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The New York band Geese turned their Rankins Wood headline slot at Electric Picnic 2026 into a euphoric, singalong spectacle, with Cameron Winter leading the crowd through favourites from their breakout album Getting Killed.
Three songs into the New Yorkers' gig, the crowd lifts to a frenzy and The Irish Times realises that one must pogo if one is to survive.
The wisecrack earlier in the day came from Eduardo Pinheiro of Burglar, who announced halfway through his band's afternoon set on the Rockshore stage that Geese would not appear for many hours yet. That anticipation would be richly rewarded.
Formed a decade ago and now with a frequently played presence on BBC Radio 6 Music, Geese have released their fourth album, Getting Killed, in 2025, and it is this record that has propelled them to an entirely new level of attention. There have been whispers in some quarters that their sudden rise was engineered, that their virality was the product of some slick marketing campaign rather than genuine word of mouth.
Anyone with a pair of working ears can dismiss such talk in an instant. Compared to some of their peers, Pavement included, Geese sound like an unexpectedly tasty morsel fished out of a dustbin, nestled in an old pizza box you should not really be going near, and all the more delicious for being so unexpected. Cameron Winter, their frontman, possesses a remarkable gift for making the navigation through a song sound entirely fresh.
The listener never quite knows how a track will proceed. What is certain is that wherever the band find themselves by the end, the destination is sonically thrilling. And the fans were here for them in abundance on this Sunday night, pouring into Rankins Wood a full half-hour before Geese took the stage at nine in the evening.
So many fans packed the tent, in fact, that even the two plastic inflatable geese strung up on a stick and waved comically through the crowd could not disguise a frisson of real danger. A man standing to the right reported feeling a little crushed as, temporarily obscured by drifting dry ice beneath a giant white GEESE sign floating like a space ship above their heads, the band walked out.
Three songs in, the crowd surged to a frenzy and suddenly survival demanded a pogo. Hands shot skyward and a huge gap opened up in the centre of the audience.
Then, as if to steady themselves, the crowd found their safe song: Aslan's Crazy World, and specifically its reassuring refrain. Thus assured, the band flooded the arena with noise. Pogoing and bouncing erupted across the tent. People climbed on each other's shoulders.
It was exhilarating from start to finish. From that point onward it became a succession of confidently delivered songs, with Husbands and Cobra in particular triggering mass singalongs from the swelling crowd.
Then came Au Pays du Cocaine, with its delicate, tinkly, children's-jewellery-box music that recalled the spirit of The Velvet Underground. The lyrics offered a message of reassurance and release, and Winter sang it with conviction. The crowd sang every word straight back to him. In that moment, everyone in Rankins Wood was, without question, all right
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