Editor’s Note: Chances are, by now, we’re all aware that Boston Calling is happening this weekend across the sprawling Harvard Athletic Complex in Allston. But Vanyaland Music Editor, Boston Victoria Wasylak is filling us in on what’s happening inside the festival, covering the sights and sounds from the grounds to the stage and everything in between. As she covered Friday’s Day 1 (May 27), a few of the live performances really stood out, and those are highlighted below. Be sure to check her report on the festival’s best selfie locations, and keep it locked to our continuing coverage throughout the weekend. — Michael Marotta
Pom Pom Squad
It’s rather poetic to witness Death of a Cheerleader while sprawled out on the lawn of the Harvard Athletic Complex, isn’t it? Lead singer and guitarist Mia Berrin snarled through a set with her project Pom Pom Squad as the first performer on the Delta Blue Stage, tearing pages from her fuzz-rock confessional of a debut LP. With a 35 minute performance that served acerbic slices of 2021’s Death of a Cheerleader, Berrin’s self-proclaimed strain of “chaotic stupid” shone brighter than the most bedazzled variety uniform. Is she the “scariest girl on the cheerleading team,” or is her bleeding heart — like the one emblazoned into her ivory corset — going to send her six feet under, as the album’s title implies? Maybe’s Berrin’s a little bit of both. Either way, midday misery never tasted this sweet.
Avenue
From the moment he stepped onto the Tivoli Audio Orange Stage, Avenue was repping the streets of Boston. “We’re here for one thing, and one thing only, and that’s to give you the most-Boston Boston Calling of your life,” he told the crowd. “Know it’s always been about my backyard.” At a time when the Roxbury-raised rapper could have soaked up the spotlight by himself, he instead called his collaborators to front and center, sharing applause with creatives like Hil Holla, Cam Bells, Megazoyd, and New Orleans’ Chase N. Cashe. Avenue didn’t just perform his top single “The Landscape” yesterday — he demonstrated in real time how he and his crew are shaping it.
Avril Lavigne
It’s been too easy to dismiss Avril Lavigne for decades. First for her teenage brooding (young women with complicated emotions, who can take them seriously?), then for a conspiracy theory about her death and alleged body double, and finally for her many ill-fated marriages, including one to the most publicly mocked frontman in music history.
But when Lavigne stormed the Delta Blue Stage on Friday evening — following Friday’s other women-fronted band Pom Pom Squad and HAIM — her influence became undeniable. The pioneer in femme fatale pop-punk tipped her top hat to the 20th anniversary of her debut album Let Go with a thorough timeline of her metamorphosis during the early aughts. Between the eyeliner-smeared classics (“Complicated,” “Sk8er Boi,” “I’m With You”) and her open embrace of peppy brat rock (“What The Hell,” selections from her new LP Love Sux), Lavigne proved that she doesn’t have to choose between the titles of teen queen or rock royalty. And she won’t hesitate to remind you.
“Hell yeah, I’m the motherfucking princess!” she squealed on “Girlfriend,” her rebel yell magnum opus from The Best Damn Thing. It’s just as true in 2022 as when she first proclaimed it in 2007.
Nine Inch Nails
Few things are more damning to a Puritanical town like Boston than blasting the chorus of Nine Inch Nails’ song “Closer” — a song not just about fucking, but about fucking so good that it brings you closer to God. Then imagine that refrain blaring through speakers so massive that you can hear it half a mile down the Charles River. It’s blasphemy, but blasphemy with a buh-CH buh-CH beat so bold it could make Harvard’s astroturf quake. Trent Reznor knows it, too, making sure to add “Heresy” to Friday’s headlining set on the Green Stage to accompany the affront to Boston’s liberal but oddly prude sensibilities. If there is a hell, we’ll see each other there. But before that happens, we’ll see Nine Inch Nails again on Saturday night, a last-minute replacement for a Covid-stricken Strokes.