{"id":105897,"date":"2026-01-20T15:35:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T15:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/105897\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T15:35:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T15:35:21","slug":"geeses-cameron-winter-plays-secret-solo-show-in-new-york-live-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/105897\/","title":{"rendered":"Geese’s Cameron Winter Plays Secret Solo Show in New York: Live Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cHello, hello,\u201d a familiar voice called out from behind the red velvet curtain hiding the stage at the Ridgewood, Queens, venue TV Eye last night around 11 p.m. It was a familiar voice, that is, if you\u2019ve been paying any attention to rock music in the past year or two. Millions more people will get a chance to hear that distinctive soulful yawp next weekend, when his band plays Saturday Night Live. Because the man behind the curtain was none other than New York\u2019s homegrown indie hero, Geese<\/a>\u2019s Cameron Winter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tFew bands are hotter right now than Geese, and they could sell out a 250-capacity room like TV Eye many times over without trying. So could Winter on his own; his most recent solo performance in the city was a star-studded affair at the 10-times-grander Carnegie Hall last month. Maybe that\u2019s part of why he booked this show under a false name, \u201cChet Chomsky,\u201d complete with a fanciful backstory<\/a> identifying him as a troubadour from Tucson, Arizona. (\u201cIt\u2019s his first time in the Big Apple and the congestion pricing worries him.\u201d) It\u2019s probably the only way he could easily play a venue this tiny now. Surprisingly little chatter got out in advance about this secret Cameron Winter show. If you nabbed a ticket before they sold out, though, you got an experience you\u2019ll be telling people about for years.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere were about 50 people milling around the bar at the announced start time of 7 p.m. The show \u2014 which raised funds for the Olive Grove Initiative<\/a>, a mutual aid group that supports families in Gaza \u2014 began a few minutes later with a solo set from Winter\u2019s bandmate Emily Green. Her set was the first big surprise of the night: She\u2019s a killer lead guitarist in Geese, but it turns out she\u2019s also an excellent singer-songwriter working in a style of her own. \u201cA lot of what I\u2019ve got tonight I wrote for the show,\u201d Green said, introducing five new songs full of melancholy jangle, bittersweet twang, and sincere vocals. \u201cIs everyone excited to see Chet Chomsky in, like, three hours?\u201d she teased the crowd. \u201cHe came all the way from New Mexico.\u201d (A crowd member reminded her that the fake bio said \u201cChet\u201d was from Arizona.) She added that she\u2019d finished writing one of her songs just that day \u2014\u00a0\u201cwork with me here\u201d \u2014 but there was no apology needed. By the end of her set, Green sounded like a new star in the making.<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tEmily Green<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGriffin Lotz for Rolling Stone<\/p>\n

\n\tNext came Leo Paterniti, a Chicago artist who led a large band including saxophone and six-string bass through slow-building waves of noise and emotion. He had plenty of charm, and an impressive falsetto that helped him keep the crowd on board through some technical difficulties.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLeo Paterniti<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGriffin Lotz for Rolling Stone<\/p>\n

\n\tA packed and enthusiastic room greeted the next performer, Fantasy of a Broken Heart, who put on the best full-band rock show of the night. The duo of Al Nardo and Bailey Wollowitz are better known for playing a supporting role in the live lineups of two of New York\u2019s most original indie acts, This Is Lorelei<\/a> and Water From Your Eyes<\/a>. On their own, joined by a bass player and a drummer, they make funhouse-mirror pop music that translates very well onstage. \u201cRoad Song\u201d and \u201cWe Confront the Demon in Mysterious Ways,\u201d both from their 2025 EP Chaos Practitioner, were among the insistently melodic highlights of their set. After Wollowitz promised the crowd that we\u2019d get to enjoy \u201cthe tropical delights of Chomp Chimpanzee\u201d soon, they closed out with their 2024 fan favorite \u201cUr Heart Stops,\u201d drawing rapturous applause.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tFantasy of a Broken Heart<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGriffin Lotz for Rolling Stone<\/p>\n

\n\tPhiladelphia\u2019s ungoogleable @ were up next, with a quiet, folky vibe that quickly grew eerie. \u201cI\u2019m going through the objects in your home,\u201d Stone Filipczak sang on \u201cMajor Blue Empty,\u201d from the duo\u2019s 2023 album Mind Palace Music. This band\u2019s powerful, unsettling songs were enhanced by touches of cello, flute, and oboe (the latter played by @\u2019s other singer, Victoria Rose). The gentle instrumentation just made the dark lyrics feel more striking.<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t@<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGriffin Lotz for Rolling Stone<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter some interstitial selections from Neil Young\u2019s underrated 1983 album Trans over the PA, it was time for Chet, er, Cameron. The room was very full by now, with plenty of whispers circulating about the secret headliner. The curtain parted, and there he was, sitting at a small keyboard, draped in a promotional baseball cap and hoodie for Tame Impala\u2019s 2025 album Deadbeat<\/a>. (We\u2019re not sure why; maybe he\u2019s just a fan of those sweet Australian beats.)<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m very nervous,\u201d Winter told the crowd, though he seemed to be joking about the fake persona he\u2019d invented for the show. He asked us to be gentle, \u201cbecause of my crippling stage fright and my checkered past.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe played the keyboard with a spiritual intensity, and he sang like he really meant every word, no matter how puckish or surreal. The lights went off after his third song, and he played the rest of the set in complete darkness \u2014\u00a0not even too many phones were out to interrupt the hushed appreciation of this singularly talented musician. Winter writes the kind of songs you can listen to in the dark in a crowded room and still feel incredibly moved.<\/p>\n

\n\tSongs from his 2024 solo album Heavy Metal made up about half the set, including spare and deconstructed takes on \u201cThe Rolling Stones,\u201d \u201cLove Takes Miles,\u201d and \u201c$0.\u201d These are songs that came from somewhere deep within Winter, and seeing him perform them in such a small room with so little distance between him and the crowd, or between him and the music, was stunning.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCameron Winter<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGriffin Lotz for Rolling Stone<\/p>\n

\n\tHe played some new songs, too, from the batch of recent live debuts that devoted Geeseheads have already assembled into a fan-canon solo follow-up they\u2019re calling CW2. \u201cThe fool in the corner is dead,\u201d he sang on one song tentatively known as \u201cSerious World.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t like what happened to Jesus, but I sure do like Saturday morning,\u201d he sang on another that\u2019s been identified as \u201cEmperor XIII in Shades.\u201d God and the devil were mentioned. The spell was strong.<\/p>\n

\n\tWinter famously pushed to release Heavy Metal even though his own label<\/a> wasn\u2019t entirely sure about it. Now his songs have connected with an audience that\u2019s growing by the minute and celebrating him as a legend in his own time. There\u2019s still time to hop on the bandwagon in 2026 if you haven\u2019t yet, though be warned, it will likely happen in a much bigger space than the one he played last night.<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tCameron Winter (\u201cChet Chomsky\u201d) Set List<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt All Fell in the River\u201d
\u201cThe Rolling Stones\u201d
\u201cSerious World\u201d
\u201cEmperor XIII in Shades\u201d
\u201cLove Takes Miles\u201d
\u201cIf You Turn Back Now\u201d
\u201c$0\u201d<\/p>\n