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*I saw a whole lot of people (myself included) walking out right before the Lumineers started. A lot of folks wanted to close their day out with Alanis or the F'Lips.
*The only full sets I saw were Noah and Flaming Lips. I caught 2-3 songs by Actor Observer on Orange before heading over to Green to position myself for NK. Well done for what it is, but what it is happens to be us Linkin Park redux. Not my cup of tea, but it was nice running into emoney at Orange.
*Hannibal-Through-The-Alps-Moment-Of-The-Weekend: After quickly eating an absolutely delicious taco bowl from Naco Taco (highly recommended), I attempted to make my way past the central "Relief Encampment" to the path leading to the Blue Stage, but there was a complete sardine can of people logjamming that area. I followed a few people who had walked behind the porta-potties and snaked around the area, as we all passed through fences which has been pried open, taking us through areas we probably weren't supposed to be in, like the spot where the sanitation truck was parked. Good times. Unfortunately, I would up missing the first minute of F'Lips opener Fight Test (probably my favorite song off of Yoshimi) because I knew that carrying an open plate of food through that crowd, a toilet cluster, and a dirt road upon which golf carts frequently kick up clouds of dust was not going to end well. I had to eat on the astroturf near the Subaru tent, fending off Instagram teens about to step in my dinner, knowing that I might arrive late for the set because I had to eat. Really, they need a couple of food options at Blue, because if you're spending half a day straight on Blue and Orange, it's a hassle trying to get to the food court, through the line, and back in time for the next set. (For those who've been to a lot of similarly sized and larger fests, are there ways that other festivals have more conveniently set up food vendor areas in relationship to the stages to enable people to eat when they need to eat without having to miss artists they want to see?)
*Cutest-Moment-Of-The-Weekend: Parents taking utter delight in their little kid's utter delight at the full Flaming Lips experience, as giant balloons bounced around and pink confetti filled the air. The Flaming Lips are a great entertainment experience for kids of all ages.
*WTF Jersey Mike's, all weekend long. Got to the grounds around 4:30, they had already run out of free subs for the day. They said that they had been serving them until 8 pm on Friday, after I had been told on Friday that they shut down by 6 and all I saw on Friday there was Welshly Arms setting up and a TV news film crew interviewing them inside the kiosk. I suspect that this is an elaborate con and that they're not actually giving away free subs, but only telling people that they are, to motivate them to come into a shop and finally try a sub.
Even though I'm not going this year (and the way the bookings are trending, it's unlikely I will again) I'm glad people are having a good time. Noah Kahan seems like a cool guy even if I don't really care for his music. I take back what I said about gizz, they're gonna kill it and will be back in the area soon enough. Enjoy Sunday!
Hell no, I left right after Gizzard wrapped up a few minutes before 10. I could hear a song in the distance as I was walking out, and it sure wasn't anything punk pop.
Since most of you apparently opted for Paramore over Gizzard, you didn't catch the perspective of the missing girl incident from the Blue Stage. As happened on Green, the music stopped and an announcement was made right after that. As soon as the announcement ended, a girl on the ferris wheel began crying and screaming. Not as in, "Hey, that's me. I'm fine." or "I'm feeling sick, get me off this ride." It was more the tortured wail of someone who just found out that a loved one had died.
My first thought was that maybe it was a friend or sister of the missing girl who was just hearing about the situation while up on the ferris wheel.
I suppose that we'll never know exactly what happened, but someone tweeted last night that the allegedly missing girl had been down in front near the stage during Paramore's set all along.
(Here's a theory. I saw some parents right outside the gate waiting to pick up their kids when I left after Gizz. The parents may have told their kid, "Meet us at 9:30, not one minute later." The kid previously told her parents that it wouldn't be over until after 10:30, but they said that it's 9:30 on the dot. She doesn't show up, defying them, and they contact onsite security, assuming that she's missing and not that she's actually trying to catch a few more songs. My parents didn't allow me to go to concerts when I was living under their roof, until I had left for my first year of college and returned for vacations, but I went and lied about where I was and what I was doing. One time - I think it was when I went to see Weather Report and Jean-Luc Ponty at a local theater - I had told them that I had a play rehearsal that night and when I didn't return at the time they assumed I'd be home, they called security at the school to find me. That may have been the sort of thing that happened here.)
It was also hella confusing because after about 5 minutes on the blue stage they said they had found her and resumed the show. Only for 15 min later to be walking over to Paramore and hearing them stop the show and have the same announcement. It was really odd.
The screaming from the Ferris wheel was pretty unnerving, I’m assuming it was someone who maybe had a bit too much to drink or something and just needed to not be on the ride anymore, but in the moment it was something else…
As someone who goes to shows alone 90% of the time I'm never thinking about what would happen if someone went missing (or worse) at a show when I attend as a guest. When I worked at venues as an usher we had a team of people to handle these situations. Makes me second guess going out by myself sometimes cause even though I technically know what to do in that sort of situation, it's very hard to think of what to do in the moment alone in a crowd of 10k people and suddenly everyone is on edge expecting the worst.
Last Edit: May 29, 2023 10:53:45 GMT -5 by Deleted - Back to Top
*I missed the first 10 minutes of Wunderhorse's half-hour long set. After listening to his debut album a few times, I only recognized one of the remaining 3-4 songs that I heard. I had read an interview with Jacob Slater and he said that their second album is already finished and the third one is already written, so they apparently leaned heavily into unreleased new material.
*The Linda Lindas were a lot of fun and the Red Stage sound was actually pretty good way over at the ADA platform. Given the day's heat, I leveraged my lower back issues and bursitis to get an ADA wristband and spend most of the day seated. I was on my feet for literally no more than half-a-dozen songs all day.
*I caught the first 3-4 070 Shake songs while grabbing a bit to eat and before heading over to Blue/Orange for the rest of the day. They didn't make much of an impression upon me.
*Genesis Owusu was so much fun and perfect for festivals. The bouncy electpop synth thing they do would have had me up and dancing if it had been 15 degrees cooler. He had the crowd shouting "Get The Fuck Out" along to the chorus of one of his songs, which most of us probably want to shout on the last day of a fest after one chatty cathy after another parks themselves right next to you just as that song that gives you all the feels is starting, or you're looking at 30 people in line ahead of you while you're trying to get something to eat and make it over to Blue in time for the next performance. (He mentioned that he's coming back to Boston in Oct or Nov, so expect an announcement shortly.)
*I saw the first 2-3 Ali McGuirk songs on Orange. She does a soulful R&B/pop/roots thing that's very well done. I saw Julie Rhodes, with whom she always seems to share double bills, in the crowd.
*The Walkmen were very good. There aren't a lot of bands in the NYC 00's Strokes/Interpol lane, but that's where they drive and it's a compelling ride. They defied expectations by playing The Rat in the middle of the set. Hamilton L. told a couple of stories about going to BU, including trashing Blanchard's for taking his fake ID and pinning it to the wall.
*King Gizzard opened with their 12-13 minute festival set version of The Dripping Tap and it was wonderful. After a few more songs which showed off their musical eclecticism, they spent the last 2/3rds of their set playing their metal stuff, which isn't my favorite King Gizzard persona. But, the only fervent wish I had for their set was The Dripping Tap and I was basically fine with whatever else they played for the rest of the set. I'm usually not an I've-got-to-hear-that-particular-song type of guy, but The Dripping Tap is their Stairway To Heaven, Freebird, and Born To Run rolled into one. Onstage, they remind me of Guided By Voices and Pavement a lot; not in the type of music they play, but in the complete lack of artifice and the "We're just a bunch of regular guys" vibe they have when they perform. It's all about the music for them.
Unlike some past editions where the end of Boston Calling felt like the end of summer vacation, I've got more live music on my calendar in the next four months than I've had in a very long time, if ever, so I definitely don't have that thing going on right now.
Last Edit: May 29, 2023 11:09:58 GMT -5 by tw12 - Back to Top
Post by thebluebus on May 29, 2023 11:14:21 GMT -5
First Boston Calling so I don’t have much to go on, but my takeaways:
Bad: So was the Red stage sound worst than that before?? Because if this year was better, I could only imagine how bad it was previously. Alanis’s vocals were really low at times and it affected a lot of her songs. Chelsea Cutler had issues too. Just seems like something that should be fixed if it’s a reoccurring issue.
Food lines were among the worst I’ve encountered at a fest. Just horrible. After Fri, I decided to just eat right before coming to the fest and then tough it out and not eat until we got back to the hotel. Wasn’t trying to waste 45 mins waiting for food. Also, the drink selection was trash. Like seriously, you can’t have any other options?
Was there really only one water refill station? I heard there was one over by the Merch but didn't see another anywhere. Can't count how many Liquid Deaths we had to buy just to refill out bottles. That sucked.
So COVID is done and we just forget about personal hygiene I guess? Is it that hard to get a few hand washing stations at the porta-potttys? Same shit at Roo last year. I don't get it. VIP bathrooms were fine but speaking of which...
Not sure VIP was worth it at all. The lounge was a hotbox with no AC so didn’t even spend much time in there. It was way cooler outside. Is it always like that? Sat wasn’t even that hot so I could only imagine a tent with no AC in the hotter days. And that’s the VIP lounge? Laughable. They also could have done a better job clearing out the area to get to the VIP entrance for Green/Red. It was a pain just to get there and get in. I mean the navigation between Red/Green was bad all-around tho.
Good: The music. The cancellations for Fri were rough but getting The National for a longer time was good. Not getting “Once Upon A Poolside” or any of their piano-based jams was disappointing but we also got "I Need My Girl" and some other good ones I wasn't expecting. Overall, I enjoyed their set.
Mt Joy was pleasantly surprising. I like a good deal of their stuff but hadn’t seen them live before so this was the first time. Liked that they brought out Joy Oladokun at the end.
The sound issues aside, I thought Alanis did a good job and had some really cool moments with some songs (Uninvited was awesome.) Maybe a little more crowd interaction would have been good, but it was still a nice set.
The Lumineers were a great time, idgaf what anyone says.
My favorite thing of all tho was that this was the first time I’ve taken my daughter to a music festival and she loved it. Wasn't sure how she'd handle it... Lots of walking around, waiting, and all that, but she was genuinely engaged with it all and didn’t complain once. That was dope to see.
nahhhh. i like gizz but to be honest that paramore set was 1000x better than both times i saw them. i also think that, like MMJ, they are entirely overrated by this board and the internet in general. also apples to oranges etc
Last Edit: May 29, 2023 12:19:14 GMT -5 by Deleted - Back to Top
i also love that they made a comment about the naysayers at the beginning too and pretty much said “we’re gonna prove you fuckers wrong”
Lol that's great. I'm extra peeved now Roo didn't make the jump with them. Would have been a perfect Saturday woman-fronted headliner.
You can tell by watching them that Paramore are at peak confidence in how well they have honed their entire craft.
yeah they strike me as an act that would have been headlining festivals a long time ago if it werent for the misogyny within pop punk/rock scenes. they blew the killers, eminem, jack white, tool, and chance out of the water. Probably my favorite headliner here next to tame impala and nine inch nails
Post by jmuppett7686 on May 29, 2023 12:21:33 GMT -5
Went all three days
Friday got there around 2pm, biggest complaint was the merch line we were in line for an hour and a half to buy merch in the Chase Card line. Thankfully noone we wanted to see was on. We got food and watched the Beaches Chelsea Cutler and Dropkick. Beaches were cool, Chelsea Cutler not my thing. Also didn't really care for Dropkick that much but I just find them cheesy, will say good for BC for getting a decent replacement for Yeah Yeah Yeahs last minute. Watched The National they were good, 3rd time seeing them. Foo Fighters were good too, had some trouble hearing them from the left side of the stage a bit and lots of people talking but good performance. Didn't seem too crowded definitely less people than Metallica than last year
Saturday IMO the weakest day BC had since moving to the complex, besides maybe Saturday 2017. I'm also not a fan of folk rock or whatever genre the Lumineers/Mumford and sons are. Got there around 2pm saw Loveless (sounded like Warped Tour, apparently learned like alot of other artists are big on tiktok) also saw the Aces, both were decent. Got food and went over to Declan McKenna though he was good. Went after to see Actor Observer, like that BC showed some love to a local Metalcore band. Watched a bit of Fletcher and than went to see a few Noah Kahan songs. Crowd was massive, don't think I've seen a crowd that big ever at BC. Not really a fan of his music but I get the appeal. Afterwards went over and got a good spot for Flaming Lips. Flaming Lips were incredible tied for favorite set of the week. Great booking by BC to have them over on blue for the people who aren't into stomp stomp clap. Left after Flips and saw the celtics win
Sunday was the day I was looking forward to the most got there at 2pm Wunderhorse was cool, reminded me of 90s alt rock in a good way. Saw a bit of Linda Lindas and went over to Brutus. Brutus was great, been looking forward to finally seeing them since I started listening to them in 2019, went over to catch 070 shake and only saw her do the end of the Kids See Ghost song since they ended early. Went back over for Genesis Owusu, he was great too tied with Brutus for best undercard act. Afterwards went and got food and walked past Walkmen for a song they sounded good. Went over to Queens of the Stone Age, they were incredible tied with Flips as favorite set, they sounded so good, glad they fixed the sound issues on red for them. After Queens we watched Paramore, they were great, definitely headliner worthy despite the naysayers here. Crowd was really into it.
Overall was disappointed with the lineup this year compared to others but had a great time. I personally didn't think the food lines were that bad. Saturday was definitely the most crowded Friday and Sunday were pretty manageable. Hope this doesn't mean BC will go towards more folk music and less rock/rap in future editions. The biggest thing they need to do is expand the merch and hire some more people to work the booths. The people there looked overwhelmed. Wonder how much revenue was lost because people didn't want to wait in lines. I personally wanted to get a Flips shirt but opted not to because the line was too long. Also big L by BC booking King Gizz at the same time as Paramore and especially QOTSA. King Gizz one of my favorite bands but opted for Paramore because I saw King Gizz twice last year and haven't seen Paramore since 2013.
Hell no, I left right after Gizzard wrapped up a few minutes before 10. I could hear a song in the distance as I was walking out, and it sure wasn't anything punk pop.
The Dripping Tap > Every Paramore Song, Ever
Is it not being pop-punk supposed to be a dig? They’ll play some old hits, but they haven’t been pop-punk in a decade, and fortunately so, because their best music has been since then. Also didn't you say yourself you didn't know any of their music? So the animosity you seem to have towards them is... odd, you could say.
Lol that's great. I'm extra peeved now Roo didn't make the jump with them. Would have been a perfect Saturday woman-fronted headliner.
You can tell by watching them that Paramore are at peak confidence in how well they have honed their entire craft.
yeah they strike me as an act that would have been headlining festivals a long time ago if it werent for the misogyny within pop punk/rock scenes. they blew the killers, eminem, jack white, tool, and chance out of the water. Probably my favorite headliner here next to tame impala and nine inch nails
Yeah I mean I know I’m a big fan (even more so after this last show blowing me away), but they’ve got all the criteria of a major fest headliner. The sound, the production, the performance, the hits, and a star fronting them.
Hell no, I left right after Gizzard wrapped up a few minutes before 10. I could hear a song in the distance as I was walking out, and it sure wasn't anything punk pop.
The Dripping Tap > Every Paramore Song, Ever
Is it not being pop-punk supposed to be a dig? They’ll play some old hits, but they haven’t been pop-punk in a decade, and fortunately so, because their best music has been since then. Also didn't you say yourself you didn't know any of their music? So the animosity you seem to have towards them is... odd, you could say.
They hate a woman with thoughts and opinions, pretty clear.
For a lineup i was not super in love with, i had a great weekend. Didn't really expect anything less, it's always a good time no matter who is playing. Just more music discovery than normal, which was pretty fun and took some of the pressure off of wanting to rush around to catch half-sets.
Couple of things that stand out/are worth commenting on:
Noah Kahan is the best and I'm very mad he blew up as fast as he did. I didn't know he existed until like 6-9 months ago and now it's too late. Would've been so so great to see him at smaller venues the last few years. He was so good on Saturday, even if i wish half as many people were there.
Local bands are good! With a weaker lineup, i listened to more of the local bands, spent time at the Orange stage which i didn't hit once in 2022, and it was mostly very good. Couch is incredible. Q-Tip Bandits, GA-20, Blue Light Bandits, and Juice were all really solid and i'd go see them if they were playing somewhere small and fun around town. Definitely will be going to that Couch show at Royale in the fall.
Crowds: Friday was more crowded earlier in the day than past Fridays, which i feel like are always a late-arriving crowd. Saturday felt like the most crowded i've ever seen that place. God i hate large crowds, and because of the music it was a tonnnn of bros and woo girls, just not my kinda scene. still had fun, just had to be a lot farther away than i would've liked. then sunday was amazing. a bartender i know told me at the beginning of the day that they had sold almost 15,000 fewer tickets for sunday compared to the sellout saturday. that was the right amount of people. i wish it was that sized crowd every day.
Red Stage sound issues i think are actually position-based. Alanis sounded great from where i stood, but i had a friend in another area say that people were actively chanting "we can't hear you" during her set because the sound was so bad over there. Really confusing that they would have dead zones between speaker positioning like that, but it feels like that has to be what happened. My group was right where the speaker on the back of the red stage soundbooth was pointed (tower labeled B) kinda toward Platinum, just far back enough that we could see the whole stage but had that big speaker pointed right at us. It was the best spot to hear Red as far as i could tell.
Other logistics: we didnt have any trouble with food lines or beer lines or bathroom lines. all fairly quick and easy. i wish there were still food options spread around a bit more, though, like something near Blue. also a huge bummer to not have Mikeller back, though the extra bathrooms over there were helpful. (i didn't try to buy merch and never do. who the hell cares enough about getting a t-shirt to wait in line for an hour? just buy it online you psychos.)
Only went Sunday and had a great time. Blue stage was the move all day for me.
The blue stage run of Brutus > Genesis Owusu > Walkmen > King Gizzard was awesome. Each set was tremendous - got close for all except Gizz. Brutus ripped, Genesis was such a great time and Walkmen sounded great. Gizz did what Gizz does - standard fabulous set.
I left in between to catch parts of Maren Morris and Queens of the Stone Age. Thought Queens sound wasn’t great behind the VIP on the left - too quiet for sure.
Also caught the last 40 minutes of Paramore, which was excellent. Tough decision to see King Gizz for the umpteenth time over Paramore for the first, but will see Paramore at Roo next month.
Linda Lindas were a lot of fun (left early for Brutus), and Wunderhorse was OK. Stacked day for me - had a great time.
