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May 31, 2017
Concert Review: Boston Calling Day Two
I skipped the early bands to watch Chelsea lose the FA Cup final. At least the bar had beer that wasn’t $10. That was about the only upside. We got to the festival just in time to catch Brandi Carlile’s set on the main stage. She is always fantastic live and this was no exception. It was a great daytime festival performance. And it wasn’t raining. So day two was already on the up and up.
Tegan and Sara were up next and delivered my favorite set of the festival. It was a very similar setlist to their fall 2016 shows that I went to, but they revamped their set with Saved by the Bell themed visuals. A girl passed out in the front and had to be removed from the crowd, so they lost a few minutes of their set. They didn’t play “Walking with a Ghost” (which they always do) so I’m assuming that was a setlist casualty to the medical situation. That left “Shock to the System” as my favorite track and obviously “Closer” is an amazing dance party of a closing number.
After hanging out in the secluded (and vastly superior) draft beer bar located on some random tennis court, we headed back to the main stage area to see the XX. I was little worried what they would be like live, considering how chill their music is. They were amazing. The crowd, however, was super chatty, so that put a bit of a damper on the experience. I need to see them again under better circumstances.
Mumford and Sons headlined the evening and played a 2 hour set (the headliners on other days only did 1.5 hours). The singles off of their first two records got the best crowd reactions and were loud, fun sing-a-longs. The electric numbers were a bit boring. Toward the end, Mumford brought out the guitarist from the National and thanked him for letting them write the electric album at his house. This makes so much more sense to me now. I was always flabbergasted on how a band could go electric and be so boring. But the fact that the National were involved is the perfect explanation because they could not be more bland if they tried. Thankfully, after suffering through a few suboptimal electric songs with the National guy on stage, Brandi Carlile came back onto the stage and covered “With a Little Help from My Friends” and it was epic. The sound, thankfully, did not cut out for that song, as it had intermittently throughout the set because the speaker set up on the main stage was a joke.
May 30, 2017
Concert Review: Boston Calling Day One
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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