Boston Calling (Day One)

· by · in Concerts. ·

I am not one to keep my eye on the weather. The week before Boston Calling however, I had kept a relentless eye on the predicted rain for the weekend. We all know when the weathermen predict good weather they are much more likely to be wrong than when they predict bad weather. It was not looking good. My unwavering optimism however refused to accept the fact that it was going to be shit weather. It was. I woke up Saturday morning to gray skies, water falling from the sky and a cold that could chill you to the bone. My parents asked my brother and I if we still thought it was even worth it to go because it was so miserable. “Of course!” we replied in unison, we had paid for the tickets, we had been looking forward to it for months, the people at Woodstock toughed out the rain and so could we. Sometimes the moments  in your life when you are the most miserable become the best stories, at least after some time has passed. I mean think about it, the time I almost got frostbite in Sweden, that time you had to give that speech and you messed up, the group project that went terribly, the bad breakup, you get the point. We figured worst case scenario if we were having a terrible time we could always leave and go to my friends house where we were staying for the night.

Luckily that was not necessary. Unfortunately because my brother had a lacrosse practice in the morning that could not be missed we got a little bit of a late start. I warned him that if we missed Matt and Kim because of his practice I would be so incredibly mad I would never forgive him. That may have been a bit dramatic and we only missed Bad Rabbits and St. Lucia. We were able to hear some of Cults as we were attempting to figure out how to get into City Hall Plaza where the festival was taking place. It was very confusing. There was a huge line wrapped all the way around the Plaza and took about a half hour to get to the front, by the time we arrived and the excitement of the festival began to build we were told the line we were standing in was re-entry and VIP only. BUMMER. The line we were redirected to was much shorter and only took about five minutes to get through. So much time wasted. We were about halfway through the set of MS MR who were on City Hall Stage (the smaller of the two stages). Since Matt and Kim were up next who are one of my recent favorite artists I wanted to get closer to the stage so we walked over to the main stage. They has screens up where you could see the performance but the speakers were not emitting any sounds from that performance. That was probably one of my biggest peeves of the whole festival. If a band was playing on the Main Stage the speakers at City Hall Stage played the music and you could see the artist on the screen, so you didn’t feel fully left out. However if you were at the Main Stage you were only half included in the performance going on across the plaza and that was very frustrating not just to me but a bunch of other people in the crowd.

The lead singer from MS MR from the look on the screen literally looked so happy to be alive. Even without sound, just from her mannerisms and the smile spread from ear to ear on her face. You could tell this was just a dream come true for her and it was very refreshing to see. Far too often I feel as though artists become jaded, cynical and pompous with even the smallest amount of fame thrown their way.  After their set winded down excitement fluttered through the crowd over at the Main Stage. It was only a matter of time before the next artist began. The second Matt and Kim took the stage the energy in the crowd noticeable increased despite the cold. As soon as the first notes of Block After Block wafted over the crowd, aided by the wind. Frozen limbs began to move and before you knew it a full out dance party began in the plaza. The Boston Bounce was in full swing and the amazing energy exuded from the band made people forget about the weather if only for a few songs. The thing I was most surprised about by their performance was that it was not just your typical set, it really was a show. The two of them play extremely well off each other and you can tell that they are close and have been interacting with audiences for a while.  They had the crowd laughing with their jokes and with Kim’s dating service where she promised to get everyone laid and Matt vouched for her 100% success rate. Kim also told the crowd that she was going to be watching us and that the person who was the craziest would get her shoes. The two of them were crazy. Running around, jumping around, bouncing around, yelling and overall playing fantastic music. Matt had a button on his keyboard that would play the song Bugatti by Ace Hood every time he pressed it, We danced to Bugatti  a lot, towards the end Matt explained he couldn’t help but press it because it was just too tempting and just too good. My favorite songs of the afternoon was Cameras, Let’s Go, Daylight and it’s Alright, granted those are their more popular songs but those songs had the most people dancing. Some of the other songs they played I felt like I was the only one in my area dancing, but all I had to do was look up and see a vast variety of people crowd surfacing to know I was not alone in my enjoyment.

Here are a few of my videos I took from Matt and Kims performance:

Bouncing 🙂

talking to the crowd,

releasing the balloons they had us blow up, my favorite part of the show, that and the glitter sticks made it an even more unique performance

Let’s Go

After that performance my brother and I opted to skip Portugal. The Man and grab dinner since we didn’t want to miss any other artists that night. We made it back in time for The Shins, this may be a very hipster statement but I have been a fan of theirs since I was in 7th grade, I am now a college graduate, basically I was way ahead of the curve. This performance however did not do it for me. I thought it was boring and uninspired. My brother, who is an even bigger fan of The Shins however thought it was fantastic. Not quite sure where the gap was for us that we both had such massively different experiences from a band we both love. I just felt like they did not interact with the audience and after Matt and Kims performance it felt like a huge downer. The songs were slower and the explosive energy and passion I was waiting for was not there. My brother even agreed with me when I said it was not the right venue for that kind of show. Clearly not everyone was fans so in the crowd there was a lot of talking going on which was frustrating for those of us who were trying to listen. At a few points I wanted to lean over to people who were chatting and say “I’m sorry is my concert interrupting your conversation, there is a Starbucks across the street.” People also clearly wanted to dance and were yearning for crowd interaction but it never happened. It was extremely disappointing.

Next up was Marina and the Diamonds. Throughout the day I had heard people talking about her and saying they couldn’t wait to see her and there were a plethora of girls with hearts drawn under their eyes, her signature trademark. I was looking forward to see what all the fuss was about and wandered my way over to City Hall Stage, after ten minutes we had had enough, it was not good, at least I didn’t get it. We figured if we walked back over to the main stage we could get better spots for Fun. the closing act for the night. While waiting for Marina to finish and Fun. to take the stage I made friends with this guy who lost his friends in the crowd. We would occasionally glance up at the screen to watch Marina (and remember we could not here what was going on, except for a ton of teeny boppers screaming) and every time we looked up it was just always more absurd. One second she was holding an inflatable hamburger and coke, then she was laying on a couch hugging a teddy bear and finally to top it off, dancing with a mannequin wearing extremely tight red underwear, it was very confusing to many of us in the crowd but it made for a lot of good talking points and comraderie amongst the crowd, even if for nothing but sheer confusion.

After Marina had faded out and the crowd was waiting for Fun. you could tell just by looking around that people were starting to get to the end of their ropes, people were shivering, a lot more people were complaining but as soon as Fun. took the stage all that was forgotten about. They brought an enthusiasm to the crowd that to me had not been seen since the first performance I saw of the day, they played all of their hits, some less popular songs that I knew, and a few I didn’t that I downloaded the second I got home. Singing to those songs with a massive crowd of 16,000 people was an exhilarating feeling and it felt as if our voices were echoing throughout Boston and resonating through the city streets. They also did two cover songs which were unique for the day and very refreshing. I love seeing older songs reinvented for a new generation and continue to leave a legacy. Fun. did a great rendition of Julio Down By the School Yard originally by Paul Simon that had the whole crowd singing to, creating a resonating feeling of togetherness followed by a cover of The Stones You Can’t Always Get What You Want. Which seemed perfect for the day. Although we wanted nice weather, we didn’t get it and we had to deal with it. But at the end of the night we all felt fulfilled and we got what we needed.

Here are some of my videos of Fun. Sorry for the shaking not completely focused camera, not sure what was wrong with it.

Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard

You Can’t Always Get What You Want

Some Nights

After the final note of their set the plaza quickly emptied and my brother and I headed to my friends place in Cambridge to get a good nights rest to prepare for another day of great music.

 

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