Friday night was pretty much an alt-folk showcase, Saturday night was a dance party that wrapped with a Alt-J’s trippy cool down, and Sunday afternoon restored Boston Calling’s collective faith in guitar bands.
See this Hungry Hungry Hippos table?
Note that no one is playing it.
That’s because they were too busying being enraptured the rawk, yo.
Go forth and learn of the glorious mayhem — excluding Twin Shadow, who I skipped to go write this. Although we should note he used to play in Boston’s Mad Man Films in the early 2000s, and we’re all very happy about how well he’s done for himself in Brooklyn.
Dirty Bangs
Speaking of hometown bands of yore, Evan Kenney fronted Read Yellow and Bodega Girls before his latest endeavor, Dirty Bangs, which sports a handful of other faces oft-seen mingling around the Boston music campfire (These Wild Plains, Kingsley Flood, etc.). Let us take a moment to admire the fortitude it requires to start another band once every three years.
Then again, we are all going to die sometime, as Kenney crooned at the end of Sunday’s first performance of the day. Dirty Bangs specialize in the straight-ahead rock ‘n roll that’s bound to go over well anywhere, and I didn’t hear anyone among the smattering of early arrivers complaining. Kenney also mentioned something about feeling struck by a laser beam from outer space, if memory serves, but we’re pretty sure he meant that in a figurative, positive way.
Bully
The overwhelming consensus is Bully’s Feels Like sits atop the heap of 2015 albums, so why does it make sense for the gnarly Nashville quartet to play before anyone expects two-thirds of the ticket holders to show up? I realize Bully weren’t as big of a deal six months ago, and it’s been too late to move their name higher up the poster for a while, but hasn’t there been plenty of time to rearrange the set order?
The problem with writing about Bully is it’s both reductive to compare them to the numerous alt/grunge/punk they’re likely to remind us of, and dishonest to do otherwise. To offer one I haven’t read before, sometime during “Brainfreeze,” I thought “Hey, this totally could’ve been a Green Day song. Except not shitty Green Day, good Green Day. Pre-Dookie Green Day. Sweet deal!” Possibly to throw us reference makers for a loop, Bully booted up a smoke machine and finished their set with a cover of Butthole Surfers’ “Who Was In My Room Last Night?” Usually, Bully does not look or sound anything like the Butthole Surfers.
FIDLAR
When I complained about the lack of bands who would offend my easily offended Grandma at Boston Calling, I forgot about Doomtree, and I had also forgotten about FIDLAR. Doomtree contended with, and ultimately won over, a crowd that never goes to hip hop shows. Fidlar may have faced similar obstacles in the name of punk. After the first chorus of “Cheap Beer” the audience should have understood that they’re supposed to yell, “I drink cheap beer, so what? Fuck you!” in conjunction with the band when they do the same. Boston Calling mostly did not understand this, or chose not to. I’m also not sure if we all stood up when we were supposed to during Fidlar’s outro tune, “Cocaine,” but we tried our best to time it right. There were also a pair of mannequins dressed like R. Kelly on stage, because why not, yeah?
I observed at least two basics mimicking a floor punch shuffle, and another basic attempted a sort of air guitar/air drums dance combo that was certainly original, so cudos to those people. The occasion prompted Zac Carper to reminisce about his time at Berklee College of Music, a school he says kicked him out, we’re guessing for being so talented that he was making the other kids look bad. FIDLAR rules everyone’s face. To death.
@FIDLAR u guys know wassup ???????????? pic.twitter.com/nThLs3stmd
— HERMAN (@odrareg222) September 27, 2015
Daughter
Taking in Daughter immediately following FIDLAR was like drinking a mango banana smoothie, then immediately chugging a mocha frappe-style milkshake. Everyone loves smoothies, everyone loves milkshakes, but it felt a little awkward transitioning from FIDLAR’s frenzy to Daughter’s pensive, icy terrains. That’s two totally different kinds of energy that don’t quite mesh side by side.
Not to knock Daughter for being in the wrong place at the wrong time (to entertain me, anyway); more bands should play their electric guitars with a bowstring, and more drummers should use timpani mallets on the floor toms.
More to come.
For a complete photo gallery of Saturday’s action, click here. All live photos by Eddy Leiva for Vanyaland. Follow Barry Thompson on Twitter @BarelyTomson, and stay tuned for more updates from Boston Calling all weekend long.