Swans
Support: Okkyung Lee
Date: Sunday July 10th, 2016
Venue: the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto, Ontario
T-shirt worn: Harms Way “Rust” (Nirvana “Bleach” design)
I didn’t think twice about buying a ticket to see this when it went on sale in April. A month later Harms Way announced a show happening on the same night and I was a little pissed. Never do two bands I want to see play on the same night. I debated for weeks selling my Swans ticket to go to see Harms Way instead. They (Harms Way) were one of the best bands I saw last year. But then I kept remembering that Swans were the best band I saw last year. So I tried to see if I could swing seeing both shows since Harms Way were going on relatively early at their show.
I had to drive like a maniac from the Harms Way show across town to make it in time for this one. I missed opener Okkyung Lee but the prospect of an Asian girl doing improvisational avant-guard music solo on a cello didn’t really appeal to me. Last year Xylouris White opened for them and if you’d have told me before that show that I’d end up loving a Greek folk band I’d have called you crazy. Maybe I’d have loved Okkyung Lee too. But I’d rather have seen Harms Way.
I got to the venue probably two minutes after Swans had started. I was a little pissed off because I didn’t want to miss ANYTHING but I remembered last year their set started with five minutes of heavy gong rumble, then that plus cymbal crashing for five minutes, then that plus slide guitar mayhem for five minutes, then the rest of the band came out and they joined in. This time was a little different though. I think the whole band came out together. Or maybe they didn’t. I’ll never know. I walked in to some beautiful, soothing angelic drone. Probably some of the best angelic drone I’ve heard in my life. So I was fine. That slowly played for quite a while but it didn’t matter to me. That could have been their set. After that it was chaos and beauty very similar to what I experienced last year but all totally new. I did recognize the Cloud of Forgetting and the Cloud of Unknowing from that show but I haven’t heard those songs since that show so it all seemed new to me. One positive was last time they played a couple shorter songs I didn’t care for. This time they only played one shorter song (the second song Screen Shot) and I didn’t mind it as much. Honestly, this was probably even better than when I saw them last year. The only bad thing was the venue turned the lights on right at 11 o’clock as they were playing the ending to the Glowing Man. That was a dick move on the part of the Danforth Music Hall. I think Swans would’ve played longer if they could. I know on other shows from this tour they played seven songs (a song called Amnesia is being played between the Cloud of Forgetting and the Cloud of Unknowing). But it is what it is. This is definitely going to be in my top ten performances of the year.
Swans (courtesy setlist.fm)
1. ? (possibly No Words, No Thoughts but it was almost thirty-eight minutes and even the guy on setlist.fm wasn’t sure what it all was)
2. Screen Shot
3. The Cloud of Forgetting
4. The Cloud of Unknowing
5. Some Things We Do/the World Looks Black
6. The Glowing Man
So for once in my life it all worked out for me. I’ve never done anything that crazy. I’ve seen concerts then gone to work afterwards drenched in sweat but never have I gone to two concerts five miles across the city through city streets with less than twenty minutes to spare. I actually got really lucky. There was no traffic and I was able to park next to both venues.
This is my finest chapter. The final deletion is complete.
This closes a whirlwind of concerts for me. I’ve been to a concert every weekend since the weekend of May 20th. On some weekends two. Ten concerts in the past eight weekends, plus wrestling last night. I think I’m ready for a break from shows. My next one isn’t for a month now.
___________________________________________________________
Follow up:
I have since bought almost every Swans album. The only ones that have really impressed me are the post-2010 reunion ones. All the others have songs here and there. But this show kicked off the "summer of Swans".
Support: Okkyung Lee
Date: Sunday July 10th, 2016
Venue: the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto, Ontario
T-shirt worn: Harms Way “Rust” (Nirvana “Bleach” design)
I didn’t think twice about buying a ticket to see this when it went on sale in April. A month later Harms Way announced a show happening on the same night and I was a little pissed. Never do two bands I want to see play on the same night. I debated for weeks selling my Swans ticket to go to see Harms Way instead. They (Harms Way) were one of the best bands I saw last year. But then I kept remembering that Swans were the best band I saw last year. So I tried to see if I could swing seeing both shows since Harms Way were going on relatively early at their show.
I had to drive like a maniac from the Harms Way show across town to make it in time for this one. I missed opener Okkyung Lee but the prospect of an Asian girl doing improvisational avant-guard music solo on a cello didn’t really appeal to me. Last year Xylouris White opened for them and if you’d have told me before that show that I’d end up loving a Greek folk band I’d have called you crazy. Maybe I’d have loved Okkyung Lee too. But I’d rather have seen Harms Way.
I got to the venue probably two minutes after Swans had started. I was a little pissed off because I didn’t want to miss ANYTHING but I remembered last year their set started with five minutes of heavy gong rumble, then that plus cymbal crashing for five minutes, then that plus slide guitar mayhem for five minutes, then the rest of the band came out and they joined in. This time was a little different though. I think the whole band came out together. Or maybe they didn’t. I’ll never know. I walked in to some beautiful, soothing angelic drone. Probably some of the best angelic drone I’ve heard in my life. So I was fine. That slowly played for quite a while but it didn’t matter to me. That could have been their set. After that it was chaos and beauty very similar to what I experienced last year but all totally new. I did recognize the Cloud of Forgetting and the Cloud of Unknowing from that show but I haven’t heard those songs since that show so it all seemed new to me. One positive was last time they played a couple shorter songs I didn’t care for. This time they only played one shorter song (the second song Screen Shot) and I didn’t mind it as much. Honestly, this was probably even better than when I saw them last year. The only bad thing was the venue turned the lights on right at 11 o’clock as they were playing the ending to the Glowing Man. That was a dick move on the part of the Danforth Music Hall. I think Swans would’ve played longer if they could. I know on other shows from this tour they played seven songs (a song called Amnesia is being played between the Cloud of Forgetting and the Cloud of Unknowing). But it is what it is. This is definitely going to be in my top ten performances of the year.
Swans (courtesy setlist.fm)
1. ? (possibly No Words, No Thoughts but it was almost thirty-eight minutes and even the guy on setlist.fm wasn’t sure what it all was)
2. Screen Shot
3. The Cloud of Forgetting
4. The Cloud of Unknowing
5. Some Things We Do/the World Looks Black
6. The Glowing Man
So for once in my life it all worked out for me. I’ve never done anything that crazy. I’ve seen concerts then gone to work afterwards drenched in sweat but never have I gone to two concerts five miles across the city through city streets with less than twenty minutes to spare. I actually got really lucky. There was no traffic and I was able to park next to both venues.
This is my finest chapter. The final deletion is complete.
This closes a whirlwind of concerts for me. I’ve been to a concert every weekend since the weekend of May 20th. On some weekends two. Ten concerts in the past eight weekends, plus wrestling last night. I think I’m ready for a break from shows. My next one isn’t for a month now.
___________________________________________________________
Follow up:
I have since bought almost every Swans album. The only ones that have really impressed me are the post-2010 reunion ones. All the others have songs here and there. But this show kicked off the "summer of Swans".
Do you like old people porn? Because I just put enough to fill an old folks home in the wrestling section!