Swans -- The Seer

And a friend of mine wrote a good review of the show, too: http://blogs.metropulse.com/the_daily_pulse/2012/10/concert-review-swans-at-the-va.html

It's fitting that so much of the music from the show felt like the grand finale for most other bands; Swans' music sounds like the last music in the world, as if whatever ambitions and anxieties first stirred the human heart to make music had been satisfied.

i've posted this a couple of places but i've got a free +1 for the swans show at the metro in chicago tonight if anyone wants it

bonus you get to hang with je55e and me

I'm on the fence about going tonight. Want to see them, but sort of know what I'm going to get, which makes seeing them almost superfluous.

That's like saying I don't want to read Moby Dick because I already have a good idea of what happens in it.

I'm insulted. You have no idea what to expect from Je55e, n/a, and me.

I ended up taking the train up to Milwaukee for the show there last month. So good. Will be there tonight as well. Josh you're nuts if you miss them, you sort of *don't* know what you are going to get. The songs are in there but what they're doing now feels close to free-flowing rock improv (the live album from the My Father tour is ample evidence. I fully expect the show tonight to differ from the one I saw last month (just as the two My Father shows I caught were significantly different)

Best live band going today, no question

Love this band, Rob, but I can't swing a weeknight endurance test. I'd be the only guy lost in the maelstrom distracted by the fact that I have to volunteer in my daughter's class the next morning.

I guess if you gotta have a kid... Inconsiderate of them to schedule volunteer time after Swans concert night.

Totally. I'd take my kid outta that school if I were you, Josh.

I had to leave during the end of what I thought was the last song, but please tell me they didn't play Mother of the World after I left.

There was a time I was a much better sport about this sort of thing. Like, hey, if Gira is willing to put in the work, then I am willing to stand alongside him! But of course, Gira is getting paid, doesn't operate on a weeknight to weekend schedule and gets to sleep in the next day, too. I don't, at least never on the latter point. I was asleep well before he would have hit the midpoint of his set.

Also: I totally would have considered going were there not a fucking opener. And Stormy, had I known you were going I would have let you come along with me as my +1 (which obviously I did not use)!

I'm going to work this morning. Just sayin.

(but I don't have kids, and I consider kids/kid a valid excuse)

You also didn't stay to the end! ;) For all you know that might have been 30 minutes of assaulting noise you missed.

i know, and i'm sorry. i'll be even sorrier when i hear what i missed.

i left even earlier than la lechera due to being lame and old. it was a great show but i'm not used to wearing earplugs at shows. they have a sick rhythm section.

Have they been playing Mother of the World on other tour dates? I was looking forward to that and I didn't hear it, unless they played some totally unrecognizable version of it that sounded nothing like the original (and therefore was not the same song). I love the opening part and also the IN AND OUT AND IN AND OUT

AGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN

part

i don't really know their back catalog at all so i didn't recognize anything other than when gira was singing the lyrics to the seer (but the music sounded pretty different). i know he said one song was new and incomplete (i think that's the one where it looked like he was getting pissed off at thor for not understanding his conductor gestures). but looking up the lyrics now i think my favorite of the night was "coward."

Have they been playing Mother of the World on other tour dates?

set list for upcoming tour(s)... will be over 2 hrs music, i presume:
1. to be kind (unrecorded new song)
2. she loves us (unrecorded new song)
3. avatar (from the seer)
4. coward (from swans, '85/'86)
5. the seer (from the seer)
6. nathalie (unrecorded new song)
7. apostate (from the seer)
8. mother of the world (from the seer - encore song, if called for...)

Sorry. :(

Who knows, maybe it wasn't called for!

Love the multiple meanings of "if called for."

oh that is such sad news
i had based like 3/4 of my excitement on hearing that song, they knew it, and i have been punished. i accept that. won't do it again.

i'll take my lumps. but i did have a good morning class today so i can't really complain about the way things turned out.

not to add even more bad news, but word on the streets is that not only did Swans play Mother of the World, but they rocked harder than they have ever rocked before

:(

Z S is a dick

ahahahaha i'm sorry that was a jk!

and actually, they might not even have played it. at least in DC, they didn't do an encore at all!

i like the feelings of regret and guilt that accompany this thread. appropriate somehow!

Pretty sure Apostate was the last song in SF.

Yeah, they didn't play "Mother of the World" last night, "The Apostate" was the last song. Show ended at around 12:15, so about exactly two hours.

Josh you had a valid excuse! (and thanks for the theoretical +1 but I had already bought an advance ticket a couple weeks back)y

Oh! Thank you! That's actually a bit of a relief.
Was it just me, or were the lights excessively bright in there? I felt like that was interfering with the show. Also the added fact that they did not play the song I wanted to hear on this particular tour.

yeah swans is not a guaranteed encore, totally depends on gira's mood and the crowd. he prolly saw everybody leaving and was like "screw this no mother of the world for you"

and I love y'all but you sound like a bunch of lamers? I guess my perspective is kind of skewed from years of warehouse shows ending at 2 or 3 in the morning. a friend on fb was recently lamenting about deer tick going on at 11pm on a weeknight, maybe bands should be offering some kind of early bird special...

that varies so much by city and weekday!

i want michael gira to call me a lamer

I'm a lamer
put yr knife in me
THUD THUD THUD

that would be amazing

laaaaaamer
laaaaaaaaaaaamer
*gasp for breath*
laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamer
laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamer
*gasp for breath*
LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMER!!!
LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMER!!!!!
LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMER!!!!!!!!!!
LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*auxiliary percussionist/caveman beats the shit out of gongs*

Edward III otm

LaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAmer
chug chug chug-a chug chug
chug chug chug-a chug chug
LaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAmer
chug chug chug-a chug chug
chug chug chug-a chug chug

(repeat until the lamer begs for forgiveness)

you fucking earlybirds make me sick

the daughter brings the coffee

half asleep life

white light from the mouth of insomnia

soundtracks for the lame

dry eyes
red with fear
insomnia
white light is here
the lamer has arrived
the lamer has my eye
the lamer has arrived
the lamer's in my eye

laaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMER
laaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMER

michael gira is a p groovy guy on stage, his goofy handflapping made the show for me. also he & the band stood & absorbed applause for like a full-five minutes after the set, people were pouring out of the venue but you could tell those who were still applauding were like "how much longer are we going to have to do this for?" but he just kept waving it in demanding more & more lol

... it looked like he was getting pissed off at thor for not understanding his conductor gestures

this ruled

http://thequietus.com/articles/10654-michael-gira-swans-bakers-dozen-favourite-albums

^ Gira's pick of his favourite albums (usual click-thru shenanigans I'm afraid). Nothing all that surprising there but he mentions the Stooges 'We Will Fall' by name and duh, OF COURSE! Why have I never noticed the similarity between that and the Swans before?

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/krakow81/8191238369/"; title="Swans at the Arches, Glasgow by Crimson Glow Photography, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8203/8191238369_af0ebe2397_z.jpg"; width="640" height="427" alt="Swans at the Arches, Glasgow"></a>

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8203/8191238369_af0ebe2397_z.jpg
Swans at the Arches, Glasgow by Crimson Glow Photography, on Flickr