The Swans are back on the road, their nomad shelter with people inside that fuels their creative energy like nothing else. Celebrating their new album, the 2023 tour is also a branding iron commemorating forty years of a vibrant, ground-breaking discography that holds multiple existences, a few burials and many sonic revolutions. Michael Gira might have made the Swans from one of his ribs: he has led the band intuitively, as he would his own flesh, repeatedly ending it then resurrecting it, as if he couldn’t but play god and stop what was born to be immortal. We saw them live in 2017, then the pandemic kept the majesty of Leaving Meaning – their magnificent 2019 release – away from the touring circuit, which is yet another reason not to miss this opportunity to stand before the Swans, and take in what they have to give.

Special opening guest Norman Westberg