Musician Geordie Greep Rocks San Francisco with Genre-Defying Sound
Beneath the stage of San Francisco’s Castro Theater, a thrumming sea of twenty-somethings and older adults alike eagerly awaited the arrival of musician Geordie Greep and his band. The fans’ impatience mounted with every minute that passed after the show’s advertised start time of 8 p.m. Greep finally appeared onstage about a half hour later and all the impatient scowls melted into expressions of sheer joy and excitement.
The exhilaration was palpable and mutual. Despite four U.S. tour legs since 2024, West Coast gigs from the English musician are few and far between.
During all the anticipatory pre-show commotion, I caught a few snippets of fans’ conversations. Some of them had been following Greep on the road since the beginning of his career with the U.K.-based indie rock band, Black Midi, which released three studio albums between 2019 and 2022. The band’s former frontman, Greep announced their indefinite hiatus in August 2024 – less than two months before the release of his debut solo album, “The New Sound.”
Greep hasn’t released another album since, but thanks to the diverse, worldly array of genres and influences on display in “The New Sound,” his band had more than enough material to perform and experiment with during the concert.
The show opened with a roughly 20-minute improvised set showcasing the musicians’ range of capabilities, from Greep’s guitar skills to auxiliary percussionist Santiago Moyano’s virtuosity on the bongos. The interlude culminated with the familiar tune of his album’s title track. The band then moved on to others from “The New Sound”: “Walk Up” and the Brazilian Samba-infused “Terra.” Nearly every song performed was spliced with spontaneous, experimental sections that kept Greep’s otherwise limited music catalog fresh.
Despite his fans’ tendency to mosh at his concerts, his music could not be accurately categorized as punk or metal. Blending genres, Greep and his band perform like jazz musicians, with frequent and lengthy improvisational sections and complex solos from each instrumentalist. Greep himself often stands with his back to the audience, directing each band member like an orchestra conductor.
Although Greep doesn’t perform any songs from his Black Midi days, his previous band’s style has carried over into his solo sound, as evidenced in the quick, precise tempo his musicians play in (often much faster than the recorded versions of the songs), and the role of the drums as a lead instrument, played on the tour by King David Ike-Elechi.
Nestled between the entrancing, full sound of the band, was a surprise rendition of Tony Bennett’s “(I Left My Heart) in San Francisco,” which allowed Greep to show off his magnificent vibrato. As his voice filled every dark corner of the theater, I came to believe that he could’ve had a successful career as a crooner.
Soon after the melodious interlude, the energy shot back up as the band broke into more “New Sound” tracks: “Through a War,” “As if Waltz,” and the timeless fan-favorite, “Holy Holy.”
Even though I became trapped in an aggressive mosh pit as the upbeat first chords of “Holy Holy” rang out (not a pleasant experience for someone of my short stature), I couldn’t help but admire the moshers’ and crowdsurfers’ sheer passion for the music that compelled them to move about in such a manner. Plus, the rhythm of “Holy Holy”– which fuses elements of Samba, Latin jazz, and Salsa – is so infectious that I could hardly blame them. I would’ve danced if there was room.
The last full song they played was “The Magician” – a track from his album that I now firmly believe was meant to be performed live. It’s a twelve-minute epic of a song that starts out slow and dazzling, picking up pace until finally breaking into a haunting and melancholy lament of life itself. Near the end of the song, most of the band members exited the stage, leaving only Greep and keyboardist Cameron Campbell. The shift in dynamic and stripped back sound achieved a rare feeling of intimacy among the approximate thousand in attendance.
During one of the concert’s infrequent musical lulls, some chatter could be heard from the back of the theater, near the bar. As if awoken from a trance, I, and several other audience members turned our heads toward the source of the noise. If their thoughts were anything like mine, then the commotion was a reminder that after Greep’s otherworldly, two-and-a-half-hour whirlwind of a performance, we would all have to exit the theater and trudge back to our lives.
