SWANS – live at Vulkan Arena, November 2025
- Posted on 20-11-2025
Full photo gallery:
Photos: Jonathan Mazin
Text: Andrea Chirulescu
Few hours before the concert in Oslo, a work colleague asked what kind of concert I’m going to and I ‘uhmmmm’ed several times and realized I have no clue. I have seen Swans before and, despite the band members being the same, the outcome felt different each time. Intense, but different. So I said ‘you’ll know afterwards’ and thus this review is hopefully helping work colleagues understand why someone wants to attend a SWANS concert.
But before the sextet and Michael Gira took the stage, we were literally warmed up by the Canadian artist Jessica Moss. She has nicely decorated her many-pedals setup with christmasy lights and she had a very heartwarming opening message, in which she encouraged us to realize how lucky we are that we are in a safe space, able to watch music we like, without any threats. And that we can’t all be free until we are all free. Her soft voice made the words have an even bigger impact and she did get a big round of applause, prior to the crowd going almost fully silent during her concept show “Feeling Love In A Melting World”. She explained that it is a personal journey and she was just offering the soundtrack for it, mainly through her violin and voice, but also her skilled loop recording and playing, pedal effects, volume changes, bells – bigger or small -, humming and more that I can’t recall. I did feel very touched by the whole atmosphere, and I spent most of the concert having my eyes closed. Sadly, some mouthbreathers in the audience believed the silent event was meant for them to be able to have a dialogue. They got shushed eventually and lowered the voice, but didn’t get the part that they disturb other people. To each its own I guess. Anyway, kudos to how nicely Jessica put together about 30 minutes of guiding music, I would say. IT took you anywhere you wanted it to. And yes, we are really lucky to have the luxury to experience that and be able to leave all our worries at the door. A big part of them being pseudo worries of an absurd world.
A rather quick changeover and a bit of waiting time while listening to interesting tunes and then we have the seven SWANS members taking over the stage. Michael Gira sits (stands quite often as well) in the middle, with his guitar. To his left we have Norman Westberg on guitar and Christopher Pravdica on bass, backed by Phil Puleo behind the drumkit. The other side of the stage has Kristof Hahn and his lap steel guitar, Dana Schechter, on a second lap steel and bass (she switches the instruments between songs) and multi instrumentalist Larry Mullins who looks like an octopus handling all his keyboards and Mellotron, extra drums (toms) and maybe some backing vocals. I know I have heard a second voice at times, but I was too busy moving my body/headbanging so I didn’t really get to see who was singing. But none of the other performers seemed to.
I felt the need to look up everyone’s names and list them as they are such a fine blend of musicians, who have been playing together for quite a while now and have developed those extra senses on how to go wild together. At the end of the say, Swans’ music is wild, it’s like the soundtrack of an animalic ritual. But transferring this energy to the live arrangements it’s quite extraordinary, for me at least. And managing to deliver and keep things up at close to perfection level for songs that end up lasting half an hour, that’s surely an extra skill and level of passion. The band only performed 5 songs. For about two and a half hours. No projections, to band logo, no nothing. Just the bunch of them, their instruments and the leadership of M. Gira – who actually started the evening by asking us not to use the mobiles (not that everyone bothered to heed his request). Michael Gira always seem to need a bit more intensity and to want everyone to go wilder and wilder with each beat of the music. When he doesn’t play the obsessive guitar rhythms, he stands up, dances, directs his bandmates or the crowd. And, despite the music levels being decently loud, I think he asked for them to be increased even more.
If you ever want to allow music to put you into a trance, go see Swans live. I found it impossible to just stand and watch. I HAD to move and headbang and move my body wildly back and forth. While the beginning of the songs (or well, the beginning of certain chapter of the songs) would have some soft, crazy repeating slow rhythms, they were all ending up in insane fast beats and at the moments when I decided to see how the other people in the audience react, I noticed that a lot of them had the same urge to just go wild and let the body be part of this crazy ritual. The concert started with an obsessive single note guitar plucking by mr Gira. And then continued for 30 mins with the intro song “The End of Forgetting”. And probably everyone was in awe by the time the obsessive note returned and also wondered how do the hands of the musicians still stay attached to their bodies, given the length/speed/intensity at which they performed for some good minutes in a row. The only indication of the stress on the body was then the bass player had to shake his hands during the short breaks.
I was so loving what was happening on the stage. All my senses got such a royal treatment. I even considered paying money for a hotel so I wouldn’t have to leave early and miss half of the show. Sadly, the second alternative won. But even 100 minutes of SWANS live were enough to remind me how amazing they are on stage and to, once again, be grateful I have the luxury to attend such an event. To be able to both go wild, but also take some breaks and watch how musicians interact on stage, pay attention to each other and somehow find the smooth flow of crazy and soft and make the natural transition, all seven at once. Going from full scale apocalypse soundtrack to a soothing guitar lullaby. Absolutely brilliant.
The band must be drained at the end of their tour so who knows if and when there’ll be more chances to catch them live again, as I believe this is their farewell tour. But for now, if you are closeby and can attend, do yourself a favor and go to the concert. It’s different and very recharging.