Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on February 2011

Courtesy of Contrarede

Just in case Japan wasn’t gloomy enough already, here come Swans to push folks over the edge. The seminal New York rock band arrive for their first Japan tour in two decades after reforming last year. Created by Michael Gira in 1982, Swans took their avant-garde musical cues from the NYC No Wave scene and their dark spiritual obsessions from Manchester’s Joy Division. After 14 years of quiet, Gira reconvened the group last year to release the well-received My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky. Their reputation for some of the loudest gigs on the planet has since been burnished with a string of dates that included England’s ultra-heavy Supersonic Festival.

Swans
Mar 15, 7pm, ¥6,000 (adv)/¥6,500 (door). Club Quattro, Shibuya. Tel: Contrarede 03-5773-5061.