Swans
The Button Factory
Thursday, August 15th
Desmond Traynor
The venue is thronged
for this Swans show, a band whose reputation, more so than most live acts,
precedes them. That’s a renown for punishingly loud, confrontational sets,
where pure sound noise displaces any hint of melody. My highest strength
ear-defenders are in place. Of course, Swans – or rather main man Michael Gira
and the current incarnation of his project, a line-up which is proving
increasingly durable – have mutated over the years from their origins in the
late ’70s New York No Wave scene. Although songs are still lengthy, loud, and
full of reverb and sculpted feedback, they have evolved to the extent where
their music could now be described as often hitting the sweet spot where Delta
(or Chicago) Blues meets Thrash (or Doom) Metal. However, in the experimental
avant garde noise stakes, they can still make Sonic Youth sound like One
Direction.
It can be difficult to write a traditional
review of a Swans gig, as it’s often hard to discern what tune they are
performing at any given time. This is because songs are apt to change a lot in
the live context from the blueprint of the recorded album version. Plus, they
tend to insert a plethora of unreleased material at will.
Gira and Co. kick of with a new song which
has apparently become a recent live staple, ‘To Be Kind’, which sounds like
medieval monks doing Gregorian chant over fuss pedal drone. It sets the tone
for the evening, which comprises variations on much stuff from 2012’s excellent
The Seer album. Gira frequently
functions as Conductor, a lightening rod for the band’s intensity; but at the
same time, this group of musicians is very much a solid unit, playing off each
other, with an almost intuitive feel for the improvisational directions any
given piece can take. They are all alert to their surroundings, their attention
staying focussed at every given moment to possibilities thrown out by any
individual member. Gira undoubtedly looks the part, whether it’s when laying
into his battered black Gibson 335, or standing guitarless in more typical frontman
mode, his sweat-drenched black shirt making him resemble a mutant scion of
Johnny Cash.
They climax with The Seer’s ‘Toussaint Louverture Song’, about the 18th
century Haitian revolutionary. There’s no encore, but at over two hours at this
pitch, there’s hardly any need for one. It certainly ranks in the top three
shows I’ve seen all year thus far. In a word: visceral.
Also available at http://www.state.ie/live-reviews/swans-dublin
No pics, sorry, forgot my iPhone at home.
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