I hit up Boston Calling for the second straight year over Memorial Day weekend. Despite the improved lineup, it was comparatively a bust – mostly due to the festival’s inability to effectively deal with the increased size of their new location, Harvard’s athletic complex. There were *many* a growing pain. Food lines took hours to get through (I stood in line 1.5 hours for a slice of pizza on Friday, missing Bon Iver’s set, before surviving on free Kind bars and food that I snuck in for the rest of the weekend). The festival was supposed to be cashless (you pay through your wristband like at ACL) but several vendors only accepted cash (and did nothing to advertise this fact) until you had gotten to the front of an insanely long line. There were no bathrooms near the two main stages. The line to get in got backed up for 30+ minutes at most times. And, most importantly, the speakers on the main stage were not powerful enough to project over a large crowd. If you weren’t in the front zone (where only 10-15% of the crowd was) it sounded like crap. Total crap. The volume would go in and out, but mostly out. It was easy enough to sneak up to that zone for daytime acts, but impossible for the evening headliners. So most people got a very shitty show.
My day one kicked off with a fabulous set from Lucy Dacus, mostly to a sparse crowd of disinterested teens who were staking out a prime spot for Chance the Rapper. She was my favorite of the day – the guitars were crunching enough to add an extra kick to her fairly mellow, but amazing album.

Whitney was up next, and won many a bonus point with me for covering the Golden Girls theme song. Francis and the Lights were next on the main stage, and if there is a main lesson of the festival (other than that the Boston Calling organizers could not handle an event of this size) it is that I don’t understand Francis and the Lights. The kids seemed to love him. I thought it must have been some kind of joke. He looks like Balki from Perfect Strangers, sounds like an auto-tuned Phil Collins, and bounced around stage manically like he was in a Michael Jackson vs. Prince dance competition. I only lasted for two songs before ditching the main stage to see Car Seat Headrest. I Googled him later and was shocked that he’s collaborated with the likes of Kanye, Bon Iver, Drake, and Chance the Rapper. Huh? He was awful.
After a solid set from Car Seat Headrest, I needed a break from the cold, rainy weather and took refuge at the indoor comedy stage. Pete Holmes headlined. He wasn’t as funny as his outstanding HBO series Crashing would indicate, but it was good. And I was very happy to be dry and sitting down for a while. Solange canceled her set because of “production issues and issues beyond her control” so that was some BS. I missed Bon Iver, as previously mentioned, because of the food situation. It started to rain again, colder and more heavily, right before Chance the Rapper took the mainstage. He was great, but we could only last an hour because it was so miserable, so we ducked out early. As we left, I heard someone enthusiastically shout “This is his song with Francis and the Lights!” I still don’t get it.
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