Swans (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, April 13,2024)
April 13, 2024 by Paul Debraski
[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.
Next to her was Larry Mullins. I genuinely have no idea what he was doing most of the time. I couldn’t see his gear at all. The internet says he plays mellotron, which I will accept and percussion, which I did actually see him doing–I wish I had seen more of his set up, but I did enjoy when he and Phil Puleo played drums and percussion at he same time.
It was cool seeing Phil in action–the Swans show feels rather improvised (within reason) and it was clear that the band follows Gira as to the intensity of the sounds, but otherwise it seems to be up to each member–they communicate with each other perfectly and when they go from really loud to quiet, it’s precise and VERY quiet.
While Gira is the ringleader, bassist Christopher Pravdica seems like the number two guy. Gira and Pravidica have ready communication (since Christopher is next to him) and it seems like Pravidica communicates to everyone else to an extent. He also plays keys. And because he is the only person not attached to a flat machine, he is the most visible character on the stage.
Reading all of that covered about one tenth of The Beggar, which swelled and splashed and rose and sank all to Gira’s whims. I was amused when early in the set Gira raised his arms and a handful of people in the audience raised their hands as if he was trying to get us into the set, when clearly, this communication was all for the band–high was loud and he waved his arms around to generate utter noise and chaos.
I loved the idea of an hour-long song and it was impressive in a way that a jam band like Phish isn’t (not saying Phish isn’t impressive, but that it was a very different type of jam). It was intense and exhausting. And frankly, that could have been the end.
But they rather quickly moved onto “The Hanging Man.” This was the track that Larry and Phil shared drumming (and Larry is flamboyant in his drumming style).
There were five more songs in the set. Most of them were ten minutes or more and none has been released anywhere yet.
I am a Tower built over 15 minutes into something of a banging rocker. Guardian Spirit had that two note pummeling like Swans of old. But the big surprise was “Away,” a rather tender ballad of sorts. It was much shorter and but led into another shortish (7 minute) song called “Red Yellow” which segued into the intense “Birthing.” “Birthing” includes a sample of Gira’s son “ba ba bah ing.” It cycles through quiet and bombast, with an ending of the most intense chaos, tightly controlled and eardrum shattering.
And then it was over and the intimidating Gira was polite and friendly as he smiled and waved and thanked everyone.
I had just had surgery earlier in the week and figured that this was a good show to go to because there would be no dancing (there was no dancing). But wow, it was a lengthy night. I didn’t expect the Swans set to run to nearly two and a half hours. But I’m realy glad I went and finally got to experience it.
- Intro
- The Beggar ©
- The Hanging Man ψ
- I Am A Tower
- Guardian Spirit
- Away
- Red Yellow
- Birthing
ψ Leaving Meaning (2019)
© The Beggar (2023)
