Seminal avant-rock band SWANS will be touring the United States in April and May with dates in NYC, Los Angeles, and Nashville having already SOLD OUT.
SWANS launch their USA tour at the Howard Theatre in DC on Friday, April 12!
SWANS – UNITED STATES TOUR 2024 4/12 Washington, DC, Howard Theatre
4/13 Philadelphia,PA, Union Transfer
4/14 Richmond, VA, The Broadberry
4/16 Nashville, TN, Blue Room at Third Man SOLD OUT
4/18 Atlanta, GA, Variety Playhouse
4/20 Birmingham, AL, The Saturn
4/21 New Orleans, LA, The Civic Theatre
4/23 Houston, TX, White Oak Music Hall
4/24 San Antonio, TX, Paper Tiger
4/25 Albuquerque, NM, Sunshine Theater
4/27 Las Vegas, NV, Sick New World Festival
4/28 Los Angeles, CA, Lodge Room SOLD OUT
4/29 Los Angeles, CA, Lodge Room SOLD OUT
5/2 San Francisco, CA, Great American Music Hall
5/5 Salt Lake City, UT, Soundwell
5/7 Denver, CO, Gothic Theatre
5/9 Kansas City, MO, Record Bar
5/10 St. Louis, MO, Delmar Hall
5/11 Chicago, IL, Cabaret Metro
5/14 Boston, MA, Paradise
5/16 New York, NY, Racket
5/17 Brooklyn, NY, Music Hall of Williamsburg SOLD OUT
Praise for SWANS’ 2023 live shows
“A religious experience” – Everett True, live review for Classic Rock
“In my 16 or so years of watching live music, I’ve probably averaged over 50 acts each year. During that time I’ve seen jazz quartets, singer songwriters, metal bands, Afro-beat acts, superstar DJs, UK rap’s finest and some of the biggest artists in the world. However, I’ve never seen anything during that time that remotely compares to the experience of seeing Swans… Witnessing the famed avant-garde, experimental noise-manipulating band was as close to a cathartic experience from watching live music as one can get.” – Yorkshire Evening Post live review “At their best, Swans live shows are about as close to a religious experience as it gets outside of actual religious experiences, and I’m not even sure they’re not the same thing anyway. And this is definitely Swans at their best.” – Freq.org live review
“Needless to say, the entire audience was transfixed” – Bust magazine live review
The tour follows the release of Swans’ sixteenth studio album, The Beggar, out now on Mute / Young God Records (North America) on double vinyl in a brown chipboard sleeve (with a download card for accessing an additional 44 minutes of music, also included on the album’s CD version), as a double CD in a brown chipboard digi-pack, and digitally.
The Beggar was recorded and mixed at Candy Bomber Studio, Berlin, engineered by Ingo Krauss and mastered by Doug Henderson at Micro-Moose, Berlin. The album was written and produced by Michael Gira and features contributions from recent and former Swans, members of Angels of Light, as well as Guest Swan Ben Frost.
Stream The Beggar by SWANS on Spotify:
The touring line-up of SWANS comprises:
Michael Gira – Vocals, words, acoustic guitar, production. Gira started Swans in NYC in 1982 and has been the primary songwriter, singer and producer throughout the years. During the Swans hiatus (1999 – 2010), he released several albums by and toured with a group called Angels of Light. Gira recently published a book of his short stories, journals, and words for music, called The Knot.
Kristof Hahn – Lap steel, various guitars, vocals. Kristof first joined Swans in 1989 and was a principal contributor to Angels of Light, and a core Swans member 2010 – present. Kristof’s other musical ventures have included the Rock ‘n’ Roll Noir band Les Hommes Sauvages and Kool Kings (with Alex Chilton). When not making music Kristof translates books. He lives in Berlin, Germany.
Larry Mullins – Drums, vibes, orchestral percussion, Mellotron, various keyboards, backing vocals. Larry is a trained symphonic percussionist. He played through the ‘90s with Iggy Pop and later with The Stooges. He played with Swans in the late ‘90s and was a main contributor to Angels of Light. His current main job is playing drums with The Bad Seeds. Larry lives in Berlin, Germany.
Dana Schechter – Bass guitar, lap steel, keyboards, vocals, piano. Dana played bass in and was a core member of Angels of Light. She subsequently released music and toured as Bee and Flower. Her current band is the power-duo, Insect Ark. Dana is an animator and designer in the film industry and currently lives in Berlin, Germany.
Christopher Pravdica – Bass guitar, sounds, keyboards, vocals. Chris played bass as a core Swans member in 2010 – present2017. Chris has played with the bands, The Gunga Din, Flux Information Sciences, Xiu Xiu, Yonatan Gat, Medicine Singers and has a project of his own called We Owe. Chris is a sound designer and lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Phil Puleo – Drums, percussion, vocals, piano, exotic wind instruments. Phil played drums with Swans in the late ‘90s and was a core member in Swans 2010 – 2017 and contributed to Angels of Light. Phil’s early NYC musical venture was Cop Shoot Cop and has since played with Human Impact, among others. Phil is an extremely talented illustrator and lives in Chicago, IL.
Michael Gira founded the groundbreaking NYC band Swans in 1982. Initially notorious for their relentless, brutal, high-volume onslaughts of sound, the extreme, abject imagery of Gira’s lyrics and his thundering vocals, Swans would undergo a series of startling transformation over the next 15 years. Following the punishing Filth and Cop albums, the ensemble would venture into harshly mechanical proto-industrial rock of their Greed period, then both haunted atmospheric idylls and martial stomps on 1987’s landmark Children of God double album. They’d conjure gentler acoustic-based meditations on The Burning World (1989), then after relocating to Atlanta grand, melody-dense sonic whirlwinds of the White Light from the Mouth of Infinity (1991) and Love of Life (1993) era, becoming more dissonant and sharp-edged with The Great Annihilator (1994). Finally, the ultimate statement of that epoch of Swans, Soundtracks For The Blind (1996), incorporated all of these elements across well over two hours of music. At this point, Gira called it quits after 15 years of non-stop recording and touring, disbanding the group. For the next 13 years, he’d make a long series of acclaimed albums and perform live extensively with a revolving roster of musicians under the name Angels Of Light. Gira also discovered, produced and released albums by other musicians through his label Young God Records. He cultivated such talents as Devendra Banhart and Akron/Family among others, the original figures of the late 00’s Avant-folk movement.
In 2010, he reactivated Swans, releasing the studio album My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky to ecstatic critical response and touring the world for the better part of a year. The Seer, a triple album studio set, came out in 2012 and was celebrated by another lengthy world tour eliciting more media praise and album sales that landed The Seer on Billboard’s Top 200. Swans’ next release, To Be Kind (another triple vinyl) debuted at #36 on Billboard’s Top 200 Sales Chart and #5 on their Independent Sales Chart. The group sold out 47 concert dates in their subsequent touring including selling out two-night stands in cities including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Paris, as well as single shows in London, Berlin and Rome. The album garnered enormous praise from the press, and the two-hour long album stream was premiered by NPR. The Glowing Man (2017) (also triple vinyl) was the last studio release by this incarnation of Swans. With 2019’s Leaving Meaning, the 15th studio album, Gira returned to working with a fluid supporting cast of musicians once again.
Praise for The Beggar
“…dark and unsettling, purifying and beautiful” – The Guardian 4/5* review of The Beggar
“…delivers a ritualistic euphoria” – Uncut 8/10*
“…uncompromising and brilliant” – MOJO 4/5*
“…beautifully heavy” – The Guardian Saturday Magazine
“a gargantuan demonstration of just how far Swans have come and how huge they’ve become” – Classic Rock 8/10*
“This keenness not to stand still artistically has remained a constant throughout Swans’ history, and so it is no surprise that there is plenty that is new and interesting on The Beggar.” – The Arts Desk Disc of the Day
Swans
W/ Kristof Hahn
Howard Theatre
Friday, April 12
Doors @ 7pm
$35/$50
All ages