Many bands are playing Electric Picnic<\/a> this weekend, but few command interest like Geese. Beloved by Cillian Murphy<\/a> \u2013 an occasional DJ on BBC Radio 6 Music \u2013 the New Yorkers formed 10 years ago, but their fourth album, Getting Killed, which they released in 2025, is the one that has catapulted them to a new level of attention.<\/p>\n There have been rumours about their rise all being an industry stunt, their virality engineered by a marketing company, but anyone with a pair of working ears can hear why they\u2019re special. <\/p>\n Somewhere between The Strokes<\/a>, Lou Reed<\/a> and Pavement, they\u2019re like an unexpectedly tasty morsel you fished out of a dustbin, in an old pizza box you shouldn\u2019t really be going near, and all the more delicious for being so unexpected.<\/p>\n Cameron Winter, their frontman, has a way of making the navigation through a song sound entirely fresh: you don\u2019t know how it will proceed; you only know that where the band find themselves is sonically thrilling. <\/p>\n And the fans are here for them tonight, pouring into Rankins Wood a full half-hour before they take the stage at 9pm. <\/p>\n So many fans, in fact, that even the two plastic inflatable geese, strung up on a stick, that one punter is waving comically though the crowd can\u2019t hide a frisson of danger.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m feeling a little crushed,\u201d a man to the right of me says as, temporarily hidden by dry ice, a giant white GEESE sign floating like a space ship above their heads, the band take to the stage.<\/p>\n He\u2019s not wrong. Three songs in, the crowd lifts to a frenzy and suddenly The Irish Times realises that one must pogo if one is to survive. Hands shoot up and a huge gap appears in the audience. <\/p>\n The band fall silent, pausing. There\u2019s a moment of confusion. Is everyone safe? <\/p>\n Then the crowd yell their safe song: Aslan\u2019s Crazy World, specifically the line \u201cIt\u2019s all right.\u201d <\/p>\n Thus assured, the band flood the arena with noise. We pogo. We bounce. People get up on each other\u2019s shoulders. It\u2019s exhilarating.<\/p>\n From then on it\u2019s a succession of confidently delivered songs, Husbands and Cobra in particular triggering mass singalongs. Then comes Au Pays du Cocaine, with its delicate, tinkly, children\u2019s-jewellery-box music by way of The Velvet Underground. <\/p>\n \u201cYou can be free … It\u2019s all right,\u201d Winter sings. \u201cI\u2019m all right.\u201d And the crowd sing it back to him. And we are.<\/p>\n A stellar Electric Picnic performance.<\/p>\n For all the latest festival news, reviews<\/a> and more, download the Irish Times app<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GeeseRankins Wood, Electric Picnic\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605 \u201cIt\u2019s a pleasure to be supporting Geese … many hours before Geese,\u201d Eduardo Pinheiro…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[7118,84837,18,11985,117,114021,19,17,212168,166301,24507],"class_list":["post-666324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-cillian-murphy","tag-aslan","tag-eire","tag-electric-picnic","tag-entertainment","tag-geese","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lou-reed","tag-the-strokes","tag-the-velvet-underground"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117193999821755860","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Electric](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/PTYQA4S47FH7TCWEUBXFYBLBYY.JPG\")
Electric Picnic 2026: the crowd for Geese in the Rankins Wood Tent on Sunday. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw ![\"Electric](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/LU45MWCQZZHAXOI34TYSIFXDJY.JPG\")
Electric Picnic 2026: Geese in the Rankins Wood tent on Sunday. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw ![\"Electric](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/36DJTNVSRJHLTJPA6XKNV7KFIM.JPG\")
Electric Picnic 2026: Geese on the Rankins Wood stage on Sunday. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw ![\"Electric](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SGACBKHFQNDVRGPFVPIMQ3HXYU.JPG\")
Electric Picnic 2026: Cameron Winter of Geese on the Rankins Wood stage on Sunday. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw <\/p>\n