Next week, I’m seeing the band Swans perform live

Next week, I’m seeing the band Swans perform live. I remember once telling myself and my future self, carving in stone that I’d never do such a thing, as I had a lot of consideration for my hearing and Swans was one of the world’s loudest bands live.

I had made myself a similar promise - although less definitive - about the band “of Montreal” after surmising on their themes and theatrics. As it turned out, I grew to like “of Montreal” more and more over time, and I eventually resolved to go see them live. It was one of the best concerts I had ever been to.

Following that logic, why wouldn’t Swans’ show be just as - if not massively more - memorable? Well, their notorious loudness seemed to be the only thing standing in the way of a sensuous and sensible experience, so I figured I’d simply sidestep the issue by buying suited earplugs. The ones I was usually wearing reduced the sound by 16dB and had proved staunch enough an ally to have resisted every assault until then, bar one: “Total Warr”, the opening act for Pond. That foray of theirs incited me to buy more powerful earplugs for Swans, especially seeing as their set would last two hours.

Since I’m not one for doing things half-heartedly, I bought three new pairs online (there were initially supposed to be four), each with a different noise reduction level… and got scammed with nearly all of them. The first one was protected only slightly more than my current one. It bore the mark ER20, so I assumed the noise reduction would amount to 20dB, just like every other earplugs I’d seen with this inscription… Except this pair turned out to reduce sound by 18dB, and the only way you could know this was by actually receiving the packet and reading its back. Off to a great start. The second pair I haven’t received yet, but I’m confident it will not fail at failing me. The third pair – the result of hours of research on the Internet –, was supposed to be the ultimate bastion, the keep to an onslaught I would have underestimated: 28dB of protection. That’s right. Twenty. Eight. Decibels. (Actually I have no idea how much it quietens the sound compared to 16 dB earplugs. The difference could be infinitesimal, for all I know. Imagine the absurdity if it turned out I had been cherry picking among indistinguishable earplugs all that time!) When my mom chanced on the 32 dB earplugs and heard all the praise I was giving it, she gently, sympathetically pointed at a box of standard, run-of-the-mill earplugs that were lying right next to me, on the shelf. 35dB.

That aside, I was very excited to go to the show. Bandleader Michael Gira is known for his grave (though he is still alive), intimidating look — although Swans drummer Thor Harris might beat him on that front — as well as his peculiar stage presence, at times conducting the band using prepared movements and gestures, at times austerely flailing his arms about like a bird out of water (dancing, as it was, which I respect) ¹. He’s also, I believe, quite sensible to the audience’s enjoyment, in that he doesn’t hesitate to direct deathly glares at anyone too invasive with their camera and screening the performance from the other spectators ². In the same vein, a couple months ago, he asked the security, halfway through the concert, to remove the barriers in front of the stage to allow the audience farther in, as it was feeling too distant ³. During one of his acoustic(-ish, electrically amplified) solo shows, he also told the audience off for speaking too loudly. I respect his decision, and I’m sure the “better” part of the audience was also grateful for it.

(bad quality bootlegs, don’t mind them too much)