[ATTENDED: April 13, 2024] Swans
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.
The biggest surprise to me was that they were not as loud as I suspected. That may not have been everyone’s experience, but I really expected to be knocked back by the sound and yes, it was loud–without earplugs I ‘d have been crying–but not THAT loud.
Early Swans albums were full of slow, loud, pummeling songs. The songs are still slow and are still loud, but there’s a lot more subtlety (relatively) in them.
I also had some idea of what this show was like–all new songs–but I genuinely didn’t expect the first song, “The Beggar” to run over an hour!
It began very quietly with leader Michael Gira strumming one chord on an acoustic guitar. For about five minutes. He made some vocal sounds which I don’t think were words and then, ever so slowly, the rest of the band joined in.
Kristof Hahn on lap steel was right in front of me and it was fun watching him as he added all kinds of ambient sounds–from quiet to outrageous.
Behind him was Dana Schechter who played a lap steel (possibly modified, I couldn’t see it by she seemed to make different sounds) and occasional bass guitar. For most of the set I could see her pretty clearly (although not her lap steel), but toward the end a tall person blocked her from me. (more…)
