Dialing Up A Good Time: Boston Calling 2018 – Review & Photos
By Bryan Lasky May 30, 2018 • 2:08 pm PDT
Words & Images by: Bryan Lasky
Boston Calling :: 05.25-28.18 :: Harvard Athletic Complex :: Allston, MA
Boston Calling returned for the second year to its new home at Harvard Athletic Field and presented a slew of heavy-hitter headliners and an impressive undercard over Memorial Day Weekend. As usual, Boston Calling 2018 offered a diverse lineup that included rock, punk, hip-hop, EDM and comedy. Organizers improved the layout of the concert field by moving the Ferris wheel from the middle of the grounds to the side of the two main stages, which let traffic flow much easier. The layout of the expanded food area was also improved and lines were much shorter than last year.
New this year was a film festival curated by Natalie Portman in the arena that had artists coming up with soundtracks to silent films. The only one I attended had St. Vincent making screeching noises to a film titled Verdict Not Guilty, Portman reading a play and Leikeli47 and her dancers performing to a few different films. It was a very interesting component to the festival and one you don’t often find elsewhere.
The festival started off musically with an upbeat power pop-rock set by Charly Bliss on the Blue Stage and a calm beautiful set of songs from This Is The Kit on the Red Stage with Aaron Dessner of The National sitting-in.
One thing that Boston Calling excels at is splitting the crowd up evenly throughout the day with different musical styles on opposite ends of the festival. Citizen brought some punk rock attitude, while Perfume Genius channeled his best Freddie Mercury and strode about the stage singing every song from the bottom of his heart to an insatiable crowd. Maggie Rogers had an absolute blast on stage while playing everything she has released, including her brand new song issued the day before. Portugal. The Man was just as fantastic as they have been at every other stop over the past couple of years. Watching them continue to attract gigantic crowds at festivals that sing along to every word of every song has been absolutely thrilling.
Advertisement
The National closed down the Red Stage on Friday with a career spanning setlist that was heavy on their latest record Sleep Well Beast and included Rogers coming out to help on “I Need My Girl.” The Killers packed the field for a lengthy headlining performance that started out with one of their biggest hits “Mr. Brightside” and never seemed to lose any steam.
Saturday was opened up by TAUK, who musically didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the festival, but made their mark with a solid 40-minute set. The foursome was all smiles onstage. Lillie Mae, who was signed by Jack White’s Third Man Records, showed why TMR wanted her on its roster. Mae’s voice is remarkable and the band is equally fantastic — check her out while she’s still playing smaller venues.
The Menzingers turned up the volume and Oh Sees kept it at that level and then one-upped them. Oh Sees played a late night show at The Sinclair that had one of the wildest crowds in recent memory. Mosh pits and crowd surfing happened for the entirety of their 90-minute after hours show that never let up for a moment. Belly, having recently released their first album in 23 years, had an absolute blast on stage for the large crowd that came to their first Boston show in years. Manchester Orchestra took to the stage next and played mostly older material and showed that rock ‘n’ roll definitely is not dead.
Royal Blood captivated a packed Red Stage as many began to gather for Queens of the Stone Age. The duo tore through their set, and the stage, for an hour solid with only minimal pauses between songs. St. Vincent took to the stage next with her full band and played one of the heaviest sets of the weekend. Joking briefly before “New York” about going to college in Boston, Annie Clark took a lot of joy in being on stage to the large crowded field. The visuals playing behind the performance were surreal and wonderful. There is nothing quite like a St. Vincent show. She ended the set with the “gay version” of “Slow Disco” for the normals, freaks, and others among the crowd.
Photo by Taylor Hill for Boston Calling
Festival-goers were then split up for sets by Tyler, The Creator and QOTSA. Both had crowds that stretched far back and were packed with hits. Jack White then came on after a brief five-minute countdown on the main stage and from the opening notes of “Over And Over And Over” to the closing notes of “Seven Nation Army,” he and his talented new band commanded the crowd with ease. He covered his entire discography with at least one song from all of his bands. White stretched the time of his set until the last minute of curfew and didn’t want to seem to leave and neither did any of the thousands in attendance.
The first two days of the festival were sweltering, but on Sunday grey clouds covered the city and eventually sprinkles of rain that at times turned heavy, had many donning sweatshirts and hoodies. Field Report started the day off with an easy going set that saw the crowd swell. Weakened Friends is a tremendous trio from Maine that many up and dancing early in the day. The same can be said for Australian psychedelic rockers Pond who were on next and played with a ton of energy and had some mesmerizing visuals behind them. It was reassuring to see how many people these two young bands were winning over. Dirty Projectors are always changing lineups, but the 2017 one is still intact and sounding sublime. The festival was then treated to Alvvays who put on a blistering set that had the crowd singing along enthusiastically.
Advertisement
One of the best sets of the weekend then came as Julien Baker took the stage. She was joined on a few songs by violinist Camille Faulkner and during her entire set the audience was so attentive you could hear a pin drop. Baker is truly a special talent and is only going to continue to play to bigger audiences all over the world.
On the other end of the festival Thundercat was spreading his brand of jazz that seemed to go above the audience but the music was memorable. The Decemberists rocked harder than expected and their new songs sounded absolutely amazing live. The rain started to come down a little harder during their set, which seemed appropriate and no one seemed to mind. Beastie Boy Mike D’s DJ set was fun to hear a bunch of old-school hip-hop anthems and to see him rap a bit, but overall it landed a little flat.
The crowd was split for one last time as Fleet Foxes and Khalid finished off the weekend on the Blue and Red stages respectively. Fleet Foxes sounded glorious and was where the older crowd went, while Khalid’s audience was young and ready to go wild for the talented singer. Both sets were outstanding and headliner worthy, but it was Eminem who drew the largest audience on the main field for a festival-closing set that included many of his hits as well as pyrotechnics and fireworks.
Boston Calling definitely has grown to fit the new space and it should be interesting to see what they do next year to top these last two years at Harvard.
