Saturday Night Live (SNL) might be known for its ever-changing roster of comedians and weekly sketches riffing on politics and pop culture, but its musical guests are just as important a signifier of new cultural fixations. Brooklyn-born band Geese returned to their native city the weekend of Jan. 25 to make their SNL debut, giving the band a chance to perform to both an intimate crowd in the SNL studio and a sizable audience watching from their television screens.
Geese performed songs from their third and latest album, “Getting Killed,” which was released in September 2025. After being introduced by the guest of that week, Teyana Taylor, they opened with “Au Pays du Cocaine,” the most popular song off the album on Spotify with more than 4,000 videos using the sound on TikTok. They also performed the song “Trinidad,” which was the first single released in the lead-up to the album.
The band is made up of lead singer Cameron Winter, drummer Max Bassin, guitarist Emily Green and bassist Dominic DiGesu, all of whom are native New Yorkers who started playing music together during high school. Winter also has his own solo career, releasing his debut album “Heavy Metal” at the end of 2024.
Undeniably, the spirited discussion surrounding the performance indicates interest in the band.
The reaction to Geese was anything but lukewarm. The performance sparked polemical discussions on an SNL fan Reddit page contemplating whether or not Geese was one of the worst performances in the show’s history. Perhaps the chorus of “there’s a bomb in my car,” repeated over cacophonous instrumentation in the song “Trinidad,” threw audiences off; maybe Winter’s reedy voice sounded grating to some. Undeniably, the spirited discussion surrounding the performance indicates interest in the band. Even negative attention contributes to fame.
Realistically, their performance could hardly be called the worst in SNL history. In 1986, the rock band The Replacements reportedly performed while noticeably inebriated, resulting in them getting banned from SNL’s home at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Geese, meanwhile, played their songs exactly how they sound on the recordings; the four bandmates seemed shy, but not nervous. Critiques of the performance are, subsequently, critiques of the band’s sound, not of any mistakes they made while performing.
SNL has served as a launching platform for many notable indie rock bands, such as The Strokes in 2002, who made it onto the show less than a year after the release of their debut album, “Is This It.” If Geese follows the trajectory of their fellow New York City-based band, the SNL performance could serve as a bridge from local indie fame to national notoriety. There is no better time for Geese to take the helm of the alternative rock scene, as previous heavy-hitting bands have been taking a step back from performing.
London band Black Midi, another popular indie rock group, went on hiatus in 2024 after releasing three albums together. Although fellow British band Black Country, New Road just announced a North American tour — which, notably, does not include any dates in New York City — their former lead singer and founder Isaac Wood left the band in 2022, only days before the release of the group’s second album. These two bands, which had previously been acclaimed by American music journalism publications such as Pitchfork, leave a space to be filled by an innovative band of the same caliber. Geese might just be the right group for the job.
The fact that Geese performed on such a well-known stage solidifies the band’s burgeoning reputation as the new face of the alternative rock scene. “Getting Killed” was ranked No. 7 on Pitchfork’s best albums of 2025, and the song “Taxes” was ranked No. 10 on the list of 2025’s best songs. Winter’s solo work was also highly rated on the same lists: “Heavy Metal” ranked No. 3, and its leading single “Love Takes Miles” was ranked No. 1.
The band’s SNL debut sparked a range of reactions, but undeniably left an impression on those who watched it. As critics continue to debate their performance, Geese will be finishing the last legs of their international “Getting Killed” tour. Fordham community members can see the band when they return home to New York City for The Governor’s Ball Music Festival on June 7.
