A music festival is only as good as the songs we’ll hear during it, and this weekend’s Boston Calling has enough to fill one hell of a playlist. As the festival returns for its 10th year, what initially felt like a top-heavy lineup has shown itself to be one of deep music discovery. Sure, we’re all very familiar with the likes of Foo Fighters and Paramore, and hearing “Times Like These” and “Misery Business,” respectfully, out in the crisp spring air of Allston’s Harvard Athletic Complex are sure to be ‘grammable moments for all the basics. But there’s plenty more unmissable sounds under the headliner’s heavy shadows. Here are seven songs we hope* to hear this weekend (*we make no claims of knowing the set lists in advance, so don’t @ us), a mix of the new and tested, as we get set to spend another Memorial Day weekend in the best environment possible.
The Beaches, ‘Grow Up Tomorrow’
Playing Friday, 3:55 p.m. on the Green Stage
Toronto band The Beaches crosses our northern border to deliver their band of catchy, whipsmart surf-style alt-pop, and last year’s breezy, carefree “Grow Up Tomorrow” features perhaps the best best bit of indie rock whistling since Bleached’s “Hard To Kill.” Every festival needs some whistling, and The Beaches do it in style. Their set should be well-received by a Boston audience, especially since our Bruins and their Maple Leafs both got their asses inexplicably kicked by the Florida fucking Panthers. Support group session on the Green Stage.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, ‘Maps’
Friday, 7:05 p.m. on the Red Stage Update: Yeah Yeah Yeahs have pulled out of the fest due to “illness.” Dropkick Murphys take their place.
A bit of a layup here and perhaps the most known song on the list, but we’ll jump at any chance to hear what’s pretty much a Top 5 song of the entire 2000s. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ iconic garage rock yearner was released 20 years ago (!!!) this September, and still sounds as powerful as it did when we all first rushed to buy it at Newbury Comics. The reunited New York City trio’s set should be filled with classics, and hopefully we’ll get shakers like “Y Control,” “Zero,” and “Heads Will Roll”; but “Maps” remains their gold standard. Meet us in the porta potty.
The Linda Lindas, ‘Too Many Things’
Sunday, 3 p.m. on the Red Stage
California indie-punk band The Linda Lindas went viral playing in a library in May 2021; two years later, now signed to Epitaph, they’re playing the big stage at Boston Calling and major music festivals everywhere else. Earlier this week, they released a visual for a ripper of a tune called “Too Many Things,” which they describe as “a song about how everything unfolds so fast all the time — the surprises, the disappointments, and the opportunities that pass us by at every moment.” Take a moment and realize the kids are alright.
Genesis Owusu, ‘Leaving The Light’
Sunday, 5:05 p.m. on the Blue Stage
When we’re asked who we’re most excited to see all weekend long, the immediate answer is Genesis Owusu. The Ghanaian-Australian artist born Kofi Owusu-Ansah will be headlining festivals like these in a few years, and hearing the propulsive thunder of new single “Leaving The Light” proves exactly why. We were already hyped to hear his 2022 breakout banger “Get Inspired,” but this new rager, a manic electro-funk sci-fi thumper that dropped just last week, should keep us vibrating long after the weekend ends.
Sorry Mom, ‘Teeth’
Sunday, 4:40 p.m. on the Tivoli Audio Orange Stage
Sometimes it takes a slow burn to feel something whilst standing in a field with 40,000 people, and Sorry Mom tap into into our spectrum of emotions with recent single “Teeth.” Formed in Connecticut, once based in Boston, and now calling New York home, the femme queer punk band have the Northeast on lock. The trio craft emotive, yearning music that often comes close to flying off the rails, and “Teeth” builds to a wonderfully noisy climax that should magnetically pull attendees away from whatever else they’re doing at the time.
The Walkmen, ‘The Rat’
Sunday, 6:40 p.m. on the Blue Stage
If their chaotic and unhinged performance on The Late Show is any indication, The Walkmen’s set at Boston Calling should not only be a highlight of the weekend, but barnstorming through “The Rat” should be the best five minutes of the entire fucking weekend. Residing with “Maps” at the very top of the Best of 2000s list we cited above, the forever unfuckwithable indie rock anthem from the reunited New York band is worth the price of an entire weekend pass. If the world was a just place, The Walkmen would be in The National’s slot, here and in life in general.
Queens of the Stone Age, ‘Emotion Sickness’
Sunday, 7:25 p.m. on the Red Stage
Desert rock luminaries Queens of the Stone Age release their first new album in six years next month with In Times New Roman…, and we got a jagged taste earlier this month with lead single “Emotion Sickness.” It’s classic QOTSA, punching you in the face with one hand and then nursing your bruise with the other. And for the purposes of this list, it should sound pretty fucking tight as we’re all mentally and physically exhausted come Sunday evening, pounding 5 Hour Energy and using up the last bits of our festival strength to experience Paramore close out this beast of a weekend.