Geese at Troxy

Geese

Sky Daddy

Troxy, 2 September 2026

I went to see the much-talked about Geese last night at the second of two sold-out shows at The Troxy and I must admit it was a real mixed bag for me. I was ready to be blown away but left not knowing exactly how I felt about it all. That said the youthful audience were going absolutely crazy throughout so maybe I was a little out of place at this one.

More soon... 

When I first arrived it should have been a clue because the queue had very few people my age in it (although there were a few) and to be fair, Geese themselves are a very young band: I think they are all around 24 years old right now. That said, when I first heard of Geese it was through a recommendation from someone older than me who raved that Cameron Winter was one of the best songwriters he had heard in a long time. 

Since then though they have absolutely exploded, with Winter's solo album Heavy Metal receiving a huge amount of critical acclaim and Geese's third album, Getting Killed, which was released last year, becoming their big breakthrough. So much so they were even accused of being a "psyop", meaning their success was merely through media manipulation from a PR company that famously uses fake social media accounts to create a buzz around their clients. Personally I think this is just how entertainment is marketed now and if there wasn't anything to Geese, which there clearly is, they would not have taken off the way they did. Plus the last album really was great, even if there was manipulation, it deserved to be noticed and celebrated.

So I when Geese announced these two shows at the Troxy (after selling out Hammersmith Apollo earlier this year), I was excited I managed to get tickets, as it sold out in a couple of minutes, and ready to experience their sound live, which judging from their Saturday Night Live appearance, was edgy, punky and loud. I think I was expecting something like when I saw At The Drive-In years old when they also had a huge buzz about them.

First though came the support band, a six piece with the slightly twee name, Sky Daddy. Despite having drums, bass, a saxophone player, a keyboardist/flutist  and someone playing acoustic guitar, it turns out Sky Daddy is essentially the project of London singer-songwriter Rachid Fakhre, who tonight plays guitar and keyboards throughout their support slot.

When they first started playing I thought they sounded like a modern prog rock band but as they continued to play it was clear they had more of a chamber pop sound, with lots of saxophone and flute in most of the songs.

At the start Fakhre played guitar for the first couple of songs, including a rather Kiss (the band that is) looking electric guitar at one point, before taking his place behind the keyboards for the remainder of the songs. I must admit I didn't enjoy their set and found myself bored through much of it. I also really didn't like Fakhre's voice sadly. It had the potential to be a Sufjan Stevens-style experience with the variety of instruments but to me it sounded quite samey. I think the audience felt the same way as the talking throughout the venue was often louder than the music coming from the stage, which seemed to get softer through their performance.

For the last song Fakhre asked for the lights on the stage to be dimmed and then they proceeded to play a very quiet song where even the drummer was only playing the triangle. It seemed an odd choice to end a set where the audience was so audible throughout. 

Apparently Skydaddy have supported Geese many times in Europe, including both nights at the Troxy and their recent Glasgow date, so they seem to be friends. I'm not sure Geese's audience appreciated them as much as Winter et al seem to though.

More soon about Geese's set...