Review: Cameron Winter commands Rockefeller Chapel as crowd remains dutifully reverent in intimate show

Just who is Cameron Winter, and where on earth did he come from?

In short order, the reserved, mop-topped 23-year-old from Brooklyn has been everywhere, all at once. He’s been canonized as the voice of a generation, his beyond-buzzy rock band, Geese, has been exultantly claimed by Gen Z as their Nirvana, and scenester directors like Paul Thomas Anderson and Benny Safdie have been clamoring to film his limited solo tour dates this month. Oh, and if you want that beautifully unruly hair of his, GQ has a deep dive into Winter’s style.

Winter’s grip on the music industry has been so intense, some would probably assume he’s some kind of industry plant. Except he’s not. He’s brilliant, a verifiable legend in the making. And in just 60 minutes on a cold winter night at the University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Chapel in Hyde Park, he showed why he’s one to watch very closely in the years to come.

Without fail, every generation looks for its Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan (or Nirvana), and Winter has taken up that guard, whether he likes it or not. But he probably does like it. He’s studied the great 20th century songbooks and picked them down to the bones to find where he can carry on the torch. Add in a little bit of Tom Waits, Nick Cave and Thom Yorke, and you get very close to what Winter is selling — and quickly selling out of.

At Rockefeller Chapel — a beautiful if not haunting performance space that’s part of the portfolio of Empty Bottle Presents, which has cornered the market on unique concert venue spots (see its shows at Bohemian National Cemetery) — Winter’s sold-out performance on Tuesday night drew an excited congregation of young college kids and music veterans who lined up along Woodlawn Avenue to get dibs on the first-come, first-serve seating in the pews.

There were no members of Phish or R.E.M. — who showed up at Winter’s performance at the hallowed Carnegie Hall last week along with Safdie and Anderson — at the Chicago gig, but there was Jeff Tweedy sitting on the altar just feet from where Winter balladeered his heart out on a baby grand piano with the passionate rambling of “Nina + Field of Cops” and the brand-new moody stunner “Sandbag.” There was nothing more to the setup than a sole spotlight that never strayed from Winter and a soundboard console teetering on the top of some pews.

It was a completely different vibe from Geese’s sold-out two-night stand at Thalia Hall in October, when the art punks decimated the venue with their brash psych-fueled post-punk as heard on their wildly received albums, including September’s “Getting Killed.” It’s been earmarked on many best-of lists this year for good reason.

In contrast, Winter — supporting his sweeping solo debut, “Heavy Metal,” by his lonesome — was more cautiously demure and laser-focused on delivering his pensive opuses, none of which actually sound like metal but closer to spirituals. Hunched over the piano, Winter ruled over the keys, at one point cracking his knuckles before taking it on again. His voice also levitated, sometimes with a near vibrato that became its own kind of choir.

The bulk of the material was allegedly written on all-night Kerouacian benders while on tour with Geese. While there’s an air of mystery to Winter that makes it hard to know what is fact or fiction 100% of the time, that narrative would fit the existential ponderings and rambling poetry of heart-jerking songs like “$0,” which conjectures “god is actually real, I’m not kidding this time.” It was quite the revelation to unfurl in this sanctified setting, which only added to the pomp of Winter’s five solo shows that were expertly booked in such intimate spaces.

Even with his back to the crowd, Winter commanded the chapel as the crowd remained dutifully reverent for the short performance. In the quiet moments, there was radio silence, the only other sounds heard being the squeaking of the piano bench or Winter adjusting his mic in an awkward pause. He was short on words, too, only breaking format to sarcastically thank the crowd for coming out 50-something miles from the city center to attend the show. Yet, judging by the standing ovation and all-out frenzy that continues to grow alongside Winter, 50 miles is nothing to see such greatness.

Cameron Winter returns to Rockefeller Chapel Wednesday night. Tickets are sold out.

Cameron Winter Set List for Dec. 16 show at Rockefeller Chapel in Chicago

Serious World
Try As I May
It All Fell in the River
The Rolling Stones
Sandbag
Love Takes Miles
Drinking Age
Emperor XIII In Shades
If You Turn Back Now
Nina + Field of Cops
$0
Cancer of the Skull