Preoccupations

A few years after their last "descent" into Italy, the Preoccupations were the protagonists in recent days of a handful of shows across the country, presenting live to their devoted Italian fanbase the songs that make up "Arrangements", released in 2022. We caught their dates at the Covo Club in Bologna and the Arci Tom in Mantua: here's how it went.

Bologna, 03/01/2023

by Martina Vetrugno

A Requiem for melody and for civilization as we know it. On this bitterly cold first night of March, the die-hard patrons of Bologna's Covo Club are greeted by a small, compact wall of amplifiers on stage, an unmistakable sign of what awaits them shortly. The Preoccupations' last visit to Italy dated back to early February 2019, and among the chosen venues on that occasion was also the Casalone, which at the time hosted the presentation of their weakest link, "New Material". The desire to see them back on stage with their new effort "Arrangements" was strong enough to earn them an unexpected and well-deserved sell-out.

Doing the honors are Canadian act Ghost Woman, currently a duo made up of frontman Evan Uschenko on guitar and Ille Van Dessel on drums. On record the duo seem steeped in a Sixties psych-rock revival inspired by Kinks, Hollies and the like, at times leaning more garage and blues à la The 13th Floor Elevators and Link Wray, while live they unexpectedly take on an entirely different shape, marked by dark atmospheres and buzzing riffs typical of nu-gaze territory and its neighbors.

While on one hand the sound comes across transformed, taking on a grittier edge the albums lack, the performance's biggest flaw lies in the balance between microphones and instruments. The artists' few vocal interjections are impossible to hear, completely buried under layers of effect-laden guitar synths and drum patterns. What results is an almost entirely instrumental, uninterrupted duet, interlocking Van Dessel's effectively grinding rhythms ("Street Meet", "Dead & Gone") — often the main focus on stage — with Uschenko's guitar textures, his attention forever fixed on the pedalboard. Plenty of "woman", but also plenty of "ghost". Only in a couple of songs, chiefly the stripped-down "Behind Your Eyes", can the words be made out distinctly, reconnecting with the mood of their self-titled debut "Ghost Woman" and the sophomore effort "Anne, If".

After a fairly involved stage changeover, the synths, drums and modest-sized amplifiers (no less powerful for it) of Matt Flegel's quartet make their appearance. The first half of the Preoccupations' set is entirely devoted to "Arrangements", performed in full and in sequence, from the first lines of the excellent opener "Fix Bayonets!" roared into the mic, all the way to the decisive, concentric notes of the goth dance number "Tearing Up The Grass".

"Ricochet" and "Death Of Melody" warm up the atmosphere nicely and translate fairly faithfully to the live setting, while the harmonic guitar riffs play off the heavy tread set by the drumming on "Slowly". That's followed by the reflective build of "Advisor", during which the first notable instrumental passages emerge and take over, as they do in the following "Recalibrate", where Scott Munro's synths stand out alongside an increasingly focused Flegel, who sings with his eyes closed, cradling his bass.

The second part of the show kicks off with a marked rise in volume and bass-driven force, with a triptych drawn from the excellent "Viet Cong", during which the audience is held so completely in thrall they seem like puppets moved in sync by the band's sound. It opens with the prominent bass-and-drum pairing of "Continental Shelf", continuing with the super-Joy Division-esque pirouettes of "Silhouettes" and the explosive instrumentals of "Bunker Buster".

The dynamic “Disarray” momentarily lightens the mood, setting things up perfectly for the imposing three-act suite that follows – nearly twelve minutes in total – “Memory”, unmatched in its live incarnation.

We play the life secure with give and take

We build the buildings and they’re built to break

Tell me, tell me, tell it to me, tell it straight:

What is the difference between love and hate?

The anti-melodic prayer dedicated to a world that's ever more uncertain and unstable, teetering on the edge of the precipice – a clear and unmistakable leit-motiv of the Canadian quartet's latest effort – closes with the sarcasm of the evergreen “March Of Progress”, whose final question feels more pointed than ever in times like these.

Preoccupations don't disappoint, opting for a well-balanced setlist on their return, one that focuses on the newer material while staying in perfect harmony with the earlier songs, to which they entrust the intense (and bitter) closing reflections.

Mantua, 02/03/2023

by Fabio Guastalla

A very cold Thursday night, one of the coldest of the year. At the Tom there's no sold-out crowd like the night before in Bologna: after all, the two cities are only a hundred kilometres apart, and plenty of people had already shown up in the Bolognese capital twenty-four hours earlier. Still, the big room at the Mantua club is packed with around two hundred people, eagerly awaiting an event that, out here in the countryside – as Paolo Conte would put it – isn't exactly an everyday occurrence.

After warming up with a set from Ghost Woman, Preoccupations take the stage, and right away, just like the night before in Bologna, it's all about the songs from the new album. “Fix Bayonets!”, the opener both on record and live, makes it clear to the crowd that there'll be no let-up for the next hour and fifteen minutes or so. The first thing that strikes you about Preoccupations, today just as in 2016 when we caught them at the Locomotiv in Bologna, is the wall of sound. Right after that, in perfect symbiosis, the Canadian quartet's animalistic fury comes through especially in a “Ricochet” that booms loud and clear, its “political” message ringing out between the four walls of the Tom.

Between songs, over the course of the set, there's also time for a brief (though not that brief) interlude to wish Daniel Christiansen a happy birthday, with him twisting himself into a drawn-out solo while the rest of the band films the moment on their phones.

The turning point of the show is arguably the most eagerly awaited track of the whole night, a piece of “old guard” material from the Canadians' repertoire: “Continental Shelf”, a post-punk monolith that sets the crowd packed in front of the stage swaying.

The second half of the show is, if anything, even more of a crescendo in terms of sheer noise and quality, as Preoccupations' back catalogue yields loose cannons like “Silhouettes”, a devastating (in decibels and intensity alike) version of “Disarray”, and, near the end, what is, for this writer, perhaps the finest song Preoccupations have ever written: a “Memory” that, right on cue, midway through its long trajectory morphs into a wave passage of sheer beauty.

Closing the books with the Mantua crowd for good is, just like the night before, a “March Of Progress” that once again somersaults back almost ten years, to when the four of them were called Viet Cong and were making a splash on the international scene, racking up successes that were as immediate as they were, in some ways, almost unexpected. But that's another story: until next time, Preoccupations!

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