This one piece, The Knot, is a distillation of the loose concept behind the 2010-2016 run of Swans, built on a foundation dating back to the early 80s. Scoff at anyone that calls you pretentious when you describe the live Swans experience as transcendental, scoff because they don't know. How could they? I desperately regret I missed one of their shows in London, post "To Be Kind". I'm glad I caught them when they were touring "Deliquescence" post "The Glowing Man", because The Knot may be the most colossal and challenging (physically) piece of music in their entire catalogue. Nevermind just how fucking mind-blowing it is that these people can even play this, truly masters of their individual crafts, coming together in a whirlwind of controlled chaos to assault your senses, to lift you up not like an angel, but more like a trial-by-fire as you suffer your way to salvation. The experience became akin to something spiritual for me, in their 2 and a half + set, exhausted, borderline hallucinating. Earplugs a necessity but I removed them for most of it, I wanted the crushing force of it all to eviscerate me, the rebuilding would come after. I to see live music A LOT, and my one Swans show is the single greatest gig ever. Louder than loud, louder than Sunn O))) for Christ's sake, groovy, shamanistic, entrancing, meditative, crushing, ugly, beautiful. I was a fan before the gig, but I was a convert after. The greatest rock band in modern history for me, Gira has expanded the notion of what music can be, to transport you to another plane altogether.
The Knot was the heaviest piece of music I have ever heard! My God! What a power! Only those who had the opportunity to hear it live, know what we are talking about! These videos can't transmit that power! What insanity! I didn't even take earplugs for the concert ... but to this day my ears haven't recovered. And already passed 3 years ...
I had seen Swans many times before, including the previous night. But what happened at MHOW was something else entirely for me - blissful transcendence, dissolution of self. Four years later, I am so thankful for this experience and will forever long to get back to that state.
Alexandru Adam Assuming you mean the Glowing Man, it is to be the final from this incarnation ie, the gang that gave us the 6 hours trilogy. But Gira will do more things with the band later on.
The Maestro was speaking with the fans at merch stand, and said that there is a concert CD/DVD of the final tour coming in the summer, younggodrecords exclusive. Keep an eye out the next months
Just saw this live a few days ago. It's impossible to convey the sheer volume and power of Swans' performances over video. Truly something that just needs to be experienced and felt firsthand.
Swans is the greatest live concert I have been to in my whole life. I saw them twice. I don't care what kind of music you like. If you have the opportunity to see these guys live, don't pass it up!! They are so amazing live!! You feel like you are high just standing there without drugs watching and listening to the artwork. Lol... you will feel like you are being fucked by the music.
Just saw them at the Fonda on September 2nd . . . Absolutely blew me off the face of the Earth!! This is the third time I've seen the Swans since they reunited a few years back, and this was, by far, the most intense, punishing performance yet . . . I go to many live shows . . . I've never been to another that could touch this! Brilliance
augustineisntmean Agreed. I saw them 2 nights ago, this bit gave me full body goosebumps and made me cry. I don't do that! Ha ha my girlfriend, who is not a fan, thinks I'm crazy. I watched this video and it happened again. So life affirmingly epic!
Ed Bate The Thursday or Friday show? I was there Friday we could have cried together! I don't think my girlfriend would have looked at me so oddly if there was another fella in the same state ha ha ha.
saw them the night before in manhattan. wish I'd booked for williamsburg instead.. but still, great show. great band. ran across gira smoking a cig outside later on and got to shake his hand and tell him how he and david yow are two of my all time favorite vocalists.
I wonder how M.Gira had teach to Walfisch the way to play his song so well. You know, SWANS doesn't play like conventional musician, so the way to explain their technic must be pretty tricky too.
a nickner i always thnk about this. how do they learn how to play their own songs? hahaha because i really dont know what the fuck norman plays in his guitar
podria entender que muchos piensen que solo son ruidos. es dificil escuchar esto. no es para cualquiera, creo que esto es mas para el que para la gente, es un viaje, al interior del ser de Gira.
If you mean that improvisation is central to it, then yes, very much so. These pieces all have some framework, but they evolve constantly, and are largely created on stage.
i just came home from the concert and i can only praise this band, they're so good it even made me cry and also the earplugs enhanced the experience even more and made it much better, without the plugs i could only hear, well, pretty much noise and i was only forcing my ear to distinguish each sound. Gira was a sweetheart, he even complimented a girl to whom he said that looked like a model in a painting by some famous painter (can't recall his name).
Here's an excrept from an interview with Gira: - For the tour, keyboard player Paul Wallfisch will replace percussionist Thor Harris. Why did Thor leave, how did you find Paul and what will Paul will bring to the table? - This was decided right after we’d finished recording the new album, in September or October. Thor’s mother is elderly and he wants to stay closer to her. He was also exhausted by our touring regimen and he has his own music. We’re still really close and there’s no animosity between us at all. I’d met Paul several times over the years, and he plays with Little Annie, who has toured with us. When Thor decided to depart, I called Paul. We got along great.
@@paulsenkans3401 It was more of a reshuffling of that 'incarnation' of Swans. Gira has finished writing the songs for the new album, and there's a CD that's been released recently by his label Young God Records titled 'What Is This?' that is made up of acoustic versions of the songs, which I presume at least some will be on the next studio album, albeit in a different composition. The releases in between studio albums always signal the recording of a studio album as that is how they fund the recording. I believe a new Swans record with a new line up and sound is imminent.
he's doing the stuff that sounds like lowing cattle, often played before the beat and brought in with a volume pedal... he's very much plugged in, but often it's not at all obvious what he's doing, one of the most subtle and original guitarists I've ever heard
I also noticed last time I saw them that where you were standing really made the difference as to which guitarist you could specifically pick out. It's easiest to distinguish Hahn because of how steel guitar sounds to begin with, but with Westberg, his more obvious work merges into Gira's parts if you're not standing to either the centre or somewhere stage-left, and his less obvious contributions are all controlled with volume pedals or delays. So saying what he's doing at any given time is frequently difficult. Take the end of "The Knot" here: Those backwards-sounding bits are definitely Westberg, the high strummy bits are Gira, and the leads are Hahn. Halfway into the track though? Very hard to tell at this angle.
I agree, when I saw these guys a couple of years ago I was front row and about 7 or 8 people across from Westberg, and my GOD...the sound! This was when they played The Apostate before it morphed into Cloud Of Unknowing. The groaning volume-swelled riff was vibrating the hair on my forearms, but that high octave-type chord he also plays just fricking screamed out of the amplifiers. Unbelievable sound.
Michael Gira is the real deal. Start with their nineties material like "Love of Life" and "White light in the Mouth of Infinity". Those are more song based albums and more accessible than this material. This current incarnation's material is more based off of movements and pieces that are worked out organically. I can understand how this music comes off as long winded and redundant at times but there are some brilliant moments in this latest version of Swans. You kind of have to work for it and that's not for everyone. This is not music you tap your toes and dance to. It's confrontational. It's bleak and psychedelic. This is the sound at the end of history.
