…and I handed him my copy of To Be Kind and he signed it.
I was lucky enough to get a ticket to see the almighty Swans live at The Corner Hotel in Melbourne (The goddamn venue was packed to the rafters. When I got there, there was a line going out the door and down the street). After the show (which was godly - but that goes without saying, right Grmpy!!) he did a meet and greet and that’s when I grabbed the opportunity with both hands a-tremblin’ and made straight for the nearest goalpost. I couldn’t think of anything to say to him (what does one say to the likes of Michael Gira anyway) so I just smiled and he smiled back, signed my album and thanked me for attending the show.
Then I came back down to Earth.
Reviews of the show are useless. If anyone here has been privileged enough to have ever seen Swans in concert will know what a headfuck and an assault to the senses they are and knows exactly what I am going through right now.
Those who have no idea what I am ranting about will be none the wiser after reading my review anyway. But just in case you ARE curious about why I might be feeling so ecstatic right now, please listen to this for just a little bit:
I couldn’t think of anything to say to him (what does one say to the likes of Michael Gira anyway) so I just smiled and he smiled back, signed my album and thanked me for attending the show.
Have talked with Gira sporadically over the years, re: writing projects that never materialized (as I mentioned in another thread though, this coincided with a definite uptick in his output of great music, and so I hold no grudges whatsoever.)
I’ve always regretted not asking him how he managed to NOT kill Thurston Moore when sharing a cramped van with him during the Sonic Youth / Swans “Savage Blunder” tour. Learning the key to such restraint is a skill that might help me later in life.
I’ve always regretted not asking him how he managed to NOT kill Thurston Moore when sharing a cramped van with him during the Sonic Youth / Swans “Savage Blunder” tour. Learning the key to such restraint is a skill that might help me later in life.
Our Band Could Be Your Life has some remarkable insights into said tour between those two “titans” of hipster indie weirdness.
I like where it states that Gira and one of his cohorts would start screaming at each other over some petty insult, before launching into a full frontal assault - fists flying in all directions and blood splattering the walls.
All the while everyone else in the van is simply minding their own business.
Now THAT’S restraint!!!
But yeah, Thurston Moore does deserve a severe ass kicking.
Look at you, fangirl. I could have met Gira plenty of times but I was too busy being blown by goth groupies. I’ve seen Swans thrice live now.
Goth groupies are generally unattractive.
I once went to a noise gig and on the way home I stopped for a burrito. Can you believe it was after midnight and this burrito take away place was still open?
We should compile all this stuff and one day write the great American novel.
[reply]I met him when a friend promoted a solo acoustic gig of his in Belfast.
What a cunt.
Elaborate, if you would :-0[/reply]
Turned up at the venue in pissy form. Proceeded to annoy the guy who had been hired to sell the merch by insisting he be “pro active” (despite being confined to a small table). Had a monumental hissy fit because the promoter handed him white masking tape instead of black (Spinal Tap galore). He managed to find black tape in his bag and shouted (in that Gira nasally voice) “THIS IS THE TAPE I WAS ASKING YOU FOR!”
He then called a member of the audience a prick for taking a picture during the set (despite not saying anything about it beforehand), and then whinged to the promoter afterwards that not enough merch had been sold (even though he only had Angels of Light CD’s and vinyl for sale).
Despite all of this, it was one of the most magical gigs I’ve ever been to. Mesmerising.
Are the rumors that he used to beat up Jarboe true? Or are those stories wildly inflammatory??
He was definitely a total asshole to her - see “You See Through Me” from Gira’s Drainland. Based on some of the content of Jarboe’s solo material, I have a feeling she’s attracted to that in a man, though.
By the way she’s also a total diva when performing.
Re: the assessments of Gira as an asshole, I don’t doubt for a minute that he has nights like that. Any contact I’ve had with him has been downright gentlemanly, but I realize that’s a pretty small ‘sample size’ and who knows how his personality skews overall.
I wonder if the ‘duct tape’ incident was really a case of Gira’s being hell-bent on having the color he wanted, or if there was more to it than that? Often times, bands will include odd little details like that in their contract riders as a test to see if all the other technical details have been taken care of, and if the wrong color duct tape appears it may be a hint that the venue hasn’t properly considered other more important details with the sound reinforcement. Allegedly that was the rationale behind the infamous Van Halen “brown M+Ms” incident…‘Diamond Dave’ freaked out not because he had the wrong type of candy in his bowl backstage, but because it was a tip-off that the technical rider hadn’t been properly read.
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