Swans swings through KC, bringing back Michael Gira and blown-out eardrums

May 15, 2024

Andrew Dodderidge,

Swans. // photo by Andrew Dodderidge

Having recently seen Luca Guadagnino’s new film Challengers a couple weeks back, there is a moment where Zendaya asks Mike Faist if she is Jesus to him, while he quickly replies, without hesitation, “Yes.”

When Michael Gira told a young audience member who attempted to start moshing in the front row last Thursday during Swans’ two-and-a-half hour set at recordBar, the kid understood.

I watched this guy the rest of the set – probably a little more than an half an hour remained for the night – and his body language reminded me of an adolescent kid who was scolded by his father, but all in a loving way. Gira could’ve told the kid to “fuck off” and he likely would’ve left the venue, understanding his fuck-up and respecting the decision. You could say Gira is Jesus in the live setting.

56 minutes after beginning their lengthy gorge into whatever style Swans claim to be at this point, Gira’s first interaction with the audience came from “Put your phone away” to an audience member. Nothing. He said it again. Nothing again. He slowly shook his head and continued pounding away on his acoustic guitar on their new 76-minute rendition of “The Beggar”.

Yes, you read that right. The title track from their latest LP, released in 2023, is 10 minutes and 15 seconds, with murmurings on the Internet that they had extended it to a 30-minute version, something that Gira himself, now 70 years old, confirmed when I spoke to him last month, adding that the experiment is now completely different than the album version.

We were about an hour into the show when I thought to myself, “They’re just playing whatever and will not stop once for three hours”. I knew “The Hanging Man”, the hit from Leaving Meaning, was next up in the setlist, and had not heard a hint of the studio version being reimagined here, until 10:20 hit and “The Beggar” concluded to large applause and the six-person group (Gira, Kristof Hahn, Christopher Pravdica, Phil Puleo, Larry Mullins, Dana Schechter) all played the opening of that track for instant reminiscence, a rhythm that continues throughout the entirety of the 10-minute meditation.

Kristof Hahn. // photo by Andrew Dodderidge

Hahn opened the evening with a meditation of his own, an experimentation of his famed lap steel guitar, which lasted just about 30 minutes. Hard to say what to make of this. On the one hand, it pumped you up for things to come, but on the other, it simply felt like they needed to fill the beginning of the night with a “thing” and didn’t have another act ready to go and tour. But it was very cool to see him have the stage to himself and hear his emotions play out in real time.

Then came this from Gira:

“Can we get a little more light on the audience? …Not on me, on them.”

The stereotype of what Gira is and has been about slowly came to fruition, not even a minute into his presence on-stage. An hour later, he began to steadily slapping himself in the face with eight minutes remaining in “The Beggar” in an attempt to get through the rest of the track.

The big question mark regards the new songs. They have been playing five throughout most of their tour dates this year, but there were seemingly only three present on Thursday (who really knows what a song is to them, though).

The 19-minute “I Am a Tower” pummeled in first, a track where Phil Puleo has some fun on the tambourine, and even an incredibly loud melodica – loud meaning all six people surrounding me had their fingers plugged into their ears, and I’m assuming a few of them already had the premeditated earplugs in. Gira began jamming with Pravdica towards the latter half of the slow and steady instrumentation, which culminated with everyone crescendoing and having their part to play, as a lot of their music does.

“Away” came next, a six-minute cut that finds Pravdica switching over to some sound work. It’s a mid-tempo banger and it’s supposedly on the group’s next record, as will all of these new tracks, according to Gira’s announcement after the short one ended. “Birthing” followed after, which begins with Hahn and Schechter blaring out the sound speakers with their lap steels.

It’s around 29 minutes long – if indeed that last half hour was just one song – and doesn’t put it all together until close to the 12-minute mark. Gira’s wordless lyrics (or yelps?) were interrupted by the front row kid, who I think made his way up there close to the time that one began.

After chilling in the back for a solid few minutes, I kind of realized I was not going to be able to talk about the show without seeing what was going on, so I made progress down the left side of the crowd, around 10 rows back, with Hahn and Pravdica mostly out of the view throughout the performance. Schecter’s lap and bass work might have been the most surprising part of the evening – even with an instrument issue that resulted in their sound guy getting tape and her declining the upgrade – with Gira even looking back at her with a warm smile during a minute-long solo.

The full band explosion near 12 minutes in followed with Gira quietly plucking his guitar while Puleo did the same on his kit, resulting in everyone coming back in eventually, then just go fucking nuts after a long pause. I thought there was going to be another 30 minutes and was fully prepared to have to go to the bathroom to sit down because my earplugs were becoming ineffective.

But they said goodnight at 11:30 p.m., while Gira made his way to the merch table 15 minutes later to sign autographs.

What does one make of the new era of Swans? Jarboe is gone. Norman Westburg is gone. Thor Harris is gone. Four of their six members from The Seer and To Be Kind are still in the band, but the sound is completely different from their comeback material. Nearing another release from the late great cinema master Francis Ford Coppola at the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday, my thoughts on that are “Who cares how good it is?” I think those are my thoughts here, too.

Swans