I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: April 13, 2024] Kristof Hanh

I have been a fan of Swans since 1988.  I have a lot of their records on vinyl.  I have more on CD.  I went through a deep dive of Swans fandom  after college and then pretty much drifted away from them.

I’d been kind of intimidated away from seeing them live for years–I heard their shows were punishingly loud and that Michael Gira could be a rather contrary front man.

But my pal Phil Puleo has been playing drums with them for years and I thought it was time to see him and them.  (I had tickets to see them in 2021, but COVID).

So here they were back again.

I wasn’t sure who the opener, Kristof Hanh, was.  But when I looked him up I saw that he has been a member of Swans on and off since 1989.  He mostly plays lap steel guitar but also plays other guitars.  He has, in fact, played lap steel on the most recent album and some other recent releases as well.

Wikipedia says

His approach to the lap-steel guitar is non-traditional, often devoted to playing drones that can serve as either supporting background elements or take a more prominent role in the band’s music.

He came out and sat at his lap steel which was right in front of me.  He started playing and then smiled and said he was demonstrating the importance of electricity.  He turned on his gear and started playing.  He uses lots of effects and his sound was, indeed, full of drones.  He played melodies but also kept a large sound in the overall chords that he played.

After playing for about 8 riveting minutes, the song ended and he told us that was called “Philadelphia Overture.”

Then he began another song, which he sang.  I couldn’t really hear the words, but adding the vocals made the song interesting in a different way.

Then he said that he would be singing the next song in German, because everyone here speaks German.  I have seen a lot of bands singing in Japanese, so it was fun to hear someone singing with a rich deep German voice.

For the last song he said he was going to do an Elvis cover, as played by John Cale.  He played “Heartbreak Hotel” in a slow, sad way that has forever changed the way I think of that song.

And with that, he was done.  He smiled and waved and left the stage.