SWANS – Jessica Moss – Leeds – Live Review

SWANS – Jessica Moss – Leeds Project House – 7th November 2025 – Live Review

SWANS are one of the bands that have been a constant for the two of us here at Fighting Boredom, we both have extensive vinyl or CD collections, rarities, shirts. They are probably the band we talk about most and tend to compare other bands to. So when this tour was announced and the closest date to us was two hours up the motorway we didn’t hesitate. The Photographer has seen them more times than I have but it is the first time either of us have seen this incarnation so we were looking forward to it immensely. No spoilers, but they didn’t dissapoint.

We arrive in Leeds early, after a playlist of the Photographer’s new Techno and Electro all the way up the M1, check into our hotel which turns out to be some sort of Catholic retreat complete with Nuns, Priests and rooms that look more like cells than comfy welcoming spaces. Apt really considering who we are here for. We dodge gangs of oddly dressed lairy students and head to the pub. Eventually after some food we end up in an uber to the venue, the Photographer asks ‘Are there any pubs around here?’ to which we are told, ‘no’. The queue is already forming for the gig and we head to the posh restaurant inside to geta drink but have to sit outside on the drenched benches to drink it. We watch the queue grow and grow, sipping our drinks and chatting to people. They open the doors and we watch as the never ending queue winds its way in and we join the end. Neither of us have been here before , it’s a large open warehouse, cold and bright and is filling up nicely.

When Jessica Moss comes on the hall is about three quarters full, the audience is diverse, lots of younger fans mingling with the older, lots of couples and the split between male and female is about even too. She speaks for some time but I can’t hear what she says as most of the crowd by me are talking amongst themselves, but then she starts to play and a bass note rings out as she starts to sing and then play her violin. The sound is deep, rich and perfect, we have seen her before with Big|Brave at the Supersonic Festival but this is different as she is alone. She is a tiny figure up on stage but the music is anything but small. She sings and the echoing vocal fills the hall, drones and strange sounds behind the voice, chimes ring and then the violins’ strong and pure sounds move around us. It is a little lost in this room for some of the crowd judging on their reactions. But I’m entranced. The violin leads the sound, everything else is superfluous but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work, low notes and picking at the strings with the bow, the sound turns layered, full and loaded with emotion, it has a lost dark feel like empty heath land or lonesome abandoned brick estates. Ethereal and drone filled, it’s like being lost in fog in the darkness. A wonderful set.

The place gets fuller as SWANS get nearer, I find my earplugs in anticipation of the volume to come, the Photographer disappears into the crowd, there’s no pit tonight for him to take photos from so he’s battling his way into the middle. The lights don’t change when they come on, it stays light all the way to the back. Michael Gira greets the crowd with ‘Good Evening!’ and says that there is only one rule tonight, they ask us not to use cell phones. A long slow bass line begins, steady and solid. A sustained high note over it, synths moving around and it’s all rising, as Swans do, the beautifully constructed layers just building and building. The dark feral folk tinges leading up. The guitar has joined along with a cymbal, it’s still rising, it’s so slow to move as it just keeps building and getting denser. Michael starts to sing and the richness of the deep broken voice lets the music rise more around its purity. The volume is rising, the guitars are harder, bells and cymbals join the rise. The anticipation is a solid mass in the crowd. I can’t see much of the band but the sound is perfectly clear, no one is talking now. It’s repetitive and mesmerising. I can’t see many of the band, there are pillars and a lot of tall people but as I said, the sound is perfect. The instruments mesh together even more, the vocals are underneath the sound now and it is still rising. Everything is fast now, the guitar , drums, bass, everything, making an awe inspiring crescendo of noise that is sustained , truly jaw dropping in its beauty. In the end, earplugs weren’t needed, the ear destroying volume I’ve experienced at SWANS shows in the past wasn’t there, and you know what, it didn’t matter at all.

They pause, then a slow and wild almost Eastern European sounding music starts, the singing continues and I think that the Bad Seeds would kill to sound like this. It gets stronger and intense but not as loud. There’s a waltz underneath now but that slides into something that sounds like utter despair. The crescendo of massive sound is back, crashing in again and again dragging you deep inside the churning maelstrom of noise.

I still can’t see the band but this is for feeling not watching. It is visceral, inside you and all enveloping around you, it’s primitive in its quality and evokes ancient feelings inside you. It coats you like a skin, worms inside you through your ears and takes a hold that you may never be able to shake off.

They play a low hard groove, low and heavy bass and drums battering onwards, they are joined by distorted nasty guitar as it gets stronger and stronger, there’s a high whine and it all crashes together in another peak. Gira is up and moving, conducting as the music crashes and burns around him, surrounding his figure on stage and it just keeps getting higher and higher with crescendo after crescendo. Utterly brilliant and absorbing. This band just keep developing and moving, all centred around Gira who reigns supreme over this awe inspiring, fantastic sound.

Another creation sees jazz drumming under the chaos, Gira’s voice holds court over it all too, when he sings it’s a beautiful cracked sound, deep, resonant and unmistakable. The sound rages, thrashes and then breathes deeply before doing it all again. No one else does this, no one. It’s violence distilled into sound with love.

Gira introduces the band with a showbiz flourish in their descriptions. He moves them forward, takes everything from the audience and makes us love this harsh, beautiful, massive music. Breathtaking, soul building and wonderful. What a performance.

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SWANS