On February 8, Geordie Greep closed out the US leg of his world tour at Warsaw in Brooklyn, performing an electric, jazz and punk-fueled set for an impressive three hours. While snow piled on the streets of a freezing New York City, the small, packed venue radiated heat, as well as a buzzing, burning excitement for one of the quickest rising stars in the indie rock scene. Throughout the evening, he would be embarking on a musical odyssey, picking apart and exploring every sound, genre, melody, and instrument that inspired the making of his debut record, The New Sound.

First played NNAMDÏ, a Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter that delicately blends hip-hop with rock, punk, and pop. He had been touring with Greep throughout the US tour, so tonight was also his last performance. He offered a great sampling of his current discography, selecting songs that appeal to all the differing genres he plays around with, so it was easy to get to know him better as an artist. Charismatic, funny, and genuinely talented, he was able to adeptly capture the audience’s attention, hyping them up for a raucous evening.

Geordie Greep is an artist of both growth and surprise. I had first seen Greep and his band perform in New York in September 2024, a month before his official debut, where he was still trying to figure out how to play the album live. While he was fantastic then—again, I had not known the scope of his solo record yet, and that alone came as a satisfying shock—he is bolder, more confident, and yes, a bit crazier with his playing style. Critically, he’s had the time to not only solidify his vision of The New Sound, but also completely reimagine it. Reordering tracks on the official setlist, expanding each song to accommodate more instrumental flair, seemingly improvising full songs (sometimes with lyrics!), including two Latin jazz interludes led by touring percussionist and vocalist Santiago Moyano, and highlighting an original composition by pianist Cameron Campbell, Greep presented an almost deluxe, double-album of The New Sound.

Though almost all the songs on the record were played, it still felt like they only made of 50% of the official setlist; much of the evening was dedicated to unique, new material. Plus, I cannot stress enough that no song felt out-of-place, or even foreign from what listeners expected from The New Sound. Though most of the material probably was unique to this performance, it all existed within the world Greep created for his exceptional record.

The chemistry among the band members, as well as their intimate knowledge of all the riffs and melodies of the original tracklist, allowed for Greep’s performance to strike that perfect balance between the more jazz-like improv sessions and composed, rehearsed scores. One of the most notable moments of the performance was the thirty-minute expansion of “Blues,” where the band tacked on an introductory instrumental section that guided the audience through a medley of musical genres that influenced the record’s overall sound. Beginning with a sunny and upbeat Latin jazz groove, then gracefully transitioning to a thrashing punk movement, then finally slowing down into a blues rock swing, Greep and his bandmates took the audience through a whole sonic journey without outright giving away what the next song could be. It was evident they all had weight in pulling the instrumental section in any direction—Greep occasionally slipped in a modified guitar rendition of the wobbly, iconic bass riff that begins “Blues” to subtly hint at the end, and the other members followed his cues to shift playing styles—but their natural forms of communication allowed the song to effortlessly flow from genre to genre without any snags or fumbles.

The crowd mirrored Geordie Greep’s energy as well. They screamed in ecstasy when the band fell into the gritty, punk rock drum-and-guitar intro to “Holy, Holy,” and many knew all the words by heart and yelled them back at him while swinging at each other—an impressive feat considering the original track is over six minutes long, and the lyrics are densely packed in an unconventional structure. In the “Bongo Season” instrumental interlude, the audience compulsively began to follow the percussionists closely, clapping to the beat and beginning a whole five-minute call-and-response moment with the band. They understood when it was important to be quiet. Almost no one in the crowd sang along (save for “Holy, Holy” and “Terra”), but it wasn’t because they couldn’t keep up with the band. The silence came out of sheer awe of Geordie Greep’s creativity: to not distract anyone from the gorgeous sounds coming from the stage, to let him soak up all the energy of Warsaw and spit it back out in full force. They withheld their raving applause until after Greep hit all the sustained high notes in “The Magician,” but they also held no excitement back when the band fell into a legitimately awesome musical groove.

At the February 8 concert in Brooklyn, it became clear that everyone recognized that Geordie Greep is not the average rockstar. He is singular, a spectacle and crazy good artist with a keen ear for worthy bandmates. It’s insane that Geordie Greep is only 25 years old. It’s even more impossible to imagine how he could have performed (versions of) this set nearly every night for over a month. I am exhausted, but I need seven more hours of it. There will be no concert like this, neither from other artists nor himself for that matter: he will keep expanding, keep improving, and keep reimagining his definition of “The New Sound.”

Words and photos by Victoria Borlando
Photos by Bobby Nicholas lll

Review: Geordie Greep live at Warsaw in Brooklyn, NY photo by Victoria Borlando

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