To be honest, this time last year, I was not consciously aware of Swans, or even that the band even actually existed. How I had missed a bandthat has been going since 1982, is anyone's guess, but I had. My attention was drawn to them by Stuart Maconie on his 6 Music Freakzoneshow when he played Lunacy from The Seer, featuring as it turns out, Mimi Parker from Low.
So having bought ‘The Seer’ and this years follow up ‘To Be Kind’, I couldn't pass up the chance to see them live in Leeds at a packed out Cockpit.
Thor Harris, one of the bands 2 percussionists, took to the stage first without fuss or ceremony and started hammering away on a gong then symbols creating a crashing spiralling wall of sound to which the rest of the band joined him after about 10 minutes. Then the guitars kicked in.....the last time I had been exposed to this volume, I was walking along Heathrow's perimeter road while Concorde was taking off. The Cockpit is squeezed under the arches near Leeds train station and the room is narrow and thin with an arched roof. There was nowhere for the sound to go! This first "song" was a 30 minute epic, seemingly called Frankie M. A new song ? Seemed strange to open the set with something new, so soon after the latest LP was released but, what a start.
Michael Gira then spoke to the crowd for the first time by asking whether we had been to church today....."we are now" shouted someone...
They then launched into A Little God In My Hands from the new album and we were immersed into another brutal hypnotic drone. The assault on the senses was almost euphoric; the bass was vibrating the bones and the vocals were even actually hurting the eardrums at times, but it felt like we were hypnotised and unable to resist.
The lights focused on the stage then decided to give up and they went through the rest of the gig with dim lighting from the sidelights. This didn't matter. It almost added to the atmosphere of some sort of out of body experience.
I've no idea what the next few tracks were but they did end with 35 minute epic Bring The Sun from the new album, ‘To Be Kind’. The first 5 minutes are a repeating crunching chord over crashing drums. Fantastic.
So a nearly 2 hour and (only!) 6 song assault came to an end, band and crowd absolutely spent. I was soaked in sweat, could barely hear a thing and had adrenaline pulsing through my veins that actually made sleeping difficult. What a night. What a gig. Never seen and felt and heard anything quite like it, and even though my ears are still ringing 24 hours on, I'd see them again tomorrow.
Keith @kjsmith4082
