The second best thing Michael Gira ever did was to found the legendary New York noise band Swans, in the early eighties. The best thing he did was to resurrect the band in 2010. Their most recent album, My Father Will Guide My up a Rope to the Sky, sounds like a combination of all the best things, both insanely aggressive and gracefully melodic, that Swans have ever done. And hopes for the following release (The Seer, projected for August) are high.
After visiting two stunning Swans concerts in Utrecht (October 2010) and Amsterdam (July 2011), we took the chance to see Michael Gira performing solo on April 10th. The venue was Paradiso's Kleine Zaal, notorious for its appalling acoustics, although the sound wasn't too bad this time. Incredibly, it looked like the concert wasn't even sold out. One wonders why. The problem certainly wasn't in Gira's acoustic set, which was very strong indeed. We even saw Mr. Gira smile once or twice (albeit wryly), a rare occurrence indeed.
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Apologies, both to any readers and to Messrs. Gira and Hahn, for the quality of the pictures, it was the best I could do, considering that they're shot with a cellphone... For good measure, I'll throw in a Youtube link to Gira's rendition of Oxygen, shot by someone else (thank you). It gives a good impression of the atmosphere and intensity of the concert.
