Showing posts with label swans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label swans. Show all posts
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Just Announced: Swans


After playing one of the most blistering shows that the Tralf has held in some time, the long time post-punk outfit Swans is set to return to the downtown Buffalo venue on Saturday, July 5th. Led my Michael Gira, the band is set to release the follow up to 2012's critically claimed album The Seer on May 13th, a double album titled To Be Kind. You can listen to To Be Kind's first leaked song, "A Little God in My Hands," below. Tickets will go on sale this Friday, March 28th, at noon for $15 in advance/$18 day of.



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buffaBLOG's Best of 2013: Staff Picks - Favorite Shows Part 1


Editor's Note: As part of our best of 2013 coverage, we asked our staff to write about their favorite live shows of 2013. Shows did not have to take place in Buffalo to be included on this list. Part 2, posted on Dec 5th, can be read here.


Ailsa Forlenza
Jeff Mangum @ Babeville in Buffalo, NY, January 19th

Me: Who is that homeless looking man, with the beard? The one who came through?
Friend: Oh, who knows? Look!
Jeff Mangum walks by, with a puppy. We ogle and try to pet puppy. He pulls away and gives a dirty look.
Other friend: That was Jeff Mangum, guys.

Besides being thoroughly humiliated and probably ruining Jeff Mangum’s mood for the next twenty minutes after that, this show was incredible. Babeville is the perfect venue to house this legend, especially in the upstairs church level. That space is made for aching vocals to soar and pinch every part of you. “My Dream Girl Don’t Exist” blew my brains out. I left reborn.

Jaz Fraizer
Well Worn Boot @ Nietzsche's in Buffalo, NY, July 20th

The first time I saw Well Worn Boot at Nietzsche’s, I felt like I was peeking into someone’s kinky bedroom. That’s probably the best description I can attribute to these guys (I’m super proud of that, by the way). The crowd was thick, with plenty of people to mosh against. And was there ever moshing.


Cliff Parks
Phoenix @ Grove Music Festival in Toronto, ON, August 3rd

I really wanted to go with Wild Nothing with Lesionread at the Tralf but I couldn't deny that for the duration of Phoenix's hour long headlining set I jumped around with insane, reckless abandon as they tore through a set that weaved together nuggets from across their career into a satisfying musical movement with wit, interludes, and dramatic crescendos. Nobody held anything back: the band was energetic and generous and the crowd responded in kind, and it was a joyous and wonderful experience that bordered on being out of body. I'd waited years to see Phoenix and they were gloriously, magnificently worth the wait.


Nick Torsell
Actress @ The Orange Peel in Asheville, NC, October 26th

Actress’ music reminds me of fragile light, the type that seeps in through blinds when it’s overcast. The light is fragile and porous, barely illuminating what’s inside the room. Occasionally, the sun peeks out and it illuminates the contents of the space in golden relief, only to lose it when the sun’s rays weaken. If you were at the Orange Peel the week before Halloween, you got a glimpse of the tall, thin producer as he stepped onstage to smoky red stage light, settling in behind a minimal set-up, only to see him disappear soon after as the lights went off, the only thing visible now an opaque half-eaten apple branding his laptop. I’d be hard pressed to tell you exactly what he played, instead of recreating full tracks live, he was disassembling bits and pieces of material from three albums as well as the yet to be released Ghettoville, in order to put them back together again in new ways. It’s difficult for me to call it dance music, but when the drum machines and sonic flourishes would lock together to approach melody, you could feel the crowd exhale and begin to loosen, and then shifting their concentration from the head to the body. More than any other show this year, it played with my notion of the artist and the audience, the expectation versus the reality.


John Hugar
Blondie/X @ The Rapids Theater in Niagara Falls, NY, September 6th

A killer combo of one of LA's legendary punk bands, and one of the leaders of the CBGB's scene in New York, any fan of old school punk lost their mind at this show. X came out first and brought and blew through an energetic set of classics like "Johnny Hit & Run Paulene," "The New World," and "Los Angeles." John Doe and Exene Cervenka proved they're still the most dynamic duo and punk, while Billy Zoom's rockabilly-influenced guitar stylings are as thrillng as ever. Then Blondie took the stage, with Debbie Harry showed that at 68, she's as fabulous as ever. After opening with "One Way Or Another," Blondie played many of their huge hits, like "Call Me," "The Tide Is High," and "Rapture." A particular high point of the set was an emotional rendition of Ellie Goulding's "Lights." When Blondie finally ended the night with their 1979 single "Dreaming," everyone's feet were tired from a night of relentless dancing. This was an amazing show that two of the best bands from punk's early days are as strong as ever.


Steven Gordon
Swans @ The Tralf in Buffalo, NY, July 26th

Not sure if I should call Swans' appearance at the Tralf a show, or an art installation. The loose change in my pocket, the drink in my my hand, and my own central nervous system were all violently wiggling from the ridiculously loud, bass and drum heavy proto-post-rock pioneers. I mean, I'm art-damaged and intentionally-into Noise, but these fellas' onslaught of atypical, anti-cathartic song structure and brutal decibel assault definitely made me want to spray barf or at least run outside for like a thousand cigarettes, but like in a good way. Ish. One of the most challenging demonstrations of art I'm likely to've ever encountered. And I was deaf for days.

Travis Kowalski
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis @ First Niagara Center in Buffalo, NY, November 9th

It was just a few weeks ago the the 'Heist World Tour' featuring Macklemore & Ryan Lewis stopped in Buffalo to perform arguably some of this year's most listened jams. Admittedly, I am not their biggest fan nor was I a huge follower of the openings acts Talib Kweli and Big K.R.I.T., however, the dynamic energy at their show closed a chapter for the many great concerts I have seen this year, making it my personal favorite of 2013. Nothing brings family and friends closer than being arm to arm in a pit, which is why the gig at the First Niagara Center holds a special weight, as it was the first time all of my brothers have been able to attend a concert together.

The hip-hop duo performed their hits "Thrift Shop," "Can't Hold Us," and "White Walls," but they also surprised fans with a guest appearance by UK singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran during the performance of "Same Love." Even more compelling was how Macklemore delivered mini speeches about his personal struggles with alcohol and marijuana in between some songs. Whereas some rappers neglect current social issues for talk about "big booty hoes" or "bad bitches," the legitimacy in his lyrics end up putting him a step above currently unpurposed rappers like 2 Chainz. 

 My overall impression was that the show was high powered and executed excellently with a wide array of song diversity, somewhat ample security, given the amount of people, and constantly filled with energy through a surprise guest appearances making it the perfect transition into the end of the year holiday season.
Ryan Wolf
Josh Ritter @ Asbury Hall in Buffalo, NY, April 13th
Although Josh Ritter’s performance was not flashy or intense or avant-garde, it was pure. Never have I seen a musician so happy to be on stage, sharing his music others. The man had just gone through a divorce (and written an album about it), but there was nothing in his act to suggest bitterness. If anything, Ritter was full of raw joy, unable to conceal his smile during even the most serious songs. If only we all could love our professions that much.

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Concert Review: Swans


As The Tralf slowly filled up Friday night for Swans' final show of an extensive North American tour, the swelling suspension of hushed bar-bellying chitchat would eventually prove to be the augmented antipode to the sonic gut-check we were all about to endure. It’s as if we were all about to lose our virginity over and over again. My ears had mused of this event hundreds of times before. Noticing the dark bouquet of instruments and amplifiers all seamlessly arranged and woven into the notoriously superb sound system that is Tralf Music Hall built plenty of anticipation for the show, but knowing that these apparatus were poised by the hands of Michael Gira and company to emit frequencies that would make my ears sore for days was another prodigious unreality altogether. Swans have been known to play anywhere from two to three hour sets, but their sound checks are often much longer.

As I made my lone beer purchase of the night, the heart-stopping screech-pulse of Pharmakon promptly switched on, and suddenly the place evaporated. Hovering over various effects pedals and under a red, Lynchian glow, 22-year-old Margaret Chardiet blew our minds, in what was her fifth and last show opening for Swans. As she clutched the microphone with both hands, Chardiet’s white blond hair formed an agitated veil against her face. Hunched over and spewing abrasive vocals into the mic, she hopped off stage and sifted through the audience as she sang “Ache,” a menacingly numb track off her debut LP Abandon, released by Sacred Bones earlier this year. Pharmakon played the entire four-track album and bolted behind the curtain as if she was never there. I wiped a bead of sweat from my forehead as the club continued to inflate.

Gira came out with his accompanying quintet of close-knit musicians and politely and directly asked anyone seated to get up and come as close to the stage as possible, especially if we “wanted to hear it.” Hear it? Hearing Swans was never an issue at any point during the night, on the contrary, ear plugs were probably in order, as the reconstituted noise-rock giants put on the most intense sonic performance I have ever witnessed. From Gira’s phantasmic dance orchestration, to his animated portrayals and vocal crumblings, the band embarked on a performance that was both brutal and perennial in all of its molasses-textured scope. 

While many of the songs played were new and are set to be recorded for a forthcoming 2014 release, Swans have essentially been taking the best music they’ve made of their careers in last year’s LP, The Seer, and only slightly reinventing it every night. Gira’s vision is specific, he's not about improvisation. Instead, he is constantly shaping every malleable part as a blacksmith, bludgeoning every component toward the inevitably sharp whole, and as a result, the live experience is far less simulated, and somehow more mobilized than the studio record. It’s a sweltering game of Marco Polo. It’s studious and cryptic. It’s meticulously sexual.

Between repetitious walls of guitar and cymbal clash, mystical clarinet and horns, teeth-gritting bass lines, and climaxes of charisma from Gira, Swans were primed from start to finish.  From the very opening hymn and new song “To Be Kind,” which prematurely blew out an amp or two (such is virginity), to the final blunder of instrumental floodgates within the 32-minute epic “The Seer” and finale “Toussaint Louverture song,” the show was increasingly topographical and as endurance-based as scaling a mountain. There was never a moment where you didn’t understand the trajectory of the set, and there was never a moment when time was completely measurable either (it clocked in at around two hours). It was like the Tralf sunk into a temporary wrinkle in the skin of the universe; our fate wasn’t completely certain until Gira and his men took one another’s hands and bowed to an eruption of applause, as he closed the show with one last offer to hear him: “If any of you want to talk or hang out afterward, I’ll be at the table in the back...” 
Tom Dennis
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Tonight: Swans


So, Swans are a thing – perhaps one of the most pivotal players in the early 80s burgeoning post-punk movement, when post-punk itself wasn't sure if it wanted to sound Weird or Dark, or Pretty or Ugly. Elements of proto-grunge, krautrock, noise, prog, hardcore, and goth all coagulated into a surprisingly pop, albeit pomo-pop, whole. An early iteration of the group featured Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, but it's always been performance-art-damaged frontman Michael Gira that's been in charge of the band's wall of urgently directionless, no-wave noise, up until they disbanded in the 90s. Swans reformed a few years ago, to the bemused chagrin of many in the artrock community, and they'll be doing a show at the Tralf tonight. The band hasn't missed a beat in their hiatus, though New Swans eschews some of deathrock edginess of their early stuff for the sake of symphonic, cacophonous post-rock, but I really have no idea what to expect. Whether it ends up being harshly beautiful, or beautifully harsh, you'll kick yourself if you miss it and all your friends are bemusedly deaf tomorrow.


steve gordon
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Album Review: Swans - The Seer


Swans have had quite the career since forming in New York City in 1982 and they remain one of the few bands that rose out of the No Wave movement that is still in existence.  Throughout their tenure the only constant, for the most part, has been Michael Gira and his combination of post-punk, industrial and experimental elements has never been compromised or changed to fit a certain time period’s tastes.  Regardless of what they’re up to at any given moment it’s always a good bet that a Swans record will fuck with your head in a big way.  The Seer is Gira’s second LP since reforming the band in 2010 and as usual the outlook is bleak.  Coming in around two hours in length it’s a behemoth, and were it not for the slick songwriting skill that’s on display it would be a lot to get through.

The Seer makes good use of many drone elements, and the duration of some of the songs, the title track in particular, bears this out.  This glut of ideas isn’t a surprise from a project that has roots some three decades old, and Gira said of this record that it took ’30 years to make.  It’s the culmination of every previous Swans album as well as any other music I’ve ever made’.  That’s a bold statement and most musicians would be hard pressed to condense so much work into a single coherent album, but The Seer proves that it is possible.  The dark forces start pulsing on opening track ‘Lunacy’ and they don’t stop until all 23-minutes of ‘The Apostate’ have finished.

As has always been typical of Swans there is never a shortage of unique instrumentation, and here you’ll be treated to everything from bells to accordion.  The acoustic nature of much of the album only adds to the menace.  ‘The Seer’ in particular is a 32-minute drone/desert-rock journey that moves in some unsettling directions.  Shorter songs like ’93 Ave. B Blues’ and ‘Song For A Warrior’, which features Karen O, are able to pack the dark psychedelic punch of their longer counterparts while delivering more immediate satisfaction.   

The moments when The Seer is most enjoyable come when Gira & Co. truly let loose, and the shimmering spectral lines of ‘A Piece Of The Sky’ and ‘Lunacy’ are easily memorable and even easier to return to.

A record like this makes it obvious how a band can stick around in some form or another for 30 years.  If this is truly supposed to act like a retrospective then Swans and their 58 year-old leader have a very bright future ahead of them, even if they are making some of the most devastating music around.  Other artists are mining the same dark corners as Michael Gira, but none of them can come close devouring their listeners with such an original sound.  The Seer is quickly one of the most unique statements of 2012.

Grade: A   


Steve Dobek

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