Apparently, two things are true across all genres and stages at this year’s Boston Calling: Artists love Chappell Roan (so do we), and they love free catered seafood. As the annual Memorial Day weekend festival packed the Harvard Athletic Complex with sweat-drenched music fans savoring the first taste of summer, we pulled aside the people who know the festival best — the performing artists who get to experience Boston Calling from both the stage and behind the scenes. As we look back on a weekend filled with pink cowgirl hats, epic covers, and exemplary New England talent, we present our research about the best songs, sets, and snacks from the weekend, according to acts from this year’s lineup.
MARIS
What was your favorite song to play at the festival? Probably my favorite song to perform was “False Idol,” because we got to do choreography with dancers. It all came together so well — I also made my visuals with CapCut, so on the screen in the background, there was a video of me doing the same dance and we all lined up so perfectly. It looked larger than life. Also, that choreo is so fun, I could do it with my eyes closed, and I probably did, because it was so hot and I was so tired!
What’s the best set you’ve seen so far? Reneé Rapp was amazing, that was really sweet. I hadn’t even seen her live before, so that was pretty cool. I’m so over-the-moon excited to see Chappell Roan and Megan Thee Stallion, and The Killers.
What’s the best thing you’ve eaten? We had sushi and it blew my mind. It was so fresh. I think it was at Oishii? I want to get a lobster roll. That’s something I’m looking for.
What’s the best thing you’ve seen on the festival grounds? The best thing I’ve seen is fans of the music that have shown up and sang the words at me, which is cray-zay! I have kind of weird imposter syndrome sometimes, so looking out [into the crowd] I was like, “why do you know these words? why are you singing along?” Confusing genuinely to me. I went to the merch stand after and signed some t-shirts, and I’m always like “what’s your favorite animal?” and I draw it from memory. Like, “oh, that time MARIS tried to draw a seahorse with her left hand from memory at Boston Calling” will hopefully be a fun memory for a long time. But at the festival specifically… I love the free sun sunscreen. I have not stopped talking about it.
Backstage tidbit: I just worked with the Boston Music Project, which is a nonprofit that brings music lessons to schools to schools in the city that don’t have the funding to hire music teachers. The morning of the 22nd, I got to go in and sing and dance with a bunch of elementary school kids. It was such a full circle experience — obviously it’s an amazing opportunity to play Boston Calling, which is a huge music festival with all these major artists, but it was also so special to see these musicians in the community that are making a huge impact on a day-to-day basis with all of these young kids.
Paper Lady
What’s the best set you’ve seen so far? A bunch of us were at work [Friday], so we couldn’t get in until a bit layer, but we caught the Young The Giant set, and that was really special. — Kenzo Divic
What’s the best thing you’ve eaten? This morning we ate a bunch of oysters in the artist camp, and that was really, really amazing. They were being shucked right in front of us. — Alli Raina
What’s the best thing you’ve seen on the festival grounds? When we — me, Alex, Kenzo, and Alli — were watching Young The Giant and “My Body” was the last song they played. Just looking out into the sea of all the people waving their arms in the air and jumping up and down during one of my favorite songs from 10 years ago was so surreal. — Will Davila
Backstage tidbit: We’re playing one or two new songs, it remains to be seen. Both of them are a bit more grungy. One of them is kind of post-punk, an experimental vibe to it, which is new for us. One of them is about our realtor that we were working with when we were looking at houses and he’s just like, the worst, so we wrote this song about him. I feel like our Boston people will understand that — the frustration of working with a realtor. — Alli Raina
Cakeswagg
What was your favorite song to perform at the festival? “Big Plays” was my favorite song to perform because we have all the performers on stage, we have a big [dance] number for the hook. I’ve been working on it so much, practicing with the mic in my hand, because I noticed when I dance, I want to use both of my hands, but when you’re performing [with a mic] you can’t.
What’s the best set you’ve seen so far? I am a little sad because I didn’t get to see Ed Sheeran, but I really enjoyed hearing some of ToriTori’s set, and I’m really looking forward to seeing Billy Dean because I just know they’re going to kill it. They’re one of my favorite artists from Boston. I’m looking forward to Meg! I’m hoping she brings Glorilla, because I know they’ve been touring together. Are we getting a twofer special? Who knows?
What’s the best thing you’ve eaten? There is shrimp cocktail in the artist tent. I love seafood. That’s so New England of me to say. No seriously, I love seafood. I didn’t do the oysters because it was Wellfleet oysters, and I don’t like the briny [ones], it’s not my favorite thing. I like the sweet oysters. But the shrimp cocktail? Bussin’.
What’s the best thing you’ve seen on the festival grounds? When we were going to the stage, there was like, eight golf carts lined up. “Are you guys ready?” Oh my god, yes, yes we are! I’ve never been picked up. They were so serious. They were like, “are you guys all comfortable and secure?” and they drove us over to the stage. It was the coolest thing.
Backstage tidbit: I’m wearing custom-made Air Forces from Jugo Designs, that’s my sister. My performance bodysuit is from Born In Stockholm, they make customized festival clothing for artists, so I reached out to them a while ago to get this made. And then, my hair — with my hairstylist Ashley, we were going for like, a Harley Quinn Barbie kind of look, you know? Sweet but scary to go with the bakery theme. I was doing a play off of Hell’s Kitchen. I was like, “let’s make the play that Cake’s kitchen is scarier than Hell’s Kitchen,” so it was like a scary bakery.
STEFAN THEV
What was your favorite song to perform at the festival? It’s a new song, it’s not out yet. The crowd was jumping — it was kind of wild, honestly, I didn’t think they were going to go that hard. And “ghouls! [zombies! skeletons!”] is always fun to play. It’s a tie between those two.
What’s the best set you’ve seen so far? I just seen Chappell Roan, and she’s so sick. She had different fucking costume changes, that was super sick to see. I love seeing people perform at a top level and seeing what they do in their sets, it’s super interesting to me. I want to see Meg of course, The Killers. I mad I missed Royel Otis’ set, but it’s okay.
What’s the best thing you’ve eaten? The oysters are really good. That’s how you know it’s legit, they’re shucking it [in front of you]. I’m very picky on oysters — you can’t eat cheap oysters, or bullshit oysters, because they can really fuck you up.
What’s the best thing you’ve seen on the festival grounds? Definitely the amount of costumes I see in the crowd, and really showing their allegiance to artists. You’re seeing a bunch of cowboy hats, you see the Hozier shirts. I just like seeing people really stake their claim, like “I’m going for this person, I’m going to be in the front!” And the [golf] carts. That’s an experience. Riding in the carts is super fun. I love doing that. They can just skirt me around.
Backstage tidbit: I’ve been [to Boston Calling] as a guest in 2022, and I seen Paris Texas, I seen VB [Van Buren Records] and I seen HAIM. Avril Lavigne, too. I loved the vibe and essence, everyone was having a good time. I always thought to myself, “I’ve got to do one of these.” And now, two years later, I’m here.
The Thing
What was your favorite song to play at the festival? “Midnight” felt pretty good. It was just crazy to hear our music being played that loud for the first time, out of that kind of sound system. By “Midnight” — that was the last song — everything was super dialed in. We had so many people we love in the crowd, and it was great to just have a crowd to begin with. We didn’t know if it was going to be no one there because it’s the start of the festival. — Zane Acord
What’s the best set you’ve seen so far? The Heavy Heavy — we missed them, they played at the same time, but they our good friends, and they’re the best band that we’ve ever played with. — Zane Acord
What’s the best thing you’ve eaten? Tasty Burger. — Zane Acord
I didn’t eat oysters because I had to drum, so that’s probably not a good idea. I’m gonna wait ’til dinner, I hope there’s some left. — Lucas Ebeling
I had a gallon of clam chowder. It just went down like water. — Michael Carter
Did I hear correctly that this was your first major festival performance? How did it compare to what you imagined it would be like? it was better than I even thought. Way more friends showed up than we realized, and people who have seen us in Boston [before]. We just really appreciate that aspect of it, and all the newcomers that filled out the space. — Lucas Ebeling
It was very comfortable. Everybody in the crowd was really receptive. We felt the energy and it was nice up there — we got to take our small energetic rock sound and put it on a big stage, which felt great. — Jack Bradley
Backstage tidbit: Shout out to The Beaches, they brought us in and had us here [at Boston Calling] as guests last year. It was cool to just see the works of everything and watch them perform. They’re an amazing band. They deserve all the success that they’re getting. They’re some of the coolest people we’ve met and had the pleasure to get to know. Before Boston Calling, we played a show about two years ago in Buffalo, New York, and we opened for them. That’s when we met them and then they invited us to Boston Calling, and we did like a 10 or 11-night run [together]. It was an absolute pleasure. They’re the shit. It feels like we’re the little brothers. — Zane Acord
Royel Otis
What was your favorite song to perform at the festival? “Oysters In My Pocket, ” I feel like people really got into that, that was cool. — Roy Maddell
Or “Going Kokomo.” — Otis Pavlovic
What’s the best set you’ve seen so far? This is the last show of the tour, so we’re all going to fuckin’ jam out to The Killers. — Otis Pavlovic
What’s the best thing you’ve eaten? Have you eaten oysters since you got here? I’d be remiss not to ask. I had a couple before the show, there’s some in the artist area. They were actually really good, but it was a bit risky. I’ll have a couple more later. — Otis Pavlovic
What’s the best thing you’ve seen on the festival grounds? The best thing I witnessed was the “Sofa King” hand waves, everyone [in the crowd] doing that in unison. That was the coolest thing I’ve seen. Or him braving oysters. — Roy Maddell
Backstage tidbit [on their viral “Murder on the Dance Floor” cover]: We were talking about what cover we’re gonna do for triple j [national Australian radio station] a year in advance. I was throwing out Kylie Minogue songs and stuff like that, and our manager said “Murder on the Dance Floor.” That was months before Saltburn came out. But they were like, “oh no, that’s not really relevant.” Then we were doing rehearsal for the triple j session and our manager came in and goes “it would actually be really good if you did ‘Murder on the Dance Floor.'” We had, like, an hour to prepare for it. We thought it was going to be horrible for us but it turned out to really broaden our fan base, which is cool. — Roy Maddell
Francis of Delirium
What was your favorite song to perform at the festival? Honestly, probably the final song, “Quit Fucking Around.” Especially at a festival stage, it’s so short and sweet and just kicks everybody in the ass.
What’s the best set you’ve seen so far? I only got to see Chappell Roan. She’s doing a lot of fun stuff on stage, and the songs are way heavier live, which I thought was cool. The guitar was way more forward than I was expecting.
What’s the best thing you’ve eaten? I was hoping you were going to talk about this. This is like my favorite thing to talk about, because the best thing about festivals is catering, obviously. They’ve got a whole raw bar back there. And I had clam chowder for the first time, which is amazing.
Backstage tidbit: We pulled the setlist together in the van [that morning]. We have a longer set for our headline shows, and that’s well-rehearsed and feels really solid, but we had to play 40 minutes here, so we had to kind of scramble and figure it out.
Zola Simone
What was your favorite song to perform at the festival? Probably one of the high-energy ones like “V.” or the last one, “Not Like Other Girls.” Or maybe “What It Feels Like,” because a lot of people came [to my set] from Chappell, and I wrote it for the queer community, so I think it resonated with people. It’s really all about connection, and I felt very, very connected to the audience, and I think they felt really connected to me. And even if I fucked up, or my voice cracked, or I was out of breath, we were connected and that’s what makes a show great.
What’s the best set you’ve seen so far? Probably Reneé Rapp. She has a phenomenal voice, she has insane swagger and confidence, and not in a way where it’s like “oh, I’m better than everyone else.” It’s in a way where it’s like “I know who the fuck I am, I’m proud of that, I don’t care if you like it or you don’t.” That’s something that I think everybody should try to have a little bit of. That really shined through in her performance. I had to miss a lot of Chappell’s set, unfortunately, but I think that would have been my favorite if I stuck around.
What’s the best thing you’ve eaten? Roxy’s Grilled Cheese. I got the bacon and honey [grilled cheese] and my high school basketball coach served it to me, she was working there. Editor’s note: Simone says she doesn’t like seafood, which explains why she not mention the seafood in catering.
What’s the best thing you’ve seen on the festival grounds? My guitarist, Bobby, I met him four years ago, I was taking lessons at Guitar Center. He still does lessons — not at Guitar Center anymore — but he teaches a little girl, and he told me she played my song “Old Soul” for her recital. I got to meet her, and that was definitely my favorite moment.
Backstage tidbit: It’s easily the best moment of my life. I woke up really early [that morning] because I couldn’t sleep. I had a lot of time this morning, I went on a walk, and I played all the scenarios of how it was going to go. I was thinking, “oh, what if nobody comes because they’re all waiting for Megan Thee Stallion? What if everybody comes and it’s the best day of my life? What if this happens, what if that happens?” You can’t predict shit like that, you just can’t. It’s exceeded every expectation that I had and how I hoped it would be. It was more than that.