Boston Calling 2017: Day Three

How should you judge a festival as you reach the end? Was it the crowd, the bands, the organization (sometimes the lack thereof), or the vibe, the feel, the intensity? It is a little bit of all of these. I've been to festivals where the setup is lackluster but the music and the crowd surpass those failings. I've also seen the inverse: amazing set up but mediocre crowd and band list. But this year's Boston Calling seemed to hit all the right points.

The crowd was really large (especially for Mumford on Saturday and Tool on Sunday. But it rarely felt overwhelming. Well, maybe a bit on Sunday when some in the audience were clearly trashed and the act of moving towards the stage at Tool was akin to dodging and weaving ninjas in that Wolverine movie, except to replace the ninjas with vomiting bros. But that is a small complaint and honestly was not in the least bit surprising.

As for the music this year, make all the jokes you want about Weezer playing at Harvard and just how twee that is, but overall the lineup was pretty stellar. I was disappointed by the replacement of Solange with Migo, who made headlines with some questionably homophobic comments, but this was counterbalanced by the amazing set from the (very) queer Tegan and Sara. And despite Friday's downpour the bands performed spectacularly. Sigur Ros was especially fun to see (in the rain they came across even more moody than normal). And to catch Tool as they return to the music scene was a nice way to close the weekend. Lets hope they give a proper tour now that their legal issues are resolved.

I type this up as I prepare to leave and attend the Primavera Sound music festival in Barcelona. That festival is massive in comparison to BC. In some ways that is not a good thing. Maybe too much festival? Boston Calling felt just right. There were some hiccups especially on the media side of things (where do we go?) that seemed to go hand-in-hand with a new venue. But my complaints are minor - sight lines were terrible due to the flatness of the fields but standing on astro-turf was so much nicer than the concrete desert of City Hall. Congrats to everyone at the BC team. From my perspective the festival was a success. The shift to Harvard was a good call.