Cameron Winter - Live at Manchester Albert Hall, 30/11/2025

00:00 Try As I May
06:30 Emperor XIII in Shades
10:45 The Rolling Stones
15:47 Love Takes Miles
19:45 Drinking Age
26:50 Cancer of the Skull
33:09 Serious World
37:18 Can't Keep Anything
42:41 If You Turn Back Now
48:22 Vines
53:33 Nina + Field of Cops
1:00:25 $0
1:09:27 Take It With You

I last saw Cameron with Geese at Band on the Wall in September 2023, a gig he entertainingly recalls in great detail starting at 25:05 (I'll let you decided whether anything/everything he says about it is true or not, I did actually record that gig as well so his words can be put to trial if needed). They began that show with just Cameron singing and playing keyboard in a rearrangement of "Domoto", which I remember finding very striking and remarkable, the pure emotion he could express so vulnerably with his voice (which penetrates through the chest, especially when you first hear him like this), was very disarming, the way it lingered though the room even when he wasn't singing a word, all the things that have made the world join his cult in the past year were on display, and it left me at the time wanting more songs of his that sounded like this, (which, I thought, would not happen whilst Geese were still a band, it was probably confusing quite a few people in the room who did not go to see Geese on a Wednesday for raw emotion as it was) and then the full band erupted and I experienced just how amazing Geese are live in all their frantic, playful energy. I did love the rest of the gig of course, but I wondered what it would take for him to release an album that sounded like that opener.
Of course, lo and behold, Heavy Metal appeared 15 months later, and I was thrilled that it existed, let alone by how truly astounding it was, and it wasn't long before the whole entire universe (every single living being, atom, star, planet, black hole) experienced the thrill of this album, with them all latching their individual meanings onto it even without this extremely specific experience preceding it. When Cameron asked if anyone was at that gig, I put my hand up and went onto my tiptoes - which immediately afterwards made me feel extremely self conscious, but after the gig an endearingly drunk person stood next to me started a conversation because of this, people rarely if ever choose to talk to me at gigs so this was quite the significant event. "I was there, I was there" you can hear me saying, like Mr. James Murphy mocks people for in a song released the year Cameron was born. I realised how many cool points I gained by seeing Geese "before they were famous", but I wouldn't say this makes me cool, that would be a touch too far. I am the antithesis of cool, I spent the entire train journey next to a group of people who went to the gig and did not talk to them once, even when they genuinely said something along the lines of: "maybe someone will upload the audio of the gig online" I still hesitated to speak to them.
I've been ill the past week, and yesterday was the day I started to feel better, I am so glad fate was on my side somewhat, because 2 days before, I felt like a human corpse, and I couldn't even swallow water without physically jolting in pain. This was the first show Cameron has played since Getting Killed, so I think he truly wanted me to experience getting killed so the gig could be even more rewarding. I believe I caught this illness, at the last gig I went to, which was the always fabulous Model/Actriz at, appropriately enough, Band on the Wall last weekend, so there you are, circularity. Oh yes, have I even mentioned how I felt about this gig? He was truly ineffably wondrous, I mean, surely this performance speaks for itself: