Swans -To Be Kind - Available to pre-order

[doommeow]

You were at the show last night? Right on.

I had the inverse experience, finding myself conscious of how the "shorter" more traditionally structured song-like pieces hit me that much harder live. That whip snap neck breaking pummeling of the bass lines and puleo just don't come across the same way on record. But that can be said for most of the material.

Incredible band and just a monster live. And while it may not make sense to most people (my wife and assorted family members with whom I cut the weekend short to drive to CT), they make me fucking joyous during and after. Swans, getting back together and making such unparalleled music, is one of the wonders of our world.

[Eivind August]

Hah, think I might have to order tickets to the concert in Oslo after reading this thread.

[doommeow]

Hah, think I might have to order tickets to the concert in Oslo after reading this thread.

Do it. Do it NOW.

[Swordfishtrombone]

You were at the show last night? Right on.

I had the inverse experience, finding myself conscious of how the "shorter" more traditionally structured song-like pieces hit me that much harder live. That whip snap neck breaking pummeling of the bass lines and puleo just don't come across the same way on record. But that can be said for most of the material.

Incredible band and just a monster live. And while it may not make sense to most people (my wife and assorted family members with whom I cut the weekend short to drive to CT), they make me fucking joyous during and after. Swans, getting back together and making such unparalleled music, is one of the wonders of our world.

I was at Chicago gig on the 22nd of last month.

And the shorter songs definitely hit harder too live, but what I meant is that the longer pieces never really grasped me on studio stuff like they do live. I couldn't really get into their longer songs before, but live it's almost like they're like "Fuck you, you're gonna feel this and you're gonna like it too" with those ones. I agree about the rhythm section too. Especially on Chris' bass playing. I always respected everyone in their rhythm section, but being able to hear + see it in person really made it hit harder.

And yeah, only one of my friends likes them at all, and everyone else ranges from "some stuff seems okay" to thinking that they're totally unbearable. Definitely made my entire week when I saw them tho. Helps too that all of these guys that look scary in every way imaginable were ridiculously nice when I got to chat with them!

Hah, think I might have to order tickets to the concert in Oslo after reading this thread.

No, don't think, just do it!

[DarkAxel]

seeing them on monday for the first time

do they have the new vinyl re-release with them on the European tour? anyone know?
also what's the situation with t-shirts? I have a press pass, so i want to give back a little and support the band at least by buying merch

edit: stupid question, it comes out 28th, so i'll buy it afterwards

[DarkAxel]

OH GOD

Pharmakon was an EPIC support. Never heard of her, but damn, that was impressive... really cool sort of industrial drone/noise set if you don'T know... look her up.
The Swans show was pretty unbelievable. What fucked me up the most was the absolute loss of the sense of time. those 2h40m flew away in the weirdest way... Some observations:
Hahn is one creepy looking guy. Couldn't believe the grins when they were doing the intro with them slowly coming on stage. He was absolutely fantastic though
Pravdica is a bass MONSTER. Surprised to see such a huge setup with 810 and two GK heads (OUT OF WHICH ONE burned down) and a Mesa head with a 215 cab. The bass was pretty crushing aven when he played upper tones, which was most of the show but when he came down, it was making the whole place rumble and it made me feel pretty weird, almost as if I were to puke. Fantastic tone, too
Happy to see Norman Wesberg and his blackguard tele and tattoos live. However for some reason, he seemed to be the most alienated and almost confused

The really fucked up thing was their work with the songs. Everything had its time, everything was super slow. Which was amazing because when they played all of it much longer, every little change later on was very apparent. Never expected that the show would be like this. I mean you hear things, you hear it's loud and long and it really swallows you up, but when it started, I realized that it's something which can't really be described.
Oh and when I looked around... Some people really probably didn'T realize what they were getting into. A few people left, lots of them were confused. I do confess I had a hard time standing still, but that was my back-ache, I really enjoyed the show otherwise, but it was really... something else. Transcendental

Bought the Teeth tee and the My Father... vinyl never got around to meet Gira, the venue was pretty horribly overcrowded and after all the pummeling, I really wanted to get out, started to feel sort of claustrophobic.

[christianatl]

I've been listening to this on a loop since I got it.

Masters.

[Ugly Nora]

Seems excessive.

[Swordfishtrombone]

never got around to meet Gira, the venue was pretty horribly overcrowded and after all the pummeling, I really wanted to get out, started to feel sort of claustrophobic.

Yeah, I can understand that. First thing I did when they finished their set was head outside for a cigarette. I was cool with having a fuck ton of people surrounding me while they were onstage, but I had to step out for a few minutes.

I didn't really get a chance to chat with Gira or anything, but got to shake his hand and he said for me to give him the copy of My Father... that I bought so he could change the date. That was cool. Christoph, Thor, and Pravdica were really cool to chat with tho, so I'm glad that I decided to hang around.

Were you able to notice Pravdica constantly switching on/off pedals during the show? Even if it wasn't for his playing, I'd still be impressed by him having the coordination to actually be able to do bass lines + hitting pedals 5million times during a few of their songs!

[Swordfishtrombone]

Also, I dunno how you guys feel about Mark Lanegan, but he says in this interview that he loves To Be Kind. Was definitely surprised by that.

http://www.alternativenation.net/mark-l ... interview/

[DarkAxel]

never got around to meet Gira, the venue was pretty horribly overcrowded and after all the pummeling, I really wanted to get out, started to feel sort of claustrophobic.

Yeah, I can understand that. First thing I did when they finished their set was head outside for a cigarette. I was cool with having a fuck ton of people surrounding me while they were onstage, but I had to step out for a few minutes.

I didn't really get a chance to chat with Gira or anything, but got to shake his hand and he said for me to give him the copy of My Father... that I bought so he could change the date. That was cool. Christoph, Thor, and Pravdica were really cool to chat with tho, so I'm glad that I decided to hang around.

Were you able to notice Pravdica constantly switching on/off pedals during the show? Even if it wasn't for his playing, I'd still be impressed by him having the coordination to actually be able to do bass lines + hitting pedals 5million times during a few of their songs!

no, there was no space at the balcony where I'd see everything much better that's definitely cool though

[Swordfishtrombone]

Oh alright.

Shame about people not being into it and leaving tho. A few people stepped out during Xiu Xiu dude's set and ended up coming back and not even being able to see the stage when Swans were on. Glad you enjoyed the show tho!

[doommeow]

bumping this since I'm going to see them again on Friday.

Opener is Liturgy - worth showing up early to see?


Also love the the venue's website describes swans as "(Pop)"