fbpx

Great Eight: Here’s who we are most excited to see and hear at Boston Calling Music Festival

With 27 bands, five comedians (officially), three days, and three stages, the seventh Boston Calling Music Festival is without question the biggest, most ambitious, and most diverse one yet. And since Robyn is headlining Saturday night, we're ready to declare it the best. But before we start dancing on our own deep in the concrete bowels of City Hall Plaza, it's important to note the sheer quality of this weekend's lineup from top to bottom. Boston Calling added an impressive array of local talent, from folky guitar-rock trio Palehound and future hip-hop superstar Michael Christmas on the big stage to comedians like Lamont Price and Ken Reid delivering the ha-ha on the side. The headliners -- Haim, Disclosure, Janelle Monae, Sia, and that aforementioned Swedish superstar -- all reflect the current climate of pop music like few of the fests before it. And we even hear there's a new Boston Calling beer. While you lick your lips for all that, drink up our official Boston Calling preview, with staff selections on just who we are most excited to party with this weekend.

Prev2 of 8Next
Swipe or use your ← → (arrow) keys

Palehound, Saturday at 12:55 p.m.

By Michael Marotta

There’s a local explosion at this year’s Boston Calling, but there’s perhaps no more exciting hometown band on the lineup than Palehound. The guitar-rock trio led by Ellen Kempner last year represented a push against a decades-long tide, actually moving to Boston from elsewhere in the Northeast. After claiming Allston as her home, Kempner’s band released Dry Food, a lyrically introspective record that landed on multiple national Best of 2016 lists. Writes NPR a few months ago: “Palehound’s Ellen Kempner has long had the words: scathing and evocative, certain even when swimming in an ocean of doubt. And with every live show, she’s finding surer and surer footing as the central force in a band that marries rock muscle to bedroom folk’s wiry vulnerability.”

Prev2 of 8Next
Swipe or use your ← → (arrow) keys