It’s a packed house at Mercury Lounge, the mecca of up-and-coming NYC indie and DIY live performances. The tiny Lower East Side venue is responsible for launching the careers of massive bands like Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and most notably, The Strokes. Tonight, the sold-out room is buzzing with a crowd anticipating Been Stellar and Geese, two bands from the city’s emerging rock scene who are reigning in a new era of guitar music.
Been Stellar steps on stage first, entrancing concertgoers with the grungy opening riff of their track ‘Passing’. The song features frontman Sam Slocum’s uniquely piercing vocals and bright tambourine playing as he chants, “Passing judgment without home / Passing judgment without home”. The band also debuts a new song called ‘Shimmer’ with glimmering guitars brought on by Skyler St. Marx and Nando Dale and pounding drums thanks to Laila Wayans. The fresh shoegaze-y tune feels reminiscent of the soundtrack backing the climactic moment of a coming-of-age film.
Next, they flow into two of their most anthemic and poetic tracks. In ‘My Honesty’, the band dwells on the passing of time with the lyrics “Symbols of past / corrode and surpass / Give me a moment and makе it my last”. With ‘Manhattan Youth’, the band shines a blazing light on their hometown, rattling out “Manhattan, Manhattan, Manhattan Youth /Certain of something, stuck in the new” and igniting dancing and jumping from the tightly packed crowd. As they close their set with their love letter to New York, ‘Ohm’, it’s clear that Been Stellar are on pace to revitalise the effortless cool guitar sound NYC was known for two decades ago.
“Everybody welcome to night two of Geesefest 2023” frontman Cameron Winter shouts as all six members of Geese walk on stage. Their fans go wild as the band begins their set with a new unnamed track. It’s loud, hard and fast, pulling everyone from the front of the stage to the back of the room into a fit of dancing and headbanging.
They jump into ‘Fantasies / Survival’, a quick tempo hype-inducing track with the haunting lyrics “I spent the night under the sky wickedness lives in the city / And every shape another killer in disguise In disguise”.
The momentum stays high throughout their set. Geese keeps things brash, thrilling, and at moments, like when each member is dancing erratically, insane in the best way. They transmute a hodgepodge of genres into each track, blasting out a unique combination of Indie Americana. Winter’s deep bluesy voice, a blend of Robert Plant and Jon Spencer of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, hits every range in sight, swinging from a deep vibrating baritone into a bell-like high-pitched soprano.
The majority of tonight’s setlist is made of never before played songs, and though they’re all different, they share the same noisy grooves and intense drumming. With keytar in hand, cowbells, drums, and odd dance moves straight from David Byrne and Ian Curtis’s school of choreography, Geese transforms Mercury Lounge from a small venue into a full-on stadium.
Before the night ends, the band dedicates a song to a fan who came all the way from Texas with her parents to catch the gig. Standing on a table, she screams back the opening lines to ‘Rain Dance’. “You are away, and I am alone / And all that I see is all that I know / You told me you loved me, but you told me a lie.” The pre-teen gets lost in every word.
As fans file out back into the busy streets of Manhattan, there’s a sense of ease lingering in the air. Both bands may just be getting started, but if tonight’s show is any warning, New York City has a lot to look forward to.
Been Stellar played:
‘Passing’
‘My Honesty’
‘Shimmer’
‘Manhattan Youth’
‘Sweet’
‘Kids 1995’
‘Ohm’
Geese played:
‘Unreleased Song 1’
‘Fantasies / Survival’
‘Unreleased Song 2’
‘Disco’
‘Unreleased Song 3’
‘Unreleased Song 4’
‘Low Era’
‘Unreleased Song 5’
‘Cowboy Nudes’
‘Unreleased Song 6’
‘Rain Dance’
‘Unreleased Song 7’
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