Sunday brought stellar performances from hometown artists and visiting stars alike at Boston Calling. The energy was high onstage and in the crowd, leading to an electric conclusion to this year’s festival.
Stunning, Amazing, Moving: Tysk Tysk Task
Words can not begin to describe the energy brought by Tysk Tysk Task. These absolutely amazingly talented folk really kicked off Sunday with a bang. Accompanied with stunning stage decorations, Lowell based, self proclaimed “woodland grunge” Tysk Tysk Task really knows how to pull the crowds attention. With songs that ranged from soft and mellow to others who hold a more guttural tone like “Colors,” which held a line where Samantha Hartsel the bands lead vocalist, screamed, “I’m sorry, you’re sorry more” during the most emotional part of the song. This caused for a quite literal standing ovation from the crowd that eagerly hung onto every word. – JC
One might say watching David Shaw, lead singer of The Revivalists take off his shoes and socks in front of thousands of people at Boston Calling was the most strange but memorable part of their set, but those same thousands of people singing back the lyrics as they covered MGMT’s “Time To Pretend” is the correct answer. This absolutely amazing performance truly riled up the crowd as the song has taken a new wave of popularity since the movie Saltburn was added to streaming platforms a few months back. Watching such an iconic song completely take over the crowd and be sung with a new perspective was something only one can experience in person. – Jaliana Colon
HOT FOR HERE!: Chappell Roan
Drone footage of Sunday’s turnout at Chappell Roan’s set will quell any hesitations changing her nobility rank to Midwest and New England Princess. The people showed UP for the rapidly rising Missouri-raised pop star, who amassed a pink-cowboy-hat-littered crowd as large as the headliners of previous nights. Her audience answered the call for places before she graced the stage, belting every word to “Red Wine Supernova” and pouring every remaining ounce of energy into the YMCA-redefined “HOT TO GO!” choreo. Whether placing a blonde wig on her mic stand and serenading it with “Picture You,” or being the second LGBTQ+ performer of the weekend to deliver a line about a Boston ex-lover on the wrong side of history (let’s do better, please), Roan justified her turnout on all fronts. – Eben Cook
Home Is Where the Heart Is: Zola Simone
Whether having arrived at the Orange Stage intentionally or because it presented an opening to escape the post-Chappell traffic jam, Zola Simone warranted all the eyes and ears in their audience. Raised in Boston before moving to New York, Simone prefaced the performance of their fresh and aptly titled single, “Boston,” by articulating the feeling of loss once they left, and the subsequent revelation that a departed place can still live within. Highlights of the set included a Dutch Rebelle appearance for a bubbly performance of “Just Business,” as well as the rose-petaled vocals and instrumental backing on “Easy”—a track written for a makeout scene in the Netflix show Atypical. Having attended previous Boston Callings as a festival-goer, they treated the set as a homecoming; let’s just hope they stay a little while longer. – EC
The Red Stage sermon was packed to the stained glass windows for the Irish aesthete… and it didn’t take MIT-caliber rocket science to understand why. Hozier stuffed the 90-minute magic show with a slew of selections from each of his three adulated full-lengths, the puzzle pieces of his now decade-long prominence proven to fit perfectly when placing “Jackie and Wilson” alongside “Francesca.” Throughlines across Hozier’s decorated career can be drawn not only on the basis of sound, but also on the basis of substance. This echoed powerfully as he dished a dense, yet coherent history lesson atop the introductory vamp to “Nina Cried Power,” highlighting once small acts of resistance in both Irish and American history that led to monumental structural change, and eventually calling on audience members to show up every day and combat the violence stifling Palestinian liberation. When coupling this impassioned fourth wall break with an acoustic performance of “Cherry Wine” as the sun met the horizon, Boston Calling witnessed a voice moving mountains. – EC
