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“I know how to make the hard things look really easy,” Addison Rae tells the O2 Academy Brixton crowd, moving playfully across the stage in a glittering silver bikini and tall boots. She’s in the middle of performing ‘High Fashion’, her sultry track that’s more about longing for luxury brands than craving love. But when she hits that lyric, midway through the first of two packed shows at the south London venue, it feels just as much like she’s describing the way her career has unfolded so far.
Becoming a central pop act in 2025 isn’t simple, especially for someone trying to win instant respect with only a handful of tracks and completely reinvent themselves from influencer to credible rising star with genuine cultural weight. Yet Rae has pulled it off, a shift she only really kicked into motion a year ago with the release of ‘Diet Pepsi’, the lead single from her first album, ‘Addison’. Tonight’s show proves how far she’s come, from inviting two fans dressed in throwback versions of her past outfits to join her on stage for a cover of Charli XCX’s ‘Von Dutch’, to sly references sprinkled throughout her set, an Arca remix of ‘Obsessed’ surfacing for a moment, a Britney Spears-flavored twist on 2023’s ‘I Got It Bad’.
Rae has also mastered the trick of looking like a seasoned pop headliner with ease. Before starting her headline tour of the UK and Ireland in Dublin earlier this week (August 25), she’d only played live a small number of times, two intimate album launch parties at The Box in New York and London, an opening slot for Lana Del Rey at Wembley Stadium in July, and a showcase at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. Yet at Brixton she moves like someone who’s been doing this for years, the only slip showing when she breaks character to squeal happily at her fans. “Wow, you’re so loud!” she laughs at one point. “I feel so lucky to be here; it’s such a dream come true.”
Addison Rae. Credit: Samir Hussein
When she’s not bubbling over with gratitude for the crowd, Rae delivers an ecstatic hour of perfectly polished pop. Before she even steps out, wrought iron gates stamped with a bold A slide open across the stage, pulled apart by dancers in neon outfits straight out of Spring Breakers. Rae emerges high on a podium as ‘Fame Is A Gun’ kicks off, dressed in a navy swing dress. By the end of the song, her dancers pull away the outer layer, leaving her in a glowing, fluorescent look underneath – a visual metaphor for stepping fully into fame.
‘Summer Forever’ shimmers with dreamy brightness, ending in a steamy routine with dancer Patrick that leaves them sprawled on the floor, faces inches apart. “Oh my god, Patrick! I might even say that was to die for, but I’m not looking for anything serious right now,” Rae jokes afterward – a cheeky quip that brushes up against corny when you realize her next track is 2023’s ‘2 Die 4’. It’s one of the rare missteps of the night, along with the sometimes clashing visuals, Rae tries to merge. She blends gothic southern elements with glossy LA-style touches, nodding to both her Louisiana roots and California life, but the lack of a clear storyline keeps it from fully landing.
The audience doesn’t seem to care, though. They scream along to every chorus, especially when the singles drop. ‘Aquamarine’, ‘Headphones On’, and ‘Diet Pepsi’ all spark wild sing-alongs that feel more like celebrations for a veteran artist than a newcomer. For the finale, Rae stages one more theatrical moment. Sitting on a podium in the center, dressed in a corset and dramatic tulle skirt, she lets the lights fall to black before the music surges back with a key change, sparks pouring across the screen behind her. Once again, she makes something difficult appear completely effortless.
Addison Rae played:
‘Fame Is A Gun’
‘I Got It Bad’
‘New York’
‘Summer Forever’
‘2 Die 4’
‘Von Dutch’
‘In The Rain’
‘High Fashion’
‘Aquamarine’
‘Headphones On’
‘Money Is Everything’
‘Obsessed’
‘Times Like These’
‘Diet Pepsi’
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“I received plenty of comments saying it was far too soon to ‘go solo’,” Geese frontman Cameron Winter told NME last year while reflecting on how people initially reacted to his decision to branch out on his own. “Most likely because a lot of folks assume that ‘solo albums’ only happen once a band has passed its peak and that they usually feel like uninspired cash grabs.”
Honestly, everyone is trying to earn a living however they can these days, yet no one expected a Geese side project to generate any real financial payoff in 2024. “Just so you know,” he went on, “my solo album is different: because barely anyone knows my band, I am young and comfortable living with my parents and I have the freedom to follow any ideas that interest me.”
Brooklyn indie followers and former NME cover stars Geese were gaining real momentum when their second album ‘3D Country’ mixed cowboy psychedelia with a jazzy, art-punk energy that had already captured the attention of many UK 6 Music dads back in 2023, but who could have predicted what came next? Geese have become one of the most talked-about bands of 2025 and are expected to dominate multiple end-of-year lists with the ambitious and full-range rock of ‘Getting Killed’. Yet the moment that set the stage for this rise was Winter’s Lou Reed-inspired debut solo record ‘Heavy Metal’.
A handful of late-night US television appearances and a spot on Jools Holland acted as a welcoming doorway for the world to see what this 23-year-old can do far beyond what many twice or three times his age are capable of. Now the sold-out Roundhouse audience made up of indie teens, art school regulars, fans who traveled across Europe and seasoned listeners reacts with a collective breath as a slight opening in the stage curtain reveals the silhouette of Winter seated at a piano. First comes a spark of excitement, then a sudden hush.
There is no flashy social media moment, no chatter overriding the music and almost no sea of raised phones. There is a sincerity to how the night unfolds. The Geese singer barely turns toward the audience. “Turn around!” someone calls out from the balcony at one stage. “Is this not enough for you all?” Winter teases back. For some, maybe it was more than enough. At least four people appear to faint around the warm and crowded Roundhouse while the room stands in absolute focus as Winter moves through the dreamlike storytelling of ‘Try As I May’, the emotional swirl of ‘The Rolling Stones’, the bright lift of ‘Love Takes Miles’ and the sermon-like stomp of ‘Nausicaä (Love Will Be Revealed)’. When he reaches the intense and spiritually charged ‘$0’, even the most skeptical hipster might be convinced that “I’m not kidding, God is actually real”. In that moment, it feels as though we all understand.
The entire performance can be summed up in how ‘Drinking Age’ unfolds. It starts softly with a gentle touch on the keys before erupting into a thunderous attack on the Steinway that could echo into next year, followed by a long, open cry aimed toward the sky. Winter somehow manages to blend something minimal with something enormous, something grounded with something cosmic, a delicate approach that hits with staggering force as he reaches toward ideas of existence, heaven, hell and everything surrounding them.
Winter could recite the phone book and still leave a crowd stunned. He carries the spirit of a post-punk Rufus Wainwright you can play alongside The Strokes and Arctic Monkeys, a Gen Z Tom Waits for listeners exhausted by TikTok overload, a new Nick Cave who arrives at exactly the moment he is needed. His voice feels older than his years yet perfectly suited to express the concerns and emotions of his own generation.
We will continue praising Geese endlessly because they deserve it. They are an extraordinary burst of musical creativity that goes far beyond what their lineup would ever imply, and along with Fontaines D.C., they are poised to become one of the decade’s essential bands. Still, tonight offers something quieter and more intimate. Cameron Winter stands completely on his own power, talent and magnetism, proving himself a rising force who can hold an entire room with only his voice, a piano and an entire future waiting for him.
‘Try as I May’
‘Emperor XIII in Shades’
‘The Rolling Stones’
‘Love Takes Miles’
‘Drinking Age’
‘Serious World’
‘Nausicaä (Love Will Be Revealed)’
‘If You Turn Back Now’
‘Vines’
‘Nina + Field of Cops’
‘$0’
‘Take It With You’
‘Cancer of the Skull’
