Today,  Swans has confirmed their first North American tour in support of the highly-anticipated album, Birthing. The upcoming tour will be launching on September 4, in Philadelphia before visiting Dallas, Tucson, Denver, Chicago, Toronto, Boston and other cities. For tickets and more information, click here.

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, the band explored proto-industrial rock with Greed, atmospheric and martial elements on Children of God (1987,) which is an acoustic meditation on The Burning World (1989.)

With Grand and melody-dense sonic whirlwinds on 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 by shifting focus to Angels of Light and his Young God Records label, which fosters artists like Devendra Banhart and Akron/Family.

Swans Tour Dates

9/4 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
9/5 – Washington, DC – The Howard Theatre
9/6 – Norfolk, VA – The NorVa
9/9 – Dallas, TX – Granada Theater
9/10 – Austin, TX – Mohawk Austin
9/12 – Albuquerque, NM – Sunshine Theater
9/13 – Tucson, AZ – The Rialto Theatre
9/15 – 17 – Los Angeles, CA – Lodge Room
9/20 – 21 – San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
9/23 – Seattle, WA – The Neptune Theatre
9/24 – Portland, OR – Revolution Hall
9/27 – Denver, CO – Bluebird Theater
9/28 – Omaha, NE – Waiting Room Showroom
9/30 – Chicago, IL – Cabaret Metro
10/1 – Detroit, MI – The Magic Bag
10/3 – Toronto, ON – Phoenix Concert Theatre
10/4 – Montreal, QC – Théâtre National
10/6 – Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club
10/7 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat