By Marcela Pizzato

---

:: Marcela takes on goslings

:: September 28, 2026

:: When I got my ticket for Iron Blossom three months ago, the goal was simple: I wanted to see Geese. For months, I referred to Iron Blossom exclusively as the “Geese concert.” So, when Iron Blossom crept up, I realized that there were only one-and-a-half days of performances left before the “Geese concert.” That’s why, when I arrived at the festival at a ripe 1 p.m. on Saturday, September 19th, I was in a blissful position where I had no anticipation for any other bands and eleven shows worth of music to get through. 

At 2 p.m., Richmond-based singer Shera Shi started playing, accompanied by her band the so-called “the shy-guys.” Infamous radio-groupie Ethan, Annabelle and I watched the performance from a comfortable distance while playing cards on the grass. Distance proved to make the heart grow fonder because while “YUM” played I could hear (pun intended and delivered) myself listening to Shera Shi outside the boundaries of Midtown Green. What followed was a general group agreement: “Yes, I like this.” It set an optimistic tone for the sets to come. 

The optimism was reinforced by SKORTS appearance on the Blossom Stage (the smaller of the two stages) at 2:30 p.m. Their song “Eat Your Heart Out” was a favorite among my group. 

With all respect to McKinley Dixon (picture included below because it’s a good one), Victoryland, Kevin Morby and La Luz, the next memorable set was Phantogram. 

Phantogram’s lead singer, Sarah Barthel, immediately reminded me of Hayley Williams. If you look at the picture below of Barthel with the short blonde hair and don’t agree, I don’t know what to tell you. It ended up being my favorite performance of the night (yes, I know LCD Soundsystem played that night, I was there). There wasn’t a single beat by Phantogram that didn’t excite us. The way Barthel live looped her voice during the beginning of “When I’m Small” immediately sold me on the band. It’s often hard to enjoy a show when you come into it knowing none of the songs, but I enjoyed Phantogram most. 

Out of my group, Phantogram was often ranked third in best performance, with LCD Soundsystem taking the lead and Die Spitz coming in second. For Die Spitz, I must say, nothing that the band was playing required the crowd to do all its shenanigans. The mosh pits felt more like the crowd wanted an excuse to mosh rather than the music made them want to do it. Their merch, however, was the best, a cameo t-shirt with block letters that said “I hate when girls die.” LCD Soundsystem was great, and it came in second for me, but I knew some of their songs and they still didn’t beat Phantogram. A fun fact about LCD Soundsystem is that lead singer James Murphy was offered a job as a writer for Seinfeld.

Leaving Iron Blossom at 11 p.m., my lombar was aching, my legs were giving in, and I stretched in child’s pose whenever possible. The question remained: how will Geese be tomorrow? Although I am a youthful twenty-one, I did not have the upper or lower-body strength to attend the entire festival on Sunday. I arrived in time for Edgehill, a charismatic band whose song “Love To Go” has been added to my playlist, and didn’t watch the Evening Elephants since my group’s priority was trudging towards the barricade for Geese. We were pretty close to the barricade during the Portugal the Man set, which was underwhelming. First, their microphone was not on for the majority of their first song, and second, they did not play their most famous song “Feel It Still.” Now, you may claim that Portugal the Man is trying to rebrand, and they have the right to do so! However! However, they can do it at their own concert, not at a festival. 

After three hours fighting all the manic-pixie dream men and women of Richmond for barricade, we stood in anticipation of Geese at 7:20 p.m. Mama goose Cameron Winter and his geese entered the stage with the level of enthusiasm usually seen in kindergarten boys during nativity scene performances for their local church. What Geese lacked in stage presence they made up for in the undeniable quality of their music. They were backlit during the entire performance, a detail which greatly favored my little digital camera. 

“I See Myself In You” was greatly missed from the setlist (which Annabelle and I did not acquire even though we stood at the barricade for fifteen minutes after the performance only to watch the setlists get carelessly thrown away by uninterested staff members). Aside from the rare adlib (*Cameron Winter Voice*: “This song is about a woman named Maria and the things I do in her presence”), Geese showed up, did their job, and seemed indifferent to their audience. I couldn’t help but wonder – Carrie Bradshaw style – whether they are more enthusiastic during their own shows. 

Once Geese ended, my roommate and I silently slipped out the exit. “But Marcela, what about Jack White?” Don’t worry, I listened to “Seven Nation Army” in the comfort of my own home, with my feet up and my spine aligned. 

Every person who I told about Iron Blossom asked me about Geese. While on Saturday, if you had asked me about other bands in Iron Blossom, I would’ve told you they were all opening acts for Geese, I can’t say that’s what they felt like in the end. Yes, maybe the real Geese were the Phantograms we made along the way. So, they may say that my love for Geese is only half the part of what made Iron Blossom a great weekend. But guess what?

That’s only half true. 

::