As part of the tour in support of their album "My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky", Swans played the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta, GA and I was as blown away as I was years ago when I first heard them play. Michael Gira leads his group of talented musicians with a passion you can see, feel, hear…nearly taste.

First...you don't just go to a Swans show. You experience a Swans show. In Atlanta, that experience started with a long-chorded intro. Each member of the six man ensemble coming slowly to the stage individually. Stepping up to their instruments, everyone contributed their own piece of sound to the music, the sonics slowly forming, building as you listened. By the time Michael Gira made his entrance with guitarist Norman Westberg, the effect was complete…the entire theater was humming with live, raw energy and expectations.

Gira stepped to center stage and began to rock slowly into the ever building music. All eyes, the fans and the band, were locked to him as he built the tension further. Suddenly, maestro Gira’s downbeat broke through the theater like a crash of thunder and instantly Swans were blowing down the walls. The fans, some who looked to have followed the band since their start through a very young group still tight jawed and staring in awe, heaved a collective breath and in moments we were all lost in the music with Swans.

Anyone familiar with Gira and Co’s style knows the music is short on words and heavy on sound. At the back of the stage Thor Harris and Phil Puleo’s separate set-ups of percussion and drums provided a backbone to the music. Norman Westberg layered in his brilliant guitar work to the mix. As one young fan said to him after the show, “It’s amazing you can make that much sound come out of that [guitar]!” And it is. Aside from the volume (which was awe inspiring on its own), the layers of sound ran deeper and deeper as the set progressed. Christoph Hahn’s guitar work, performed on the flat with various techniques that amplified and distorted the sounds like magic, was entrancing. And the way bass player Chris Pravdica connected with Gira and wove his sound into the music was unreal, as if he’d been a Swan since the inception.

But the centerpiece of the show was Michael Gira himself. At times conducting his band and other times jamming along with them, his manic style was infectious and you could see and feel it bleed out to the other members of the band and the crowd. Every track they played felt stronger and more engrossing than the last. For over two hours they filled the theater with sound, emotion and the most amazing vibe I’ve felt in a live show in a very long time.

Today, more than 20 years after Swans first exploded into the world, they have proved themselves to be more than relevant in today’s music scene. Their live show was is easily one of the most intense, exhausting, exhilarating, experiences I've ever had with live music. The've wrapped up the tour up now and if you didn't get a chance to go out...make note: I’m told there’s talk of some studio work ahead for the band and hopefully another tour in 2012. If you haven't made it to a show, go when you get the chance and travel if you must. Get there. Because seeing the Swans is more than a show, it's an experience