We always like to say that music festivals are all about moments, and Memorial Day weekend’s Boston Calling should provide plenty. One moment we are looking forward to very much arrives Sunday evening, when The Walkmen return to town and hold court on the Blue Stage. The reunited New York City indie band are equipped with one of the greatest songs we’re likely to hear all weekend, “The Rat,” and they dusted it off after a decade of dormancy earlier this week by performing it live on CBS’ The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
The appearance marked The Walkmen’s first performance in 10 years, a nice little warm-up before a reunion tour that kicks off Saturday night (April 22) at Rhode Island’s Westerly Sound.
This rendition of “The Rat” is raw and visceral, and the yearning track sounds just as lethal as it did when we all first heard it back in 2004 as part of the band’s acclaimed sophomore album Bows + Arrows. And hey, we all probably relate to this lyric quite a lot nearly two decades later: “When I used to go out, I would know everyone that I saw / Now I go out alone if I go out at all.”
Ahead of their Colbert dance, The Walkmen offered up this statement: “Ever since we started The Walkmen, we’ve done everything by the seat of our pants. We don’t ‘plan’ much. So during our Zoom ‘planning’ meeting, we decided the best way to play together for the very first time would be on national television without a single rehearsal… I guess there will be a soundcheck but we don’t even know if this equipment works.”
Feel the heat.