Throughout their years as a band, Actor Observer have had their fair share of struggles. From lineup changes, to financial hardships and uncertainties, to a full-blown pandemic that in many ways, pulled the rug out right out from under their feet. However, they’ve worked tirelessly to push through the frustrations that come along with being a unsigned DIY band, and have not only persevered in their own creative efforts, but have also become a leading voice in the local arts community in Allston and beyond.
That leading voice brought them to even greater heights this past weekend, as they were featured on the Tivoli Audio Orange Stage at Boston Calling Music Festival on Saturday (May 27). As evident in their set, for anyone who happened to catch their time on stage, the intensity of the moment and the importance of the opportunity to represent their fellow local artists as part of the stage’s 12-act schedule was not lost on them in the slightest. True to form, they brought passion and intensity to the sun-drenched stage and even managed to open up a few short-lived circle pits within the space in the process.
Before any of that took place, though, vocalist Greg Marquis, alongside guitarists Nick Grieco and Kyle Kowalsky, and bassist Jake Satow (sans drummer Dan Bob Goterch, who was finishing up a haircut) sat down with Vanyaland ahead of their set to reflect on what the opportunity to meant to them as not only artists, but as people and New Englanders.
Of course, there were an awful lot of thoughts to be shared and emotions to be processed about such a monumental moment in the band’s history, and it’s exactly how the chat unfolded. The best part id, we only asked them one singular question: Having grown up in this scene, and essentially living right down the street, what does it mean to you to be able to play on a Boston Calling stage?
Here’s what they had to say.
Kyle Kowalsky: It means a whole lot, considering 10 years ago, we saw this festival start and make Boston a festival destination. That wasn’t something that was here before, and having happened five years after I moved to the city, I had already had such a high regard for every show and venue that popped, and playing venues around the city was such a big thing for me. Then it became ‘now there’s a festival,’ and [playing] it seemed possible from the jump with some friends of mine in 2013, when Bearstronaut got to play a huge stage, so that at least planted the seed that it could be possible for someone local to get featured, then it kept happening. Bad Rabbits, Tigerman WOAH, Weakened Friends, and my buddies in Dutch Tulips. It started as a bridge too far, then it became closer and closer until we got to this point this year. So, it certainly doesn’t feel like it’s owed to us in any way, but this became a goal, and to achieve it is very redeeming.
Greg Marquis: I moved to Boston to start my music career, because I was inspired by the local hardcore music scene. That’s what inspired me to get into this type of music and to come to this city and be part of a community. Of all the things I wanted to do, I wanted to establish a place that I could call home in this city, and establish myself as musician here, and it’s taken a long time and a lot of trial and error, but how it feels being able to play this festival, it’s very validating to be seen and acknowledged by the city that I literally came to in trying to have a career in music. It just feels really fulfilling, and while I do feel like Kyle said it perfectly, my feelings are very similar. Especially after so many years of having so much self-doubt and wondering if we’re good enough, or if I’m good enough, or if the music scene I once loved is long gone, because it’s a very different climate than it was when I moved here. There was a part of me that wondered if I was just chasing something that was never going to happen, and it just makes me really proud of our perseverance and ability to move forward. So to be acknowledged on this stage is very rewarding.
Jake Satow: This is my first time ever even attending a Boston Calling, so it’s a privilege for this to be my first experience with it. Not a lot of bands like us get to play something like this. I was having lunch with a good friend of mine the other day, and he was asking how I was feeling about this, and I didn’t really know how to feel. His advice to me was to just relish in the moment and enjoy it because we have the opportunity to do it, where a lot of people don’t. I’m just grateful to be here with my friends where we get to go up on stage and have fun for thirty minutes. Like Greg was saying, it’s very validating to be recognized and to have this opportunity.
Nick Grieco: For me, there are a lot of loaded feelings about this because I have been living in Boston as a career musician since 2006. Just like these guys, I’ve watched this festival emerge and evolve, and I’ve been involved in different ways over the years. To watch it move and grow, it’s a real bucket list thing for me. It’s the Boston gig. It kind of feels like the only way to go up from here is to just be on a bigger stage in future years, and we’ll entertain that offer whenever it comes [laughs], but for real, it’s very complicated for me because I’ve always had complicated feelings about the Boston music industry. I don’t want this to feel like a ceiling, and I am so incredibly honored to be playing such a high-traffic, high-profile music festival basically in my backyard. The fact that that’s a sentence I can say [is crazy]. I walked home after Foo Fighters played in my backyard. It’s an absolutely ridiculous statement. We’re the heaviest band on this bill, and we’re here to stake our claim as a heavy Boston band that has been busting our asses. In that same motion, we’re emerging out of the pandemic where we had a ton of the wind pulled out of our sails, just like every other musician here, and to watch this festival come back last year after those struggles, and then to be a part of it this year as the biggest Boston Calling ever, along with the record we released last year, and it just feels like our momentum has been cranking, and to be able to hit the new year with this, it’s the ultimate announcement we could have asked for.
Marquis: To the point about the genre, I think there was a part of us that never really expected us to play Boston Calling, even with it being a goal, largely because of our genre. We just didn’t see a lot of hardcore or post-hardcore bands here. It’s not Warped Tour or Furnace Fest, and we understand that it’s usually a largely indie-type fest with some wild cards here and there, so the fact that we were asked to do this is equal parts surprising and validating as members of a genre and music scene that we feel hasn’t been very strong since we first moved here.
Grieco: I don’t want to say it’s nostalgic, but there’s been a resurgence, or a new calling for this type of music. If Knocked Loose can play Coachella, and they’re heavier than we are, and Turnstile is, like, one of the biggest bands in the world right now, then it makes sense. It’s really nice to see that there are people paying attention, and the fact that the orange stage even exists is great. The amount of Boston bands at this festival is crazy to see.
Marquis: To that point, not only did we not expect to be asked to play this festival, but we’ve also been treated so professionally and with so much care by the staff and crew. We are always prepared to be scrappy underdogs –
Satow: But it felt so weird getting help loading our gear in.
Marquis: Yeah, and that matters to us not just for ourselves, but also for the local scene that local musicians are treated with respect and appreciation just as much as any national act that’s playing here. That says a lot about the spirit of the people running the festival. When you have something in your own backyard, you worry that it’s like the olympics where this giant industry swoops in and capitalizes on your town, and everyone comes for the thing and then they all leave it in shambles, but but it doesn’t feel like that here because there are a lot of people working behind the scenes that are locals. We could literally talk forever about this. [laughs]
Satow: I’d also like to note that when I first met these guys, they were playing the local stag at Warped Tour, and after having become friends with them, I saw them open the main stage at Warped Tour, so to now be a part of the band no and having this opportunity with them is pretty sick. Watching them grow and to now be a part of it, I don’t think they give themselves enough credit.
Marquis: We’re a DIY, unsigned band. We do everything ourselves. We’re self-governed, self-managed, self-booked, so it feels good to get here.
Grieco: There have been people at way worse venues that have benefitted from our presence, and have treated us way worse. [laughs] It’s all growing in the right direction, though. This is great.
Kowalsky: To summarize my feelings on all of this going on, this is my 20th year playing live music, it’s been 15 years since I moved here, it’s been eight years since my first practice with this band, and through all of those years, all I’ve done is check off boxes next to things I never thought I’d do. From the many years before I joined these guys, thinking that I tried and failed as a musician, and since then, everything has been possible. I’ll close this up with one quote I always keep with me, from Bill Parcells after the Giants won their first Super Bowl, and that’s “For the rest of your life, no one can ever tell you that you can’t do it, because you did it,” and that is how I feel about everything we try to do, so it’s on to the next one.
Marquis: “You miss one hundred percent of the shots you take,” — Wayne Jetski
Kowalsky: Dwayne “The Rock” Jetski.