Bonnaroo 2024 Artist Spotlight: Geese

Like we’ve been doing for many years now, we’re making it our mission to help you get acquainted with many of our favorite acts from Bonnaroo‘s 2024 lineup. After roaring back to life in 2022, after two years off due to Covid and weather, and feeling fully like its old self again with a great fest last summer, this year marks Bonnaroo’s 21st installment (and 23rd anniversary), boasting not only another great and varied lineup, but also a continuation of some of the big changes and improvements rolled out over the last couple of years, with more flexibility in ticketing and camping, a reimagined “Outeroo” campground area, new activations, and further new ways to Roo. Back once again in its usual June 13-16 timeframe, we’re counting down the days until another great weekend on the farm.

As we dig through the entire schedule, we’ll highlight a spread of performers spanning across genres and stages, big and small, new and old, to bring you some of the most interesting, lesser-known, and most highly-recommended among this year’s crop of artists. And as our time at ‘Roo approaches, we’ll also be bringing you some special features and full list-style daily lineup guides, to help you plan your weekend ahead of the fest. While these previews won’t span every artist, and might omit some more obvious must-see acts, we hope they’ll serve as a way to help you navigate Bonnaroo’s gargantuan lineup, and to make the most of your busy weekend at the fest!

Grab your tickets right here if you haven’t already, and read on for our Bonnaroo Artist Spotlight!

LEARN

One of the hippest young bands to emerge from New York this decade, frenetic post-punk outfit Geese met and began making music in 2016, while high school freshmen. Their early years were your typical teen band story (albeit as native New Yorkers rather than suburbanites), practicing in their drummer’s basement, recording demos, and playing only small and under the radar performances. They had initially planned to disband in 2020, upon graduation, with several members getting accepted to prestigious colleges around the nation, but after dropping some demos online, they were surprised to be met with near-instant buzz, prompting interest from multiple taste-making indie labels, and ultimately landing them a deal with Partisan Records, putting school on pause to pursue music more seriously. The young band’s debut LP, Projector, arrived in 2021, largely the product of those basement recording sessions from 2019 and 2020, attracting buzz online and from the trendy side of music media, comparing the group’s expansive post-punk style to everyone from Television to The Strokes to Parquet Courts to Radiohead (a diverse range that shows just how eclectic their sound is). Their buzz would grow as would the size of their performances, but not content to simply rest on expectations, the rockers ramped up their live show to be more unpredictable and propulsive, and radically revamped their style with 2023 sophomore album 3D Country (and subsequent companion EP 4D Country), building on the foundation of their debut but funneling it through elements of country, blues, prog rock, jazz, and psychedelia; sweeping and inhibited and oddball, sounding like a whole different band from track to track. The reception was again rapturous, positioning Geese- barely in their 20s- as one of the most interesting new bands in rock, and opening up the possibility of going absolutely anywhere with future releases. If you’re an indie fan who feels like the scene has been a little stale lately, Geese should come as a breath of fresh air, and you’ll have not one but two chances to see them at ‘Roo- a prime 10 p.m. Thursday tent slot, and a late night show in the the plazas, sure to be an especially weird and heady one.

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