Like any teenager, Boston Calling could benefit from some soul-searching

Boston Globe

a day ago

That was the price range for three-day passes at this May's edition of Boston Calling, a nostalgia-inducing affair that largely tapped into past decades with acts such as Dave Matthews Band, Public Enemy, Sublime, The Black Crowes, and a smattering of millennial catnip like Fall Out Boy, T-Pain, and Avril Lavigne. Regardless of whether guests took advantage of the specially priced presale or nabbed tickets at the last minute, admission to memory lane cost a pretty paycheck — or a few.
(Though Boston Calling did make some efforts to decrease pricing compared with 2024).
Advertisement
But attendees whose wallets feel wounded will have an extra year to save up for the festival's next edition. Last week, Boston Calling announced that it would
Get Starting Point
A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.
Enter Email
Sign Up
It's notable that next year's break marks the first time the festival has paused — COVID-19 years notwithstanding — since it launched 13 years ago in City Hall Plaza. And like any soon-to-be teenager, Boston Calling could do with a little self-reflection. Because the festival's formula wasn't always so heavy on reminiscing.
Advertisement
Boston Calling's first years in City Hall Plaza championed the musical zeitgeist of the mid-to-late 2010s, rather than peering too far into the past. Lineups moved in lockstep with — or sometimes ahead of — the trajectory of rising stars whose music would shape the landscape of the 2010s. Many of the same names that would appear on a quintessential 2010s playlist also led Boston Calling's first lineups: fun., riding a ubiquitous wave of baroque pop-rock; Passion Pit, Massachusetts's breakout electro-pop act; Lorde, then a newly minted teen queen bee via the bare-bones pop of 'Royals.' Kendrick Lamar, of course, was already bounding towards 'GOAT' status through the lyrical gymnastics of his major label debut 'good kid, m.A.A.d city.'
The fest also snapped up numerous undercard performers who would soon blossom into bona fide superstars: Halsey, Lizzo, and Twenty One Pilots (who were invited back to headline in 2019, post-mainstream breakthrough) come to mind.
Pepper in performers who were buzzy frontrunners of the era — Childish Gambino, Of Monsters and Men, Father John Misty, St. Vincent, The 1975, Bastille, Tame Impala, Hozier…must I continue? — and a vivid picture of that period comes into focus.
Often, City Hall Plaza lineups included ample well-established acts, but the hype from headliners like Pixies, Beck, and Nas with The Roots didn't outweigh the contributions of the artists who were finding their footing in (or adjacent to)the mainstream. The new and nostalgic existed in harmony.
As the festival has continued to grow into its sprawling new home at the Harvard Athletic Complex, where it settled in 2017, that focus and harmony has understandably become harder to maintain. It's far easier to arrange a cohesive mosaic with 20-something artists than with 50-plus.
Advertisement
To Boston Calling's credit, the expanded footprint has carved out much more room for
While the Sunday lineup of last year's festival assembled a constellation of star power between pop supernova Chappell Roan, formidable emcee Megan Thee Stallion, and the return of Hozier upon the success of his tune 'Too Sweet,' that single day feels like Boston Calling's most tailored-to-the-moment lineup in years. The post-pandemic editions of the festival in particular have been packed with talent but don't feel particularly tethered to the 2020s. Yes, you can pick out some fresh, driving cultural forces in recent years, like Noah Kahan, Teddy Swims, and d4vd. But the handful of buzzy acts feels dwarfed by dozens of other performers who offer more memories than era-defining new music. (I'll let you bicker in the comments about who fits that bill).
To be clear, I'm not opposed to indulging in glances in the rearview mirror. As someone who came of age during the era of bratty pop-punk, I
Advertisement
During this upcoming 'gap year,' as the festival's social media called it, the time feels right to ask: does Boston Calling want to create nostalgia, or sell it? We were all teenagers once, trying to figure out not just ourselves, but what we wanted to offer the world. Let's give Boston Calling the chance to do the same.