Swans + Norman Westberg @ Conservatorio, Milano, 11/11/2023

It’s been a while since I limed the ground of Milano’s Conservatory. Ten years ago I was attending at some classical concert, and now it’s the time for Michael Gira’s legendary band Swans. On the strenght of a new album, The Beggar (Young God Records, 2023) that was acclaimed by the press as one of the most intriguing albums this year, the band is touring extensively through Europe.

In fact after the Covid pandemic and the erasing of a tour voices were circulating of a tired Michael Gira, and as it seemed to a lot of critics his last album is a reflection on the themes of becoming old and of being tired after a life spent always on the edge. Plus, I’ve read anticipations online talking about an acoustic concert, and I was very curious. But again: nothing more far from the truth. Gira and Co. played a huge electrified set yesterday night. But let’s start from the Beginning.

Norman Westberg appeared on every Swans’ album from their debut Filth until 1991’s White Light from the Mouth of Infinity. Tonight he opens with a set for electric guitars and various electronic devices. At the beginning you think this is blues for the new millennium, with Westberg as the Ry Cooder of No Wave, but after a while you find he’s unbearably near the New Age, with no attention to the dynamics of sound, a little bit flat – volume is at mid level for all of the performance – and with no will to scratch over the surface.

Things go differently, after a quick stage change, with Gira and his band. In fact I’ve been invested by one of the huge sounds I’ve ever met. Only Keiji Haino was so assertive as far as volume, many years ago in Reggio Emilia. After the concert my ears are ringing a little again this morning while writing, and this is the sign of a band who is giving itself completely: people, down from the steps of the theatre, enjoyed the night and the informality Gira invited everyone to reach.

In line with musicians / conductors such as Prince, Miles Davis or John Zorn, Gira was giving instructions to the band with his hands and his body, as to where to reach pitches and maintaining the volume high, as to intersperse the sound with meaningful silences, as to increase or decrease the sound volume. This theatrical aspect added drama to a music that is still theatrical in its being ritualistic.

If I have to move a criticism, the only thing I’d say is that, as it happened many years ago when I attended to a concert of Jarboe, Gira’s lost half of Swans, I felt that something was missing. I can’t tell exactly what, but something were lacking last night. Maybe the music was too perfect, with no other space but for a single Gira’s scream during the tour de force of an aptly stretched I’ll Forever Love You that pierced the band wall of sound.

I mourned myself so, for not having see previous live shows of the band, just to have a term of comparison. Obviously the amount of sound was a spiritual attempt to wake up people but also a protection from the outside world that incorporated its dangers in itself, but this ambiguity haven’t been managed properly, maybe. But don’t mind about me ruminating too much on what I’ve heard.

Swans are far from being historicized. They are one of the most important current bands you’ll ever come across during these years. Years in which we are standing for our necessary incomes and a little bit of love while the rest of the world is burning around us for the wars and the global warming. Music can be both a protection but, as every protection, also a container for our anguishes and fears. And this is the lesson we listeners took with us at the end of the night.