Prologue:  

Back in May, as my college semester was wrapping up, I noticed that Swans, the lauded experimental rock band fronted by Michael Gira, was returning to New York for three nights to close out their year-long The Beggar Tour. I missed their three Brooklyn shows in late 2023 due to my busy college schedule, so I happily took up the opportunity to catch the first of their NYC shows at Racket in Manhattan. Before the concert, I considered myself a moderately casual fan of Swans’ music. I was familiar with To Be Kind, their acclaimed 2013 album, though I never listened to it all front to back as much of Swans’ music post-2010 are infamous for their staggering 2-hour album runtimes (it is common for songs to regularly push the 20-minute mark, not to mention the occasional 40-minute behemoths that pop up every album). I did not even listen to The Beggar, the very album the tour is in support of, as it just fell through the cracks of my music-listening plans. So, I was going into this concert blind, which was a pleasant change of pace since most of the time I am familiar with the performing artist’s discography. To my surprise, much of the setlist at this concert was new material or completely reworked versions of songs, but more on that later!  

The venue:  

Before I talk about the performance itself, I wanted to briskly talk about Racket itself. This is a smaller medium-sized club in Chelsea a few blocks south of Penn Station. Usually, I try to arrive at the venue 10-ish minutes before doors open but I got to Racket exactly at 7 PM when doors were to open. To my surprise, there was no line outside. At first, I thought this meant that there were already some people inside since there are usually other early birds lined up. But once I got inside, I realized I was the only person inside the ballroom! So, I took the opportunity to position myself next to the stage in the left corner. I was inches away from an electric lap-steel guitar with several effect pedals plugged in around the seat. This would be where Kristof Hahn would be seated during the concert, so it was very cool to be an arm's length away from one of the performers! Unimportant aside, when I go to concerts, I like to make mental notes of what pre-show music a venue plays as people walk in and I enjoyed that Racket was playing the self-titled Scott Walker albums in order both before and after the show! The venue itself was fine, if unremarkable otherwise. The staff scanning tickets and ID checks were nice and I liked how close Racket is to Penn Station since it makes the journey time much shorter and easy! I would return for more shows!  

The Opener:  

Kristof Hahn, one of the lap steel guitarists for Swans, was the opener. He was originally part of Swans from the late 80s to early 90s and has been a staple member since their revival in 2010. Unfortunately, I do not remember specifics from his 30-minute set, but he played about 4 songs all of which were beautifully haunting between his heavily affected lap steel and his ragged singing voice. Since I was so up close it was so cool to watch him activate his pedals to create these drones of delayed loops. I remember at one point he was coughing, and a fan offered their water bottle to him which he thought was very considerate. Kristof in general was very polite and witty during his set. I remember after his set before Swans played, he checked with everyone close to the stage if they brought some earplugs and offered to bring out extra pairs! It was such a kind gesture that I never witnessed firsthand between an artist and the audience. But yes, it is particularly important to bring ear protection to a Swans performance because this show is the loudest show I have ever experienced!  

Swans:  

About 10 minutes after Kristof’s set, some of the band members stepped out for a brief sound check and I knew once I heard the blaring bass guitar and second lap steel behind Kristof that this was going to be a pummeling experience. Right at 9 PM, the Scott Walker ambiance quiets down and the entire band comes out on stage to applause. Swans is comprised of Kristof Hahn on lap-steel, Dana Schechter on lap-steel and bass guitar, Larry Mullins on keys, synth, and percussion, Phil Puleo on drums, Chris Pravdica on bass, and Michael Gira on vocals and acoustic guitar. The band silently made their way to their positions on stage with Michael occasionally breaking his cold scowl to smile and wave at some audience members. Once everyone was settled there was a moment of silence and then the concert started. It began with Gira strumming one guitar chord over and over, eventually adding nonsensical vocals that bellowed through the speakers. I thought it was strange that Michael was only playing acoustic guitar and not any kind of electric, but what I had not considered was exactly how loud his guitar would be. The guitar was not distorted but the sheer volume already had the stage shaking from the vibrations, and this was just with one acoustic guitar and vocals. I should also note that Swans had a remarkably interesting speaker setup where each member was almost encased in a tiny cubby with stacks of speaker cabinets making up the barriers between each member. One by one the band would methodically add another layer to Gira’s drone, of course, every instrument was similarly cranked up as loud as possible. But what took me by surprise was the mixing of Phil Puleo’s drums. The floor tom and kick drum had so much sub-bass on them that every strike of the lower-pitched drums created a little gust of wind off the stage! It was a sensation that I can only describe as “you had to be there to understand!” Another curveball struck me as the band was reaching their first grand crescendo. As the music kept building up and up, Michael eventually stopped playing his guitar and raised his arm as if he were reaching for the ceiling! As his hand reached higher and higher the music kept getting louder and more dissonant and when he returned his hand to the neck of the guitar the sound became more “serene” again. Michael was conducting the band! I thought this was such a cool moment to witness live. 

After another build-up, Michael eventually put down his guitar, stood up, and faced the band with his back turned to the audience. This time Gira was using his full body to conduct, even pointing, and swaying his whole body to cue different members to strike at their instruments. After another earth-shaking crescendo, Gira picked up his guitar and started strumming another chord. This is when he would begin singing discernible words, the lyrics to the song “The Beggar.” Mind you, this was about 30 minutes into the song so this was when I realized it would be a lengthy show. The rest of the song would follow a pattern of Michael belting a single line of the lyrics from the original song like a maniacal cardinal performing a plainchant at the most demented mass service, and in response something insane would happen. Sometimes it would be Kristof’s lap steel screeching as loud as possible, at one moment Michael starts convulsing and speaking in tongues as Phil Puleo starts this manic, free-jazz style drum solo, my favorite response was when Michael pulls the guitar off his body and holds it right in front of a speaker cabinet creating the most insane feedback distortion I have ever heard. I also remember near the end, the band cuts out and Michael starts slapping himself repeatedly while laughing, and then he starts groaning, and then finally he is screaming at the top of his lungs. It was simultaneously the most harrowing and entertaining live performance I have ever witnessed. I am skipping on a lot of details not only because this write-up is already long but simply because this reworked version of “The Beggar” was just under 80 minutes long! Mind you, the album version of this song is about 9 minutes long, and Swans stretched it to an album's length! And yet, I did not even realize how long it lasted as every moment was so meticulously and methodically performed that the pacing never dragged! It has been just under a month since this concert, and I still think about this performance!  

Despite the insane length of this first song, there are still 3 more songs Swans will perform but I will just briefly describe the most memorable parts to quickly wrap everything up!  

The next song was “The Hanging Man,” from 2019’s Leaving Meaning. Unlike “The Beggar,” the live version of this song was like the original album version with the funky bass riff and linear noise rock builds. This lasted about 9 minutes.  

After this song, Michael introduced the band with very hilarious descriptors (he would introduce himself as Dolly Parton in a very exaggerated French accent).  

The third song was “Away” which is a new song that has only existed in the live setting during The Beggar tour. This was a very ambient and folky ballad that was a nice tranquil breather after the previous two songs. This was the least memorable song, but it was still enjoyable regardless. This was about 8 minutes long.  

The final song is technically two songs played back-to-back. First was “Red Yellow,” followed by “Birthing.” Like “Away,” these songs are new and debuted during the tour. “Red Yellow” was very similar to the opening 30 minutes of “The Beggar” with the droning instrumentation slowly building up. Near the end, this sample of a baby/toddler (supposedly Gira’s son) babbling loops continuously as the song transitions into “Birthing” with these ginormous stabs of sounds from the band. If “Red Yellow” was like the first chunk of “The Beggar,” “Birthing” takes a lot of cues from the final sections of “The Beggar” with more harrowing vocal deliveries from Gira and lots of dissonant instrumental passages. In the final minutes of the song, Kristof starts using some kind of tool resembling a comb to scrap the strings of his lap steel, and the bass starts to stutter and glitch as Michael bellows his final line of “I saw you under the sea, behind the air. I saw you!” like a demented blues crooner. The band then explodes back and begins this chugging dirge of chord stabs that gets louder and more chaotic. With one final stab, the song ends, and the band rises to thank the audience. The final two songs were about 40 minutes in length.  

Final Thoughts + Aftermath:

This was the first show where I did not record a single second of the performance! This was mostly due to Gira also discouraging people from filming at concerts: he was actively pointing at people and waving his finger in disappointment until they put their phone away where he would then smile and give them a thumbs up. But I also wanted to simply experience a concert without filming much of the show, which I, unfortunately, have a habit of doing even if I try to be as discreet as possible to not be distracting. And I must admit that I had a much more intimate experience without the distraction of trying to get a good video!  

Finally, in the month succeeding the concert, I went back and started chipping away at Swans' discography which has been such a treat! If the progression of the rock genre could be laid out on a linear graph, Swans represents the absolute furthest point from the origin. What makes Swans so special is their deconstruction of the rock genre, of all of its cliches and familiarities, and expanding the bare essentials to formidable lengths that it represents something lightyears beyond the "rock" label. As a classically trained musician, Swans in their current form (especially their live shows) take a lot of cues from 20th-century classical music, especially from Minimalism. While it may seem like a typical Swans song is simply one chord repeated for forty minutes, there is a very deliberate and articulate progression of layers added and subtracted all to create these monoliths of sounds. I did not appreciate the genius of Swans until I saw this performance which is why I would recommend catching them live while they're still touring!