Swans @ Brooklyn Steel, Brooklyn, NY 10/7/25

 

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Bill: Swans/Little Annie & Paul Wallfisch

Venue: Brooklyn Steel, 319 Frost St., Brooklyn, NY

Date: 10/7/25

Door: $40 (had a free +1)

8:30pm Swans

Active: 1982 (New York, NY)

Latest Release: Birthing (Young God, 2025)

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Missed: Little Annie & Paul Wallfisch

Michael Gira requested at the start of the show to refrain from cell phone use during the performance, so in the spirit of that, I didn't get any photos or clips.  I'm sure somebody will put something up down the road.  I went with a pro photographer and got her plus one which meant we got to hang in the upper area that was roped off.  She got her photos up front in the prescribed 30-minute allotted time and I "held" a spot in the front of the section.  I thought maybe being up in back might save my ears, but no Swans are still fuckin loud, and my ears are still a little shot this morning although not as shot as they used to be in the 80's after a show.

Birthing, the new Swans album is a double CD/3 record set, in keeping with their recent work.  Since everything is around a half hour long and I hadn't heard the album yet, I would've guessed that was the feature of the show, but looking at the 6 song setlist, it looks like they spread the wealth from releases over the past decade where the brunt of this lineup (at least bass player Christopher Pravdica, keyboardist and occasional bassist Dana Schecter, multi-instrumentalist Larry Mullins and drummer Phil Puleo) have started closer to this current 15 year era of the band.  Guitarist Norman Westberg was there from the start except the last album, but he is back.  Kristof Hahn on lap steel has been involved since the late 80's.  First and foremost, this is Michael Gira's baby, but he keeps a consistent cast of characters in and out over the years.  It takes a village for this sort of Birthing.

Anyway, Swans in 2025 is much like Swans in 2015 and not much like Swans in 1991 or Swans in the 80's.  You are going to get your wall; you are going to get Gira hand undulations if he isn't sitting down in front with an acoustic guitar.   This is dense work with many components to listen to.  As the years pile up, so does the recorded output.  At some point I gave up trying to know it all, now in some ways it is too late to go back, or it will be all encompassing.  I'll check the band out at least once locally every 2-3 years or so and listen to one of their long form albums casually on my own timeline.  Better to just focus on one thing like Birthing because it is the new one and roughly three hours long.  Listening to it now makes for a totally different, varied experience that gets lost in the live wall whether the tracks are performed or not.  

Even though the topic of phone non-use is mundane, it implies that you are going to have to meditate and immerse yourself in the wall.  Distractions will come, like the overhead fan in the video below, but it helps if the distractions aren't bright squares.

FOR FURTHER REVIEW:

Norman Westberg @ Sleepwalk 2/10/25

The Whimbrels @ Mama Tried 10/5/24