The Neighbourhood are the case of a band whose biggest song outgrew them, went quiet for three years, and came back to find it still playing. "Sweater Weather" was the third single off a 2012 EP by five twenty-somethings from a suburb north of Los Angeles; it peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and then did something stranger, resurfacing almost a decade later on streaming and radio with an audience that had mostly not been old enough to hear it the first time. On Friday 25 June 2027 the band play Greece for the first time, headlining the opening announcement of Release Athens 2027 at the festival's new home in Markopoulo.
How It Started - Newbury Park, 2011
The Neighbourhood formed in 2011 in Newbury Park, California, a commuter town in Ventura County that is close enough to Los Angeles to feel its gravity and far enough out to resent it. The line-up was Jesse James Rutherford on vocals, Jeremy Freedman and Zach Abels on guitars, Michael Margott on bass and Brandon Fried on drums. Their first real attention came in 2012 with the EP I'm Sorry..., and specifically with its third single.
Columbia Records signed them and released the debut album I Love You. in 2013. What followed was a run of records that kept narrowing rather than widening: Wiped Out! in 2015, the self-titled The Neighbourhood in 2018, and Chip Chrome & The Mono-Tones in 2020. That last one is the outlier and probably the most revealing. Rutherford spent roughly three years building Chip Chrome, a silver-suited alter ego openly indebted to Bowie's Ziggy Stardust, and then made a concept record around him. It is not the album most people know. It is the one that shows what the band actually wanted to be doing.
The Sound - Monochrome by Design
What set The Neighbourhood apart was never technical. It was the refusal to sit cleanly inside alternative rock at a moment when that category was being pulled apart anyway. The guitars are indie rock; the rhythm section leans on hip-hop and R&B phrasing; Rutherford sings in a low, unhurried register that rarely pushes for the big note. The band's visual identity - years of black-and-white artwork, videos and stage design - was not decoration so much as a rule they imposed on themselves, and it gave a fairly diffuse sound a hard edge to hold onto.
That combination is why they translate to a festival stage better than their streaming numbers suggest. The songs are built on mood and space rather than choruses engineered for a field, and the set works when it is allowed to stay dark.
Key Works - Where to Start
I Love You. (2013) is the entry point and still the most coherent statement of the early band. Wiped Out! (2015) is colder and more interesting than it was given credit for at the time. Chip Chrome & The Mono-Tones (2020) is the one to reach for if the singles have worn thin. And (((((ultraSOUND))))), released on 14 November 2025 through Warner Records, is the record that brought them back - led by the singles "Private", "OMG" and "Lovebomb", with a deluxe edition, Ultrasound+, following in February 2026 with five more tracks.
The Hiatus and the Return
The band went on indefinite hiatus in February 2022. For three years there was no album, no tour and no clear answer about whether there would be either. The return came on 29 August 2025, announced on the band's own Instagram: they were back together and back in the studio.
(((((ultraSOUND))))) arrived that November and did modestly on the charts - number 32 on the US Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart, 155 on the Billboard 200, with placings in Switzerland, New Zealand and Australia. The more telling number was the tour it triggered. The Wourld Tour, which opened on 28 March 2026 at the Moody Center in Austin and runs through to 4 December at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, is the first arena-scale world tour of their career, taking in North America, Europe, Asia and Oceania - including Madison Square Garden. A band that had been away for three years came back to bigger rooms than it ever played before the break.
The Neighbourhood in Athens - Release Athens 2027
Mood already tracks a stretch of that run: Wourld Tour dates at Barclays Center in New York, the Kaseya Center in Miami and the Kia Forum in Los Angeles all sit in the catalogue alongside the Athens announcement. The Greek date is different in one respect - it is the band's first ever show in the country, and it lands at Markopoulo Complex, the site Release Athens moves to in 2027 after ten years at Plateia Nerou.
In an era where a decade-old single can outperform everything an act has released since, The Neighbourhood are a useful test case: a band that stopped, watched its back catalogue keep working without it, and then chose to come back on a larger scale rather than a nostalgic one. The Athens show is the first chance to see which of those two things won. The full Neighbourhood listing on Mood tracks their dates as they are announced.
Frequently Asked Questions
When do The Neighbourhood play Athens?
Friday 25 June 2027, at Markopoulo Complex, as part of Release Athens 2027. It is the band's first performance in Greece.
Are tickets on sale yet?
Tickets go on sale Thursday 1 October 2026 at 12:00, starting at €65, with a limited number of VIP tickets of €250. Release Athens sells through its own channels and more.com; Mood lists the event and links out to the official seller. Prices for later phases have not been announced.
What is The Neighbourhood's biggest song?
"Sweater Weather", from the 2012 EP I'm Sorry.... It reached number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and found a second, larger audience on streaming roughly a decade after release.
Why were The Neighbourhood on hiatus?
The band went on indefinite hiatus in February 2022 and announced their reunion in August 2025, returning with the album (((((ultraSOUND))))) later that year and their first arena-scale world tour in 2026.
Where can I find other alternative rock shows in Athens?
Mood's alternative rock listings for Athens cover upcoming shows across the city's venues and festivals.
Browse everything coming up in the city on Mood's Athens event listings.
