—all filtered through a 2025 lens of existential New York cool. What’s so striking about Geese, though, is how they bottle the same kinetic electricity that once defined New York City’s early-aughts indie rock boom, when bands like The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and TV on the Radio reshaped the skyline of sound. Yet Geese feel more jagged, more immediate, their influences colliding in a way that feels especially reverent.

Geese’s sold-out show at Vancouver’s Hollywood Theatre was less a concert and more a collective exorcism. Touring behind Getting Killed, their blistering third LP, the Brooklyn band reaffirmed why they’re being hailed as one of the most exciting new acts of the decade.

Frontman Cameron Winter emerged wearing a Leonard Cohen shirt—a sly nod to being north of the border, perhaps, or just another layer of his meticulous cool. Either way, he radiated that rare magnetic unease reminiscent of Lou Reed or Julian Casablancas, with flashes of Cohen had he somehow started a band with Alan Vega a la Suicide. Winter’s vocals shifted between deadpan croons and desperate howls, his very capable bandmates beside him surging with restless urgency.

From album highlights “Husbands” through “Taxes,” the setlist moved like a fever dream, angular, ecstatic, and unpredictable. “2122” from the band’s equally impressive 2023 album, 3D Country, bled into a Stooges jam (“Down on the Street”), while defiant singles like “Cobra” and “Au Pays du Cocaine” hit like blunt objects, sending the crowd into a frenzy. By the time the encore rolled around and the first notes of the pressure cooker that is “Trinidad” unfolded, the room had officially been converted into a pulsing mosh pit. Bodies surfed overhead like a Hieronymus Bosch painting set to post-punk brush strokes.

Geese delivered the kind of show that reminds us why live music still matters—even if the resale economy is threatening to kill its soul. It’s literally a crime that tickets for this one were re-selling for $800 (!!), but it does reinforce that Geese is a hot ticket and their performance was genuinely priceless. Getting Killed might be the album of the year and Geese might be one of the best rock bands of the last decade; on this night, they proved exactly why.