“Swancore” is loosely defined as a post-hardcore subgenre featuring Prog-Rock elements, Math-Rock-Esque Riffs, and Dirty Vocals. The invention of Swancore is credited to Will Swan, co-founder and guitarist of Dance Gavin Dance. Demonstrating the staple that is DGD in the post-hardcore music scene. At approximately 9 PM on Friday, May 29th, in Asbury Park, New Jersey, DGD took the stage at the Stone Pony’s Summer Stage. And brought a world of Post-Hardcore with them. Featuring the openers Novelists, Wolf & Bear, and The Fall of Troy.
Once the headlining DGD took the stage, they took the 4000-person audience by storm. Featuring their most recent change in the band, with a new clean vocalist, Andrew Michael Wells. Andrew serenaded any crowd surfer that came close to him with his luscious vocal cords. Meanwhile, dirty vocalist Jon Mess was blowing the audience’s hearing out with his gnarly fry screaming, in true Swancore style.
Despite being a band since 2005 (I was born in 2007, so that’s a long time for me), Dance Gavin Dance is still recording and putting out new music to this day. In fact, they dropped a studio-live album just three weeks before this concert. This was put on full display at the Stone Pony, playing a set of music on the newer side. Except for a select few older tracks, the set mostly consisted of tracks off their 2025 Album Pantheon and their 2016 Album Mothership. Showing that the band is still progressing artistically after all these years, or as the kids on TikTok would say, “Unc still got it”.
Once the headlining DGD took the stage, they took the 4000-person audience by storm. Featuring their most recent change in the band, with a new clean vocalist, Andrew Michael Wells. Andrew serenaded any crowd surfer that came close to him with his luscious vocal cords. Meanwhile, dirty vocalist Jon Mess was blowing the audience’s hearing out with his gnarly fry screaming, in true Swancore style.
Despite being a band since 2005 (I was born in 2007, so that’s a long time for me), Dance Gavin Dance is still recording and putting out new music to this day. In fact, they dropped a studio-live album just three weeks before this concert. This was put on full display at the Stone Pony, playing a set of music on the newer side. Except for a select few older tracks, the set mostly consisted of tracks off their 2025 Album Pantheon and their 2016 Album Mothership. Showing that the band is still progressing artistically after all these years, or as the kids on TikTok would say, “Unc still got it”.
