Beloved live music show Austin City Limits continues its 48th season on PBS this week with a performance from The War on Drugs. The band’s full set doesn’t air until January 28th, but until then, Consequence has an exclusive premiere of their rendition of “Victim,” which you can watch below.
The War on Drugs had no shortage of instruments for their Austin City Limits taping. In front of the iconic (replicated) backdrop of the city’s skyline, the band bring I Don’t Live Here Anymore cut “Victim” to life with both organic piano and glitchy synths, slowly building from a mid-tempo number to a rapturous explosion of electric guitar and saxophone.
The band first performed on the PBS program in 2015, and for their latest taping, they focused on their last two records, 2017’s A Deeper Understanding and 2021’s I Don’t Live Here Anymore. Nodding to the show’s impact as a rare network television display of live music, singer Adam Granduciel revealed, “Growing up without cable TV, this is one of the only things I grew up watching.”
The War on Drugs’ full Austin City Limits performance premieres on PBS on Saturday, January 28th at 8:00 p.m. ET. It will become available to stream online later that evening at 12:00 a.m. ET. New episodes of the show air weekly, with the rest of Season 48 promising performances from Pavement, Maren Morris, and Spoon, as well as a Hall of Fame tribute to Joe Ely.