By Paul Robicheau

A record crowd for genre-blurring acts, with Geese and Wednesday signaling a shift in the festival’s identity.

Geese at Green River Festival. Photo: Paul Robicheau

“You don’t have to waste your time,” Geese frontman Cameron Winter crooned over a thumping pulse as the song “Husbands” took form to begin the Brooklyn band’s highly anticipated closing set of the Green River Festival. But the young art-rockers, who sparked a slew of polar opinions over their chaotic sound and their singer’s warbled bray, certainly did not waste the crowd’s time. They followed with the whiplash title track from their 2025 breakthrough Getting Killed, Winter pacing with a stomp in his step to its slashing chords and churning snare whack.

With that opening double-stroke, Geese sealed an understanding that the clamor around the group is deservedly more real than fake, inspiring both fervent sing-alongs and fierce bouncing among young fans who filled the dusty field at Greenfield’s Franklin County Fairgrounds.

Wednesday at Green River Festival. Photo Paul Robicheau

It was a final coup for Green River, which took flight with the largest turnout in its 40-year history, courting a wider fanbase beyond its Americana roots, building to Sunday’s perfect storm of Geese and main-stage predecessor, Wednesday.

The rest of the weekend dealt a strong suit, from Texas-bred headliners in country troubadour Charley Crockett and Austin rockers Spoon to the Beths’ sharp power pop and Kurt Vile’s hazy jangle, capped by a cameo from fellow guitarist J Mascis.

But the Sunday lineup for the festival, an oft-overlooked Western Mass. institution that moved to the larger fairgrounds after the pandemic hit, offered far and away the weekend’s most compelling lineup – even before its zeitgeist final headliner.

Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe of Lucius with Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith at Green River Festival. Photo: Paul Robicheau

Lucius has become its own fixture on the festival circuit, with dual singers Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, who at times use those opportunities to perform with guests. And Sunday was no exception, with a surprise addition of brothers Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith of the folk-rock band Dawes, respectively playing guitar and drums.

As the singers, Laessig and Wolfe, lashed into tom-toms on opener “Nothing Ordinary,” it soon became clear that Taylor Goldsmith was a key element, providing vocal harmonies and second guitar in tandem with Lucius regular Peter Lalish’s gnarlier parts. The singers, dressed identically as usual in feathery black outfits (an odd choice for a hot, sunny day), also made judicious use of dual cowbells, tambourine, and shaker, but no keyboards, through the 55-minute set, and sat side-by-side on the stage edge for a gentle, semi-acoustic rendition of “Two of Us on the Run.”

Yet Dawes’ presence prompted a few other changeups. Taylor Goldsmith dug into the beefy, space-blues licks of Pink Floyd’s “Shine On, You Crazy Diamond” in a tight, well-executed passage, with Wolfe and Laessig reprising the harmony roles they performed on tour with former Floyd frontman Roger Waters. The band also played the Dawes staple “When My Time Comes,” sparking a full-throated sing-along from the crowd.

J Mascis at Green River Festival. Photo: Paul Robicheau

Two smaller outdoor stages, set across broad avenues of food, drink, and vendors, offered overlapping music options with plenty of breathing room, while a circular barn nearby showcased local talent. Big Freedia brought New Orleans bounce and queer culture to life with a troupe of frisky dancers. Thao, still a sparkplug after retiring the Get Down Stay Down, led a new band through supple, pointed folk-pop, her vocals and guitar gestures animated throughout. In a pavilion beside what appeared to be a former horse stall, Ken Pomeroy delivered soft, country-tinged songs in an intimate acoustic duo, her fingerpicking delicate and precise. Western Massachusetts native J Mascis took the same stage and, despite a prominently elevated amp, leaned into Neil Young–style solo acoustic songs, eschewing the gristle and volume associated with Dinosaur Jr.

Gristle and volume, however, were part of Wednesday’s palette on the main stage. The North Carolina quintet (with Jake “Spyder” Pugh filling in on lead guitar in place of currently non-touring member MJ Lenderman) blended grunge, alt-country, and slowcore. Singer/guitarist Karly Hartzman used a sweet voice at times,  but often shifted to coarsely howled lyrics that were likely indecipherable to anybody unfamiliar with her songs, even if the anguish rang true (of course, the same thing could have been said for Nirvana to some degree). And all the young folks loudly singing and bouncing before the stage didn’t seem to mind.

Thao at Green River Festival. Photo: Paul Robicheau

“Phish Pepsi” and “Elderberry Wine,” both from the band’s excellent 2025 album Bleeds (its cover art was displayed onstage along with perched dolls) favored more accessible melodies with pedal-steel twang from Xandy Chelmis, who alternated on lap steel. But Hartzman’s mention of ICE raids back home and this being “a dark moment in our country” elicited a loud anti-ICE chant in the crowd, and Wednesday’s hour-plus set ended when Hartzman ditched her guitar to throw herself into the hardcore-punk wail of “Wasp.”

After its opening punch, headliner Geese casually meandered through a 90-minute set that featured all but the closing track from Getting Killed as well as several selections from the previous album, 3D Country.  The newer “100 Horses” teetered a bit with its choppy mash, while “Half Real” found fans waving their hands back and forth as the tune turned into a soft march with electric piano.

The older mid-set songs got looser. The hammering stop-and-start curves of “2122” found Winter taking a relaxed detour through the Modern Lovers’ “Girlfriend” before a punk-charged return into Winter’s “2122” declaration “God of the sun, I’m taking you down on the inside!” Winter and sparse-minded lead guitarist Emily Green played dual harmonies in the more straight-ahead “Cowboy Nudes” and Winter brought cooing old-school soul touches to “I See Myself.” Then it was down to a home stretch of the most popular numbers from Getting Killed. The melodic, vulnerable charms of “Cobra” and “Au Pays du Cocaine” were bookended by a “Bow Down” more wild and edgy than on record, propelled by Max Bassin’s rat-ta-tat drum shots.

Crowd for Geese at Green River Festival. Photo: Paul Robicheau

Finally shedding his sunglasses, Winter steered a strum into a rough surf-rock churn that sharpened into the opening notes of “Trinidad.” The group—rounded out by bassist Dominic DiGesu and touring keyboardist Sam Revaz—settled into a ghostly, echo-laden atmosphere before unleashing heavy power chords beneath Winter’s harsh refrain, “There’s a bomb in my car!” as an overhead bank of strobes flashed behind them. Near the song’s close, Green crouched over her pedalboard, pressing into its effects, while Winter slipped into a Jim Morrison-like vamp, ad-libbing about a husband enduring painful kidney stones before weaving back into the lyrics and bidding goodnight. Not quite: one final reprise of “There’s a bomb in my car!” wound the set back up for a festival-capping release, sending off both satisfied fans and curious neophytes toward safer transportation. For those who missed out on Goose’s instantly sold-out return to Roadrunner on Nov. 10 and 11, it will stand as a vivid summer memory.

Paul Robicheau served more than 20 years as contributing editor for music at the Improper Bostonian, in addition to writing and photography for The Boston Globe, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He was also the founding arts editor of Boston Metro.