Saturday, February 23, 2019

Live: Preoccupations @ Six D.O.G.S (Athens, February 16th, 2019)


It's been almost four years since the last time we saw Preoccupations live in Athens, except then they were still called Viet Cong. That name caused all sorts of trouble to the band and by the time they released their second album in 2016, they had changed it to their new, perfectly inoffensive, moniker.


The Canadian quartet's tightly wound post-punk sound however remains the same and their return to the intimate surroundings of the Six D.O.G.S club gave us the opportunity to enjoy a strong set under much better conditions than the first time, when a combination of technical issues and heat made it difficult to enjoy the gig.


This time everything went rather fine (although the vocals were a bit buried in the mix at times) and Preoccupations executed powerfully and efficiently a set that encompassed all three of their albums, with their latest work "New Material" together with several selections from their excellent Viet Cong album dominating proceedings. They closed the set, just as they did the first time we saw them, with a cathartic rendition of the epic "Death", a song that along with "Continental Shelf" and "Bunker Buster" will always be good enough reasons to go see this band play live.


The evening opened with a highly satisfying krautrock meets post-punk racket by new local act $oft $kull. The quartet will soon release their debut album "Death $$" and based on what we've witnessed on stage we are very interested to check it out.

$oft $kull, live @ Six D.O.G.S (Athens, February 16th, 2019)

Have a listen below to "Antidote" and "Disarray", two new songs by Preoccupations off their "New Material" album, as they were performed on the stage of Six D.O.G.S last Saturday:


 Preoccupations - Antidote (live @ Six D.O.G.S, February 16th, 2019)

 Preoccupations - Disarray (live @ Six D.O.G.S, February 16th, 2019)

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