Swans
White Oak Music Hall
April 24, 2024

If there's a shortlist of artists who should compose the soundtrack to the apocalypse (and there really should be), Swans would be near the top. The avant garde ensemble created by Michael Gira in 1982 has, like just about any band of that era, gone through numerous lineup changes and sonic overhauls, though never straying from Gira's confrontational vision.

Swans' latest is The Beggar, which Gira wrote during COVID lockdown, and it's just as claustrophobic and unnerving as that implies. Having said that, it's a different animal than the noisecore and industrial efforts that catapulted Swans into contention as one of the loudest bands on Earth.

Last night at White Oak Music Hall, Gira and Swans certainly made their case for that. They also emphatically demonstrated just how little they care about making the audience comfortable.

If — as someone once said — James McMurtry was the soundtrack to the end of the American Dream, then Swans are what will accompany the end of the world. It's music to make you uneasy, yes, but Gira takes it beyond that. A Swans show is a crescendo of doom, only not a fun one like that Avalon Hill game.

Gira also doesn't like you filming his show, and the 70-year old gestured multiple times at people in the audience to knock it off. Surprisingly (or not, the frontman doesn't exactly suffer fools), most people complied, as those surreptitiously filming found themselves slinking to the back of the venue.

A Swans show is memorable for several reasons. Most obviously, it's punishingly loud. I've been attending concerts since the mid-'80s, and last night was the first time I've ever worn earplugs (this isn't a boast, I'm just an idiot). I assume there were folks in attendance who weren't (and Gira was one of them), and I don't know how they did it without their teeth shattering in their skull, THX style.

Related to that, a Swans gig is one of the only shows where you'll find it easier to move to the front of the venue as it progresses. I'll admit, the exodus wasn't as big as I expected, with most people at least giving the 20-minute "Intro" a chance before making their way to the rear (or the exits). And that song had more fakeout endings than Return of the King.

It's music designed to make you uneasy. "The Beggar," their second song (and the only one from that eponymous latest release), encompasses the spectrum of Swans in itself, an exercise in dirge-like lament that builds to a relentless pulsation that's — dare I say? — melodic.
You can't accuse Gira of getting soft in his old age, but latter-day Swans (as opposed to pre-first breakup Swans) definitely toy more with traditional song structure than in the days of Filth and Cop. Even so, last night was a sonic assault that refused to visit less punishing efforts like The Burning World or The Great Annihilator.

Newer songs like "The Hanging Man," with its ominous allusions to creeping fascism, are as chilling as anything the band's ever done. While "Red Yellow" and closer "Birthing" were apparently written for the tour, and it's almost...upbeat?

This iteration of Swans — Gira, Kristof Hahn (guitar, lap steel), Dana Schechter (bass, lap steel, keyboards), Larry Mullins (percussion, keyboards), Phil Puleo (percussion), Chris Pravdica (bass) — still generate a stunning amount of noise. Especially for a group that looks like they should be working at your local Soundwaves.

At the center is Gira, summoning his fellow bandmates to even greater sonic extremes, like a ponytailed Chernabog. It's hard to believe a band like Swans still exists in an era where corporations control virtually every aspect of the live music experience.


What About The Opener? Is it cheating to have the opening act be an actual member of the headliner? Kristof Hahn has been playing for Swans since 1989, but his own songs are less drone and more actively nightmarish, his "I come in peace" notwithstanding. The sonic wall of his opening number was what the soundtrack to the vortex sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey would've sounded like if Stuart Gordon wrote the screenplay.

Personal Bias: Swans have always been on my list of "need to go" shows. Glad I made it, not sure I need to do it again.

The Crowd: Local chapter meeting for Tinnitus Anonymous.

Overheard [Outside The Venue]:
JESS: Do you have a camera?
ME: No.
JESS: Then why did they give you a media wristband?
ME: I'm reviewing the show.
JESS: Who do you write for?
ME: The Houston Press.
JESS: They still review shows? What's your name?
ME: Pete Vonder Haar.
JESS: Are you that guy that hates everything?
ME: No. You must be thinking of the other person there with my last name.

Seriously, big thanks to Jess at WOMH for giving me earplugs when I realized I'd left mine in my car.

Random Notebook Dump: "Hope nobody's here on a first date."

SET LIST
Intro
The Beggar
The Hanging Man
I Am A Tower
Guardian Spirit
Away
Red Yellow
Birthing