“1000 Realities” from Geronimo!’s recently released Cheap Trick comes out the gate as a Hold Steady track with less poetry and more Titus Adronicus-like piss. Unlike Craig Finn and company, these Chicago boys do not feel any need to rehash the details of old stories. Singer Kelly Johnson uses his past to wax bluntly about his dread of whatever days are coming his way. Lines like “Color me high in a long standing tradition / Of remember-whens and maybe-coulda-beens” balance well with shouts of “I don’t want to sing any songs about getting older / The future’s already written in all caps.”
Playing everywhere from punk houses (the bulk of their New England touring havens) to an opening set for Guided By Voices earlier this month, Geronimo! is making sure they’re being heard by finding any empty spaces and filling them with as much noise as possible. Their tour log is a veritable “where’s where” of house show mythology, ensuring that Geronimo! only needs a few more mainstream haunts in the rotation before they crest into their next wave.
