Swans have announced the final dates of the long-running experimental rock pioneers’ current incarnation.
Four UK dates are included, including a show at London’s Roundhouse which is to feature special guests The Thurston Moore Band and Little Annie. On the Roundhouse show Swans mainman Michael Gira says “This one is especially meaningful to me personally – first time sharing a stage with Thurston and a band (we did play solo together last year) in something like 34 years. Really happy he’s doing this!”
On the ending of this period of the band, Gira says “The past seven years of my life have been the most productive and fulfilling of my career. It’s not my place to draw qualitative distinctions between the previous and current periods, and I wouldn’t presume any expertise in doing so, but from a personal perspective, this time period has been the most consistently engaging and even enthralling in my recollection. I thank here Norman Westberg, Christoph Hahn, Thor Harris, Phil Puleo, Christopher Pravdica and our most recent convert, Paul Wallfisch, for their commitment to ecstasy and their sheer stamina in this marathon adventure. Much love to these intrepid explorers of sonic truth! May God snatch us all by his teeth and fling us out over his shoulder into the great black beyond, where we will spin slowly and infinitely through space with an ever-nascent smile emerging on our face.
… and what’s next? Musically, I have no clear idea, and don’t really want one at this juncture. I seem to have the sound of a sustained chord in my mind – not the striking of the chord, but what hangs in the air after as it dissipates, and what surrounds it, and I look forward to filling that out, traveling there. I will continue to use the name Swans, but will revert to a cast of revolving contributors, drawing on a pool of men and women I’ve worked with along the way (and new ones too)… In addition to new music, I’ll be working on making sure the Swans catalog is all reissued properly and stays in print in the best possible form and packaging (which is just as important to me as the music itself)”
The Swans dates are as follows:
24 May – UK Birmingham, The Asylum
25 May – BE Zottegam, Dunk!Festival
26 May – UK Bristol, Trinity Community Arts
27 May – UK London, Roundhouse
28 May – UK Manchester, Victoria Warehouse*
30 May – IR Dublin, Button Factory*
June
2 June – ES Barcelona, Primavera Sound Festival*
3 June – DE Moers, Moers Festival*
5 June – FR Biarritz, Atabal*
6 June – FR Angoulême, La Nef*
7 June – FR Rouen, Le 106*
9 June – PT Porto, NOS Primavera Sound Festival*
*with Little Annie
August
2 Aug – IT Milan, Magnolia Club Outside Concert**
6 Aug – PL Katowice, Off! Festival**
10 Aug – CZ Jaromer, Brutal Assault Festival**
20 Aug – US Las Vegas NV, Psycho Las Vegas Festival**
22 Aug – US San Francisco CA, Independent**
25 Aug – US Seattle WA, The Neptune**
26 Aug – CA Vancouver BC, Venue**
27 Aug – US Portland OR, Revolution Hall**
** with Okkyung Lee
October
4 Oct – FR Lorienr, Le Manège***
5 Oct – FR Bordeaux, Rock School Barbey***
19 Oct – CH Winterthur, Salzhaus***
21 Oct – CH Fribourg, Fri-SON***
22 Oct – DE Heidelberg, Halle 02***
24 Oct – DE Dresden, Beatpol***
25 Oct – DE Leipzig, Conne Island***
26 Oct – DE Berlin, Berghain***
28 Oct – DE Bremen, Lagerhouse***
*** with Baby Dee
November
2 Nov – US Brooklyn NY, Warsaw (w Carla Bozulich)
3 Nov – US Brooklyn NY, Warsaw (w Anna von Hausswolff)
4 Nov – US Brooklyn NY, Warsaw (w ADULT.)
