Live Review: SWANS at Electric Brixton 2025
A night of industrial psychedelia and profound meaning
No other band has managed to hold the breath of an entire venue in their hands until the night of the third gig of SWANS in London, marking the end of this iteration of the band. We all participated in a 2½ hr long meditative, industrial, psychedelic, emotional confession. Some of us did not leave our houses with any such expectation or desire…and yet this is exactly what happened to us because this band, with its powerful maestro, instigator, and Seer, managed to get through all of our defences to achieve an unforgettable result.
Jessica Moss — the opening meditation
It was the first time I was enjoying the music of Jessica Moss live. With an ethereal and 
discreet stage appearance full of positive messages urging everyone to acknowledge the importance of our freedom to be in this venue and share the music, Jessica filled the space with hypnotising loops, moments of brilliance from the sound of bells, and almost imperceptible vocals.
With a Palestinian scarf draping over her violin case, her presence and set gave off a reassuring and calming energy. Hers was a short and sweet set of around 30', but its calming vibrance was matched by SWANS at the beginning of their own set.
SWANS — The band that morphs each piece of music into a sentient being
This was the third time in the last 15 years that I was enjoying SWANS live,having also attended two solo gigs by Michael Gira at the Barbican and The Troxy more recently.
I can say with some admiration for the sound engineers that the sound during this gig was stellar and, because there are skilled technicians like the ones working on this gig, we should all be more demanding about the quality of sound we are offered in other venues.
For 2½ hrs, SWANS created a sonic bubble of smaller interconnected fragile bubbles – it might seemingly feel as if it was divided into 5 different tracks, but this is a band that practically denounces the traditional structure of songs in favour of energy distortions.We were immersed in an industrial symphony of lengthy, slow, repetitive mantras full of hypnotic, almost dreamy, elements, as well as their noisier, faster, heavier, tribal counterparts.
With no real beginning and end between the different tracks (only between the different parts within each track), this set was the sonic equivalent of everything around us and the acknowledgment that reality has multiple instances, much like this band!
Seven musicians on stage
gave everything they had, while Michael Gira was often facing them to signal the beginning and end of each sequence of sounds and the energy alterations that followed, before turning to us for emotional outbursts and connection through movement and vocals. 
The vocals throughout the gig were coming to the fore, sometimes as aesthetic dividers and at other times serving as points of rupture from the previous part of the track – sometimes like a protest and other times signalling the beginning of a ritual.
After two lengthy, dreamy, emotionally levelling instrumental parts, 'The End of Forgetting'made some people around me visibly emotional. 
The lyrics came in just after the psychedelic ending of the first instrumental part, where each instrument was pushed to its limit, and the sound levels had risen to almost dangerous levels. The delivery of the lyrics did not follow one style, neither within this track nor at any other point throughout the gig. Michael disrupted his own performance with decisive, loud vocals which introduced the last section of this song.All of these 
alterations were happening a few minutes apart, but were very subtle; the alterations of the noise levels were also equally subtle and gradual. I found myself admiring how each track evolved from the moment it started until the end.
It is important to stress that SWANS is a band that constantly reinvents itself, has built an incredibly solid fanbase across generations throughout the years, and continues to inspire young people to discover heavy, experimental sound. 
The audience at this gig was quite young and dedicated,and fully respected the band’s request not to use their mobile phones. It was also remarkable that no sound was made at all in the very few instances when the band was not making any sound on stage. It is because of the young age of the audience 
that there was a spontaneous and honest response from the crowd to Michael's impromptu dancing and especially his ceremonial gestures later on during the gig. We have not seen that being achieved in any of the other gigs of SWANS we have attended.
'The Merge',–with its lengthy tribal percussive introduction – saw Michael stand up to offer a ritual dance, at first with his back towards us as he was guiding the musicians and setting this part of the track in motion,
and then activating us, his commanding figure and free hand gesturing seemingly to make sure that the energy field remained disturbed for as long as the band was on stage and whatever spirits had been summoned remained engaged.
This tribal dance released its energy by giving way to a slower, almost liturgical chant, which resulted in angry roaring, an increase of energy and noise, psychedelic movement, and the summoning of darker forces before the circle of energy returned to the beginning.
A band of many circles, each having a multi-instrumentalist at its centre
It was at the end of this song that Michael introduced the band of multi-instrumentalists as follows: Kristof Hahn as 'the giant',
Dana Shechter as a 'gargantuan mountain flower',Larry Mullins as 'the stalker of Tennessee woods', Phil Puleo as a 'mathematical genius', Christopher Pravdica as 'this man who has committed despicable acts of violence', Norman Westberg as
'the glorious Swedish King of Detroit' and himself as 'Twiggy'. A rare moment of humour, together with the moment where he said "I was going to say something vile now, but I am reminded that we are in the UK and I will get arrested" – despite a few tentative encouragements,we never learned
what Michael wanted to say at this point. Of all the musicians, it was only Dana who changed her position, giving off Joan Jett vibes in an all-leather outfit.
The acoustic guitar was often raised like a fist, prompting cheers from the audience, but the 'hunger' for more psychedelia was palpable.The beginning of 'Paradise is Mine' offered an otherworldly and haunting combination 
of dulcimer-induced melodies with Michael’s own distorted vocals that made him sound like a spiritual leader of a tribe in an isolated part of the world. His ability to change the delivery of the lyrics and his own pitch, delivering higher notes and angrily coarser, almost possessed sounds and mutterings, before offering howls, was awe-inspiring and obviously aimed at reaching beyond humanity's borders. 
He absolutely captivated every breathing organism inside the venue. We never even realised how the dulcimer gradually gave way to percussion and ethereal sounds, and how then these sounds became hard rock syncopated noise containers.
The repetitive rhythm that was built was further disturbed after 10′ with vibrating guitar riffs while the drums stubbornly held the tempo – echoing the conceptual aim of this song which was to create an emotional arrest that had no precedent.
"To begin, to unfurl, to create a new world in the gash, in the break, in this place, you animate" (lyrics: 'Paradise Is Mine')
The setlist only went to 2014 with the inclusion of 'A Little God In My Hands' and the most intense, energy-sharing long ritual with the audience before closing this gig, offering the best performance of 'Newly Sentient Being' of this tour.Starting again with the summoning energy of the dulcimer, the song felt like the container of the whole career of SWANS so far.
The second half of this track had a moment of brilliance when the snare drums created a brief echoing effect, which managed to make everyone around me audibly hold their breath and shake their heads in respect.I have NEVER experienced anything like this before and will never forget it.
And the track kept on giving, because we have not really been given any hint of the blues in the sound of this band…and yet the decisive appearance of the harmonica in the hands of the Seer towards the very end of this song almost brought tears to my eyes and extended an invisible connecting line with music and melodies that are very rarely allowed to creep in to the SWANS.
"All that’s there, then gone And is never truly seen All these countless points of lights Now hypnotising in the screen" (lyrics: 'Newly Sentient Being')
Michael Gira, you have made the audience in this country break its own emotional barrier! With the hypnotising sound of these few harmonica notes and your captivating whistling in our hearts, we will carry on with our mundane lives, as will you, our Seer. Until next time...thank you!
You can view more photos from this gig here.
Blaue Rosen 
