This was the most intense aural experience ever. It was sheer sonic brutality. Two days later my right ear is still ringing.
They requested the a/c turned off & Gira asked for lights to be shone on the crowd. He wanted everyone to boil while he and his cohorts would aurally rape us for an hour and a half. For 30 minutes prior to their emergence on stage they played a drone which increased in pitch every so often. They opened with ‘No Words/No Thoughts’ from the new album. It was vicious. Sadomasochistic. Within the first few minutes people had to move away from the front while some others were wincing with noise.
‘Your Property’ came next followed by ‘Sex, God, Sex’. Both pummelled and, as expected, were stretched out. ‘Jim’ followed (only the live version can make you appreciate just how cool the song can be) and then ‘I Crawled’, which was maybe the highlight of the set. The bass and drums (2 sets) were sublime. Gira went mental, and a few more people had to move away. He made some quip at some point about Tea Partiers which induced laughs (something along the lines of “let’s all go back to 1910 with child labour and 50c an hour wages, get this government off our back!”)
I had to bail after the next song ‘My Birth’ to make a metro (fuck you Swans for playing on a Wednesday) but if their setlist was the same as the Philadelphia show the night before they played ‘Beautiful Child’ and ‘Eden Prison’ as a closer.
If you want to be genuinely affected by a gig with physical repercussions you must attend a Swans gig now. They make every other band (like Ministry) seem like wimps.
Can’t say I was interested in hearing Swans live until reading your review. I was afraid it would be too Angels Of Light-y live, sounds like it was a whole other beast.
Can’t say I was interested in hearing Swans live until reading your review. I was afraid it would be too Angels Of Light-y live, sounds like it was a whole other beast.
Have you heard the new Swans album greeny??? It’s pretty killer…and Gira made it clear this Swans return wasn’t going to be mellow and pretty.
[reply]Can’t say I was interested in hearing Swans live until reading your review. I was afraid it would be too Angels Of Light-y live, sounds like it was a whole other beast.
Have you heard the new Swans album greeny??? It’s pretty killer…and Gira made it clear this Swans return wasn’t going to be mellow and pretty.[/reply]
Have heard one track and loved the music but not totally enamored by Gira’s voice. I think I d/l’ed it though so I should track it down. I’ve really only been listening to Rapoon and the Social Network soundtrack but once I get through those I’ll give it a proper try.
This was the most intense aural experience ever. It was sheer sonic brutality. Two days later my right ear is still ringing.
Fantastic.
They requested the a/c turned off & Gira asked for lights to be shone on the crowd. He wanted everyone to boil while he and his cohorts would aurally rape us for an hour and a half. For 30 minutes prior to their emergence on stage they played a drone which increased in pitch every so often.
There needs to be more of this kind of thing, there really does. Concerts are so fucking ‘safe’ and bands who think they’re ‘dangerous’ and ‘boundary pushing’ (Hi Trent!) end up looking pussy compared to shit like Swans.
And don’t forget these guys have been around (more or less) for 30 years. And they still make everyone else look weak.
They opened with ‘No Words/No Thoughts’ from the new album. It was vicious. Sadomasochistic. Within the first few minutes people had to move away from the front while some others were wincing with noise.
I haven’t heard the new album yet - only stuff I’ve listened to on youtube - in fact I can’t even find it in the stores. But what I have heard just isn’t…heavy enough. Maybe I need to hear them live to appreciate them.
…and then ‘I Crawled’, which was maybe the highlight of the set
I love that song.
Did they play Holy Money or Time Is Money (Bastard) ??
Popped the new Swans in on Akbar’s suggestion. Liked it better than I thought I would, anyone have the two CD version with the 45 minute 9th track? I’d be curious to hear that.
@ Peligro…you just haver to pop the new album in and turn the volume up and you’ll realise that this is indeed Swans and not Angels Of Light from the get going. It is as perfect Swans…heavy here and beautiful there…
“You Fucking People Make Me Sick” is my fave tune on the album… the duet with Devendra Banhart & Gira’s young daughter (3yrs old I think?) is beautiful, cute and frigging creepy as all hell at once!
[reply]
There was a table of Swans merch, mainly t-shirts, the album and some posters. Gira offered to sign anything after the show for free too, I believe.
AWESOME!!!
We’re pretty lucky as Glasgow’s got James Blackshaw of Young God Records supporting. The guy is a bit of a 12 string Jedi…scroll down and check the video of him…
