Concert: Swans

Swans at the Feierwerk in Munich: I can only begin with saying that there is (or ever was) no other band like the Swans! I've seen them since their reunion for the third time now (and twice in the 80s), same town, same place, and every time audience attendance had doubled. This time the concert was probably sold out. Pharmakon was the perfect support, and the Swans began quite punctually with the already classic slow build-up of a song: first percussion, then the other musicians joining in and presenting their monumental wall of noise. The concert was 2 hours and 40 minutes of tonal assault, and I counted six songs (another critic mentioned there were seven). Swans' music has over the decades deconstructed the elements of rock music and pieced them back together again to a symphonic sound all their own. I realized - sandwiched within the audience - that it was best experienced with your eyes closed. This way you could ignore your surroundings and take in the whole wall of mayhem - and enjoy it. There was no encore, but that wasn't necessary, since the whole performance was in itself of one piece. Why stick something onto that? And next time around: I'll be there!