In Concert : SWANS, Québec, Le Cercle, July 9

On a rainy Saturday night in July that looked like what we would usually call Fall in Québec, Swans was headlining  a show at one of the best and most intimate venues in the city; Le Cercle. Along about a hundred fans the place was not packed but still got ambiance.

The band got on the stage and played an ‘’Intro’’ song of forty minutes of pure genius syncopated experimental rock. As a second song and after a signal by the crowd that we welcomed Michael Gira and his band mates correctly, Swans started ‘’Screen Shot’’ from the album To Be Kind and by the reaction of my peers I knew that it was one of their biggest hits.

By that time, everybody present could tell that Swans is the heaviest act to ever have faced the Earth. After the superb ‘’Intro’’ and the aforementioned ‘’Screen Shot’’ the band played the first song, ‘’Cloud of Forgetting’’, of their newest and what Michael Gira calls Swans’ final chapter the album The Glowing Man. The evening was mostly dedicated to the presentation of this chapter and Swans performed three more songs from that record with a much appreciated stop to Love of Life’s ’’Amnesia’’ of 1992.

Gira didn’t loose time at speaking between songs or explaining lyrics or anything except stating that he is not fond of AC and asked for the people of the venue to turn it off because it ruins his voice.

It was a memorable evening especially with the thought that it might be the final tour of this incarnation of Swans. When someone starts reading and learning about musical influences, Swans might be the closest to be one of the most important figures in underground Metal and Rock.