HEY YOU! Have you ever heard of Swanfest? It’s a rock/metal festival that was started back in 2020 by the lead guitarist of Dance Gavin Dance, Will Swan. The festival first took place in Sacramento CA, and that is where it remained until this year when the band made the move across the country to Philadelphia PA. For the first time, Dance Gavin Dance brought Swanfest to the East Coast.
The festival found its home at The Skyline Stage at the Mann theater, a choice that couldn’t have been better. In all honesty, this was the perfect venue for this style of event. The spacious venue allowed fans to get up close to their favorite bands without feeling crowded. Plenty of food, drink, and bathroom availability also lead to an incredibly comfortable day.
While Swanfest offered an overall fantastic experience, there was one downside—the handling of the VIP line. The line started moving too late, causing some early entry VIPs to miss parts of the first performance. The general admission line had been completely let in by the time 1/3 of the “early entry” VIP line had been. This issue needs attention for future years of Swanfest, whether it’s due to the venue or the organizers.
The band line up at this year’s Swanfest was a force to be reckoned with. Including Dance Gavin Dance, 10 bands took the stage for a half an hour each throughout the day.
Out of the groups that played, the first group to make a substantial impact was Within Destruction. Having formed all the way in Slovenia, these guys brought energy you could feel across the world. The crowd engagement was intense, and their music hit like a freight train.
Rain City Drive brought a unique blend of hard instrumentals, mixed with the incredibly smooth voice of their lead singer. These guys played songs that everyone could get up and jump around to.
Finally, after the crowd arrived at the venue at 12 that afternoon and waited until 8:45 that night, the members of Dance Gavin Dance made their way to the stage. This crowd’s energy was electrifying, and even though the event was outdoors, it was like the roof was blown off.
The band wasted no time jumping straight into their setlist. Surprisingly, the group played a few deep-cuts spanning back as far as 2007. They also brought a few Swanfest exclusive songs to their setlist which included Betrayed by the Game, and Death of a Strawberry.
Throughout the set, the crowd’s energy shifted with each song, from screaming along with Headhunter to bouncing to the instrumentals of Cream of the Crop. However, the most poignant moment came during Count Bassy, dedicated to their late bass player, Tim Feerick, who passed away in April 2022. An image of Tim on the screen paid tribute to this beloved band member, uniting the crowd in heartfelt remembrance.
After 13 songs, the band initially announced their final song, Die Another Day. But, thanks to chants and pleas from the crowd, they returned for an emotional encore, performing And I Told Them I Invented Times New Roman, We Own the Night, and Evaporate. These final songs felt like the perfect conclusion to Swanfest 2023.
Altogether, I commend Dance Gavin Dance for putting this surreal day together so successfully. They brought together nine other groups that all sounded so different but complemented each other at the same time. If you are into rock and metal music and are unfamiliar with any of the bands mentioned, I urge you to check them out. Dance Gavin Dance is such a thematically strange group, who make music about some of the craziest topics on planet Earth. But they managed to bring together a massive crowd to forget about life and enjoy those crazy topics together. So, if you’re looking for new music in the future, maybe search out some of that crazy. You never know where it will take you.