Swans, who recently announced their seventeenth studio album, Birthing, arriving May 30 via Young God Records/Mute, have confirmed their first North American tour in support of the highly-anticipated release, launching on Sept. 4 in Philadelphia.
Tickets are on-sale this Friday, March 21, at 10 a.m. local time. Little Annie & Paul Wallfisch open. Ticketing links are available via the Young God Records website (younggodrecords.com).
Swans North American tour dates:
September 4 Philadelphia, PA Union Transfer
September 5 Washington, DC The Howard Theatre
September 6 Norfolk, VA The NorVa
September 9 Dallas, TX Granada Theater
September 10 Austin, TX Mohawk Austin
September 12 Albuquerque, NM Sunshine Theater
September 13 Tucson, AZ The Rialto Theatre
September 15 Los Angeles, CA Lodge Room
September 16 Los Angeles, CA Lodge Room
September 17 Los Angeles, CA Lodge Room
September 20 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall
September 21 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall
September 23 Seattle, WA The Neptune Theatre
September 24 Portland, OR Revolution Hall
September 27 Denver, CO Bluebird Theater
September 28 Omaha, NE Waiting Room Showroom
September 30 Chicago, IL Cabaret Metro
October 1 Detroit, MI The Magic Bag
October 3 Toronto, ON Phoenix Concert Theatre
October 4 Montreal, QC Théâtre National
October 6 Boston, MA Paradise Rock Club
October 7 Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Steel
Prior to the Swans tour, Michael Gira embarks on a solo European run, joined by Kristof Hahn for the 12- date outing, which also includes a performance at Roadburn. Tickets are on-sale now.
April 9 Prague, CZ Meet Factory
April 10 Linz, AT Grüner Anker
April 12 Trieste, IT Teatro Miela
April 13 Milan, IT Spazio Teatro 89
April 15 Brussels, BE Ancient Belgique
April 17 London, UK EartH
April 18 Paris, FR Café de la Danse
April 20 Tilburg, NL Roadburn Festival
April 21 Cologne, DE Helios 37
April 23 Leipzig, DE Heilandskirche
April 25 Warsaw, PL Palladium April 27 Berlin, DE Heimathafen Neukölln
A preview of Birthing, produced by Gira and recorded at Soundfabrik Berlin, can be heard via the recently released song, “I Am A Tower.”
Gira shared insight into the new album, as well as insight into the future of Swans:
“The material contained in this album was largely developed over the course of a yearlong Swans tour, during 2023 – 2024 (‘The Healers,’ ‘I Am a Tower,’ ‘Birthing,’ ‘Guardian Spirit,’ ‘Rope,’ and ‘Away’), then recorded and further orchestrated and rearranged in the studio. Two pieces were created and performed in the studio (‘Red Yellow,’ ‘The Merge’).
In all cases the material began with me sitting in my office with an acoustic guitar, singing and dreaming about what would become of these skeletal songs. I’m blessed to have such a stellar group of musicians to work with live, and through improvisation, endless revisions and an intensity of focus in performance (not to mention endurance), over the course of time the music morphed into what you generally hear on this collection.
This album, coupled with the recent live release, Live Rope, constitutes my final foray (as producer / impresario) into the all-consuming sound worlds that have been my obsession for years. We’ll do a final tour in this mode towards the end of 2025, then that’s it.
After that, Swans will continue, so long as I’m able, but in a significantly pared down form. Hints of that direction can be found in a few moments on the current album. In the meantime, my hope is that the music provides a positive and fertile atmosphere in which to dream.”Birthing pre-orders (https://younggodrecords.com/collections/frontpage/products/birthing-preorder) are available now, with the album available on triple vinyl (in a brown chipboard sleeve), double CD (in a brown chipboard digipak), and digital formats. Initial pressings of the triple vinyl and CD editions include a bonus DVD featuring “Swans Live 2024 (Rope) The Beggar,” a concert film directed by Marco Porsia from the last Swans U.S. tour, plus Christopher Nicholson’s documentary on Gira’s 2022 solo tour, entitled “I Wonder If I’m Singing What You’re Thinking Me To Sing.”
Michael Gira founded Swans in 1982. Initially known for their brutal, high-volume onslaughts of sound and the extreme, abject imagery of Gira’s lyrics and his thundering vocals, Swans underwent a series of startling transformations over the next 15 years. After early punishing albums like Filth and Cop, they explored proto-industrial rock with Greed, atmospheric and martial elements on Children of God (1987), acoustic meditations on The Burning World (1989), and grand, melody-dense sonic whirlwinds with White Light from the Mouth of Infinity (1991) and Love of Life (1993), before becoming more dissonant and sharp-edged with The Great Annihilator (1994). Finally, the ultimate statement of that epoch of Swans, Soundtracks for the Blind, combined all of these elements across well over two hours of music. Gira disbanded the group, shifting focus to Angels of Light and his Young God Records label, fostering artists like Devendra Banhart and Akron/Family. In 2010, he revived Swans with My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky to ecstatic critical response followed by The Seer (2012) and To Be Kind (2014), with both earning critical and commercial success, leading to sold-out tours and multiple Billboard chart placements. The Glowing Man (2017) marked the end of that Swans incarnation, with Leaving Meaning (2019) and The Beggar (2023) continuing Gira’s work with an evolving lineup.
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