fbpx

Great Eight: Here’s who we are most excited to see and hear at Boston Calling Music Festival

With 27 bands, five comedians (officially), three days, and three stages, the seventh Boston Calling Music Festival is without question the biggest, most ambitious, and most diverse one yet. And since Robyn is headlining Saturday night, we're ready to declare it the best. But before we start dancing on our own deep in the concrete bowels of City Hall Plaza, it's important to note the sheer quality of this weekend's lineup from top to bottom. Boston Calling added an impressive array of local talent, from folky guitar-rock trio Palehound and future hip-hop superstar Michael Christmas on the big stage to comedians like Lamont Price and Ken Reid delivering the ha-ha on the side. The headliners -- Haim, Disclosure, Janelle Monae, Sia, and that aforementioned Swedish superstar -- all reflect the current climate of pop music like few of the fests before it. And we even hear there's a new Boston Calling beer. While you lick your lips for all that, drink up our official Boston Calling preview, with staff selections on just who we are most excited to party with this weekend.

Prev3 of 8Next
Swipe or use your ← → (arrow) keys

Battles, Saturday at 2:15 p.m.

By Barry Thompson

Don’t get me wrong, I like lyrics as much as the next guy. Hell, I’ve even memorized the lyrics to some of my favorite songs. Y’could even say I’m a regular lyrics-guy, boy howdy. But do we really need ‘em in every song? With last year’s woefully underappreciated La Di Da Di, noted merchants of sonic strangeness Battles said: “No. Lyrics don’t need to be in all songs. In fact, fuck words.” At it presently reads, the Boston Calling lineup places the NYC trio’s calculated aural ataxia after Lizzo, who once linked the phrases “spotlights or record deals,” with “bus passes and happy meals,” and in doing so, created her generation’s greatest in-song fast food reference. So if you hate words, show up early on Saturday for Battles. If you love words, show up a bit earlier for Lizzo. If you’re mostly kind of ambivalent to both words and music but love bandwagons, sleep late and show up just in time for Courtney Barnett.

Prev3 of 8Next
Swipe or use your ← → (arrow) keys