Swans Concert

We went to a Swans concert at Culturgest(28 euros each ticket). It’s walking distance from home, which is pretty convenient!

We got right on time for the opening, so most seats were occupied. They were reserved ones and we had trouble finding ours. For some reason here the numbers are on the back of the seats, so it’s kinda difficult to find yours. We got the second row, which in retrospect may be too close.

The opening was by Norman Westberg, a guitar player for a bunch of bands, including Swans, although he’s not playing for them anymore. His presentation was mostly experimental, I would say lots of improvisation, although you can never be sure.

There was an intermission before Swans started, which I got to buy some merch.

Unfortunately there were no To be Kind records, so I got “The Seer”, a triple album for 30 euros. I don’t think it’s even possible to buy that easily in Brazil.

I also got a classic t-shirt based on the Filth album cover. It’s a bit cliche but it’s still cool.

Now onto the show itself. I got to see Swans back in Toronto in 2016, and that was one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to, so my expectations were quite high.

This time, however, it wasn’t as cool. First Gira was playing while sitting on a chair, which is a turn down. I don’t know if he has any condition or it’s just growing old. In any case not very exciting, specially because the audience was sitting too.

Then most of the songs were from the new album, The Beggar, which at the time of this writing hasn’t been released yet. There’s a lot of spoken words which I am not a big fan of.

Michael Gira is not really known for his charisma, and that showed. For some reasons the stage lights weren’t working properly, which he dissed with a few remarks. I remember he said something like “can you make these lights red, not blue, not yellow, red. Then don’t fucking touch them until the end of the show?” which isn’t super nice.

Another thing is how noisy the band is, so noisy to the point that they have to distribute earplugs for us. Which I question: what’s the point? Why don’t simply play on a lower volume?

But overall it was still a good show. The band is solid. The songs are heavy (both in terms of sound and lyrics). The new album songs don’t really resonate with me as much as the previous versions, but honestly I admire a band that is still willing to try new things.

Final review, I liked it and would watch the band again, but not the same setlist.