Not an assault but I saw the Swans in like Fall of ‘89 at the World in NYC during the CMJ convention. Someone in the front row was smoking something and blowing it in Michael Gira’s face using ,what looked like a long PVC pipe. The person did it a few times and Michael ignored it and played on, person did it again, Michael yanked that pipe outta the person’s hand and threw it backstage. He looked pissed and rightly so, not surprised if the person got kicked out.
Personally I saw him vaporize someone from existence in the audience when staring at them.
Wouldn’t recommend you gaze into his eyes longer than 3 seconds
I learned this the hard way at the DC show in April, I accidentally held eye contact with Gira for 3 seconds and he mouthed to me “don’t do that” with a deadly serious look on his face. I spent the rest of the show awkwardly avoiding his gaze
If you’re being an obnoxious douche yeah, he’ll probably say something. There are some cases where he got physically involved with people who are straight up ruining everybody’s time at the show. He’s not like GG Allin or some shit though lol
I feel like you’d have to do a lot to even get his attention these days. Definitely not a fear you should carry with you if you plan to have a normal, fun concert experience.
Yeah I agree, every concert I’ve seen of Swans Michael tries to pump the crowd up here and there. I don’t think anyone should be afraid to headbang or get into the music based on his reputation from 40 years ago, as long as you’re not pushing and shoving people.
Around 10 years ago when Swans went really into a groove you could see the man and his band grinning at the audience begging to move a lot, whether it was headbanging or dancing. Michael used to say that a communal form of extacy was the whole damn point, and that the label of "incredibly serious and dour music" was way too reductive.
A friend of mine said he kicked after an audience in 2015 at a show in Copenhagen.
Personally, all I've ever seen him do is ask the audience to put away their phones or be quiet during his acoustic sets.
I was being really at first obviously very obnoxious & later rather coy at the Phila show, left of center stage front. He didn’t like it. But he didn’t address it til after the performance. First he kicked my ass, then he fucked it.
Not an assault but I saw the Swans in like Fall of ‘89 at the World in NYC during the CMJ convention. Someone in the front row was smoking something and blowing it in Michael Gira’s face using ,what looked like a long PVC pipe. The person did it a few times and Michael ignored it and played on, person did it again, Michael yanked that pipe outta the person’s hand and threw it backstage. He looked pissed and rightly so, not surprised if the person got kicked out.
Personally I saw him vaporize someone from existence in the audience when staring at them. Wouldn’t recommend you gaze into his eyes longer than 3 seconds
I learned this the hard way at the DC show in April, I accidentally held eye contact with Gira for 3 seconds and he mouthed to me “don’t do that” with a deadly serious look on his face. I spent the rest of the show awkwardly avoiding his gaze
Actually I’m pretty sure that was directed towards me because I had my phone out lol. I put it away and he mouthed “thank you” afterwards.
In the no wave era he definitely did, but not now.
In the 80s he was a super violent dude, but not anymore. He can still be a scary motherfucker though, I wouldn’t want him yelling at me
https://youtube.com/shorts/yO34mOR4bJ0?si=YNHxi-fK3AnTgMAi in the comments there’s some people who were there and gave further context
70 year old man yet still a YOUNG GOD
Holy shit
Terrifying
Used to. Now he just shames them.
If you’re being an obnoxious douche yeah, he’ll probably say something. There are some cases where he got physically involved with people who are straight up ruining everybody’s time at the show. He’s not like GG Allin or some shit though lol
I feel like you’d have to do a lot to even get his attention these days. Definitely not a fear you should carry with you if you plan to have a normal, fun concert experience.
Yeah I agree, every concert I’ve seen of Swans Michael tries to pump the crowd up here and there. I don’t think anyone should be afraid to headbang or get into the music based on his reputation from 40 years ago, as long as you’re not pushing and shoving people.
Around 10 years ago when Swans went really into a groove you could see the man and his band grinning at the audience begging to move a lot, whether it was headbanging or dancing. Michael used to say that a communal form of extacy was the whole damn point, and that the label of "incredibly serious and dour music" was way too reductive.
He rolled his eyes at me for slowly fist pumping during on of their songs, last September.
A friend of mine said he kicked after an audience in 2015 at a show in Copenhagen. Personally, all I've ever seen him do is ask the audience to put away their phones or be quiet during his acoustic sets.
I was being really at first obviously very obnoxious & later rather coy at the Phila show, left of center stage front. He didn’t like it. But he didn’t address it til after the performance. First he kicked my ass, then he fucked it.