Boston Calling 2017

TOOL: 

Tool are the reason I bought a ticket to Boston Calling.  I saw them on the line-up and immediately bought a 3 day pass since they hadn’t announced which day they were playing yet and I was afraid that it was going to sell out.  I looked at the rest of the line-up after I bought the ticket and was pleasantly surprised to see some other acts I dig that would also be playing.  

Tool are probably the artist most responsible for me becoming an musician/artist.  In 7th grade Pearl Jam were the band that got me to buy a guitar - In 8th grade Tool were the band that made realize music could be a spiritual thing and changed how I looked at music.  The last time I saw Tool was over a decade ago - and to me their music has only improved to me as I’ve gotten older - I’m able to appreciate it more as my ear has grown and I've experienced more things.  I consider them one of the few rock bands who are better than (or at least as good as) the Beatles - who have pushed the boundaries of their genre and perfected it more than any other band has.  

So needless to say - my expectations were sky high - and Tool surpassed them.  They opened with “The Grudge” - and it was every bit as heavy and transcendental as I could have hoped for.  Some other highlights were “Third Eye”, “Opiate” (which had a new extended jam section in it - which I almost mistook for a new song until they went right back into the hook), as well as the jam in “Schism”.  Their visuals were unreal and I can't even articulate how incredibly inspired I was by the production.  I could honestly gush on about them forever - but it was easily one of the greatest rock concerts I have ever been to and well worth the price of the Boston Calling ticket.  

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS: 

BON IVER:

I was really curious about his new live set up - The first half of his set he performed off his new record “22, A Million” which I don’t really care too much for compositionally (which I wrote about in my end of 2016 list) - so outside of a few tunes and a more improvisational extended section of “21 Moon Water” I found myself just wishing I had seen him during a different tour and that Collin Stetson was still playing with him.  But the second half of the set he played the first few tracks off his self titled record as well as a couple cuts from “For Emma, Forever Ago” which were adapted for the new sound pallet he had been working with.  These songs maintained their compositional integrity and were able to take on a new life which was dope to experience.

CHANCE THE RAPPER  

Chance was one of the closing acts on Friday - and although I was slightly hesitant with my decision to see him over Sigur Ros (the hardest decision of the weekend) - it was definitely a choice I was happy with by the end of his set.  He was backed by the live band The Social Experiment - and it was one of the best live band hip-hop set I’ve seen.

He played mostly from the gospel inspired album "Coloring Book" but also played tracks that he had been a part of in collaboration with other artists such as "Sunday Candy" and his work with Kanye on "The Life of Pablo" - such as "Ultralight Beam"

His visuals were very cartoonesque and perfectly fit the tunes - and his energy was uplifting and often reminiscent of a preacher - and he completely succeeded in bringing the positive spiritual vibes to the rain soaked listeners.

CONVERGE: 

Although the person mixing them did not mix them right for their sound (for one thing the vocals were way too loud) - and a 3:00 PM set isn’t ideal for this kind of music - they still delivered one hell of a performance.  The set was brutal - initially playing a lot of their faster material, opening with one of my favorites of their’s “Dark Horse”, and then going into a lot of their slower tempo compositions as the set progressed - closing with the epic “Jane Done” 

COMPLAINTS:

SCHEDULING CONFLICTS:  So this is one that a lot of people are saying - but why on earth would they create some of these overlaps?  I mean...just look at this schedule if you haven't seen it lol.  For me these terrible overlaps happened on Friday and Sunday - and on Saturday there was only one artist I actually wanted to see (Danny Brown).  And I heard many people complaining on Saturday - such as that they had to choose between The 1975 and The XX (whose music is relatively in a similar genre)…while I basically decided on the one I disliked the least between the two.  I assume their logic was that they would have the similar acts be on the same day and have the bigger acts later on in the night - but in doing so they created so many overlaps that could have been avoided if they made the things happening simultaneously on different stages be things that would definitely appeal to different audiences.  

SOLANGE: Solange backed out of performing hours before she was supposed to go on because of “production delays and complications beyond her control.”  I was super bummed about this since this was one of the acts I was most excited to see.  They got Migos to replace her whose set was boring as fuck.   

NO LOCAL ACTS: I understand that this is a mainstream festival - not one that aims at building a Boston music community - but it would have been so easy for them to have a local tent of artists from the Boston electronic music scene (or any of the Boston scenes for that matter).  Or to book some more local acts earlier on in the day.  They’ve booked some Boston legends such as The Pixies and Converge - but it would great to see this expand to some of the more up and coming acts as well.