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Daylight Saving: 12 acts to catch at Boston Calling ’18 before the sun sets

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Studio 52 is a community artist space located in the heart of Allston, and is proud to support the Boston music scene and local artist community.


Editor's Note: This article has been updated with the latest festival info and set times. Featured Big Thief image by Shervin Lainez.

A day before Boston Calling Music Festival released its full lineup, the headliners were apparently accidentally leaked online by one of the FM radio stations in town. It gave an early glimpse into the top-billing anchors of this spring's festival, going down May 25 to 27 at the Harvard Athletic Complex in Allston, and fired up the usual debates over quality and relevancy.

But it turns out the real juice for Boston Calling '18 was hidden underneath the big-font bigwigs (Eminem, The Killers, and Jack White, with notables like Queens of the Stone Age, Paramore, The National, Khalid and Tyler, The Creator on Line 2). This year's Boston Calling has maybe its strongest undercard ever, meaning a lot of the anticipated highlights will be going down while the sun is still up.

RELATED: Mass Education: Natalie Portman rolls out guest lineup for Boston Calling

Sure, we can't wait to hear The Killers play songs off Hot Fuss, Eminem's first show in Boston in 13 years should be all sorts of "Fuck Trump" fun, and Jack White is gonna Jack White the shit out of all of us whether we like it or not. But those daytime hours are where the magic truly is, and we've picked 11 bands and artists, out of the overall 45, that we are most excited about. We might come up with another 11 by the weekend.

For stage information, hit the cheap sheet way down below.

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Big Thief, Friday @ 3:25 p.m.

Like Julien Baker, Big Thief’s set will be a class in understated beauty, more about mood and atmosphere than the usual high-energy music festival fireballs that usually ring through the spring and summer air. But that’s OK, because the Brooklyn guitar-rock band are skilled as music that has a certain fragility to it, and that’ll be a nice departure from all the on-stage posturing we’ll be force-fed all weekend long. Plus, we’ll get to hear the incredible “Shark Smile,” with is alone worth Boston Calling’s ticket price. We’ll all be quietly singing “Baby, take me” in a giant field of people probably not appreciating what they are witnessing.

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