PREVIEW: Geordie Greep presents his new wave of rock at The Egg
04/03@ The Egg, Albany
“Only a Greep show audience can have a mosh pit, salsa dancing, and Grateful-Dead-style jam band twirlers all at once.”
For those who have read my other work, you will know that I usually cover musicians over 50 because I have my dad’s taste in music. So, previewing a rock band full of musicians in their 20s is pretty exciting. We are witnessing a conscious reawakening of rock music and Geordie Greep is a pillar of international rock in the 21st century.
Known as the singer/guitarist of London experimental-rock band black midi, which disbanded in 2023, Greep continues to push rock in new directions, continuing the spirit of black midi’s innovation. Following the death of black midi’s rhythm guitarist, Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin, in January of this year, Greep’s solo tour continues to celebrate his own collaborations with Kelvin and rest of black midi — setlists feature a couple black midi tracks along with Greep’s solo work.
When I interviewed Don Brewer of Grand Funk Railroad last year, he made a comment about how early 70s radio would play Frank Zappa, then Frank Sinatra back to back, emphasizing their differences. But Geordie Greep and his band of stellar musicians are able to somehow channel both Zappa and Sinatra, while still creating something entirely their own. The Zapparian influence is clear on his debut album, The New Sound, even in the album art: a businessman with a striped tie getting his head cut off by a woman and a yellow background, similar to The Mothers of Invention album, Weasels Ripped My Flesh. The sound itself pairs eccentricity, chaos, and wild guitar work with strong vibrato and sensibility.
Greep explains, “The main theme of the record is desperation; someone who is kidding themselves that they have everything under control, but they don’t.” Greep tells stories of cannibalism, perverts, a woman giving birth to a goat and being boiled alive, all in the settings of public space, cabarets and museums of oddities. I have great respect for the lyricists who say the things most of us cannot say, but provoke new ways of seeing the world, even if it is slightly uncomfortable. Greep does this very well.
This album features more than thirty session musicians across two continents, making the recording process as unconventional as the music itself. “Half of the tracks were done in Brazil, with local musicians pulled together at the last minute. They’d never heard anything I’d done before, they were just interested in the demos I’d made,” Greep says. “The tracking was all done in one, maybe two days.” This album captures the moment of shared musical connection and the internationalism of rock music over the too-polished corporate slop too many audiences have been forced to accept.
Greep’s touring band interpret the work of all these session musicians in their own ways, creating long improvisational live jams that make live shows even more chaotic than the already overstimulating record. On this tour, Greep is joined by Eden Marsh on guitar, Dave Strawn on bass, Cameron Campbell on keyboards, King David Ike-Elechi on drums, and Santiago Moyano on percussion.
I spoke with touring drummer, King David Ike-Elechi ahead of the show. “This is the longest I've been in America so it has taken a bit of adjusting, but I feel like a local now,” he jokes.
This is the first tour they have done with this lineup, but have fallen into a natural groove. “The jams have been super comfortable. I find that, in unfamiliar situations. it's always best to take your time and be intentional, so that everyone knows what you're going for and respond accordingly (vice versa also),” he explains. “But I recently did a completely improvised tour with Geordie and Dave around a month before this one so it felt like we had a little rhythm section warm up, which has helped massively.”
Greep’s touring band are from the US and UK. “I think the cross-cultural band stuff is cool, honestly. It's nice to hear how the same genres are perceived in two separate countries, whether that's the more rock aspect or the Brazilian thing,” Ike-Elechi says. “It's nice to share ideas about the music we're all separately into. Sometimes there can be crossover, but it's cool to learn new things. Hopefully in the future the bands can be complete hybrids!”
Greep approaches performance less like a traditional frontman and more like a conductor, often turning his back to the audience, locking in with his drummer and guiding the band through shifts in tempo and mood. Every note is played with conviction.
Many other writers have called Greep’s sound a jazz-punk fusion, but there’s a strong argument to be made that this is, at its core, an avant-garde jam band. Only a Greep show audience can have a mosh pit, salsa dancing, and Grateful-Dead-style jam band twirlers all at once.
There are rare moments when you intuitively feel history unfold before your eyes and seeing Geordie Greep live is one of these moments. I highly encourage anyone to come check them out and bear witness to history in the making. Geordie Greep is the new sound.
Buy tickets here for Geordie Greep in Albany on April 3 at The Egg: https://www.tixr.com/groups/theegg/events/geordie-greep-171929