Review: Geese brings Getting Killed Again tour to Chicago's Salt Shed

Sorry to break it to the haters, but there was no Scooby-Doo moment at the Geese show on Halloween night. While critics have been trying in vain to unmask “who they really are” (an industry plant! a marketing sham!), the Brooklyn musicians revealed themselves on Saturday to be nothing else than a formidable young rock band that’s gotten a bad rap. And on a night the quartet could be anything, that was the most convincing identity of all.

Geese wasted no time showing its true character at Salt Shed. Opening with a whiplash version of “Long Island City Here I Come,” it was nearly 10 minutes of sonic bedlam. Front man Cameron Winter’s deep baritone and hammering of the keyboards went to battle with guitarist Emily Green’s psychedelic noodling and bassist Dominic DiGesu’s smoldering rumble as drummer Max Bassin steadily built a beat that came barreling down in a haze of strobes and flashing red and blue lights. Anyone looking for a thrill on this night was properly bewitched with that song alone.

Naturally, there were a number of costumes in the building, which added to a sweaty party atmosphere. Winter’s was the most obvious, looking like some lazy iteration of the Morton Salt Girl after draping himself in one of Salt Shed’s branded yellow raincoats. The sold-out crowd did it better, with plenty of fans dressed as feathered long-neck birds, as well as cowboys, mimes and Waldos.

There was also the one smart guy wearing a “psy op” T-shirt written out in bold ophthalmologist lettering, poking at the ubiquitous chatter that has followed the band amid revelations of social media campaigns executed by a marketing firm. Dissenters use it as fodder to claim the band is merely pretentious post-punk remnants of Lou Reed, The Strokes and Television. Others hail the group as necessary saviors of rock ’n’ roll after a decade of copy-and-paste indie acts.

Either way, it’s been good for business.

Geese is the band “the world can’t stop talking about,” as Rolling Stone suggests in its October cover story. Love them or hate them, the Getting Killed Again Tour — in support of the band’s divisive 2025 record — is nearly completely sold out, including the two nights at Salt Shed plus a late-night DJ set at Schubas on Saturday that was announced last minute and scooped up in a buying frenzy. In December, there’s also the theatrical release of “Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall,” a concert film capturing one night of the Geese front man’s 2025 solo tour, directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson (see it at Music Box beginning Dec. 4).

It’s this swell of popularity and attention that has the loudest voices from the peanut gallery bringing allegations of inauthenticity. But one thing lacking in the histrionic hot takes that take aim at the group’s ascent is the fact that the band has been working hard at its craft for a decade. The quartet first formed out of high school in 2016. “Getting Killed” is Geese’s fourth album. And this weekend is the band’s seventh or eighth time in Chicago. Previous spurts included the discovery festival Tomorrow Never Knows in 2022 (and opening for Jack White later that year), Lincoln Hall in 2023, Northerly Island in 2024, Thalia Hall in 2025 and Lollapalooza this past summer, when the band dialed in a masterful performance of chaotic art rock.

Meridian Eck/For the Sun Times

With a full arsenal of instrumentation and proper lights and sound, on top of keeping the engine running from a full year of touring, Geese became a band Saturday that could convince nearly anyone still on the fence.

During the 80-minute set, the group (who also tours with secondary keyboardist Sam Revaz) played nearly every track off “Getting Killed” and several from the 2023 record “3D Country” with last-day-of-your life energy, whether it was the ’70s stadium rock ooze of fan favorite “2112,” the frenzied noise machine of “Bow Down” or even the more subdued swings of “Au Pays du Cocaine,” “Taxes” and “Half Real” where Winter’s poetic lyrics took the wheel.

Ending with the bluesy sexpot of “Trinidad” was another solid choice that allowed Geese to bring the show full circle to where it started: loud, proud and with nothing left to prove. If it continues to haunt some people and keep them up at night, well then they’ve done their job.

Set list for Geese show at Salt Shed Oct. 31, 2026

Long Island City Here I Come
Cobra
Husbands
Getting Killed
2122
100 Horses
Crusades
I See Myself
Cowboy Nudes
Half Real
Bow Down
Au Pays du Cocaine
Taxes
Trinidad