Don’t tell me that the festivals that program hip-hop are the only ones to have to manage cancellations…
Talk to the organizers of Boston Calling, a rock-heavy festival held last weekend at Harvard’s athletics complex.
In December 2019, the festival confirmed that Rage Against The Machine would take part in its 2020 edition. It was canceled due to the pandemic.
Never mind, Rage Against The Machine was reconfirmed for the 2021 edition… which didn’t happen either.
Then, RATM was confirmed again for the 2022 edition, but with a few months notice, the group canceled part of its tour… including its presence at Boston Calling.
The festival found solutions, and announced that the Foo Fighters would play on Friday, The Strokes on Saturday, and Metallica on Sunday. A fine trio of headliners for the thirties and forties who are fueled by the rock of the last thirty years.
However, as we know, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins died on March 25, and the Foo Fighters canceled their tour. Boston Calling had to find a new headliner for Friday. They called on Nine Inch Nails.
Then, with 24 hours notice, we learn that one of the members of The Strokes has tested positive for COVID. Another headliner to replace, the day before the show…
All this, not to mention that King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard also had to cancel due to a case of COVID, and that Celisse and Frances Forever could not take the stage, due to a violent thunderstorm which caused stopping the festival for almost two hours on Saturday. It was raining tiles in Boston.
But to return to the Saturday headliner, Trent Reznor and his band played the saviors by agreeing to offer a second performance in two evenings to replace The Strokes.
Not that we were going to complain about being entitled to almost four hours of Nine Inch Nails in two evenings!
Especially since Trent Reznor and his musicians – guitarist Robin Finck, keyboardist Atticus Ross, bassist and keyboardist Alessandro Cortini and lightning drummer Ilan Rubin – are in Olympian form and offer a more relevant show than ever. What am I saying… TWO SHOWS more relevant than ever!
Because not only did Nine Inch Nails offer two shows in two nights, they offered two completely different ones!
Friday night, the band probably played the same song schedule as if they had only played one night, that is to say a frenzied sequence of practically all the big songs from NIN’s rich repertoire: Wish, March of the Pigs, Piggy, Gave Up, Sanctified, Burn (which appeared on the soundtrack of Natural Born Killers), I’m Afraid of Americans (David Bowie song that Reznor produced) and a strong finale with The Hand That Feeds, Head Like a Hole et Hurt.
All this in a high-calibre scenography: no screen in the background, just large white drapes that absorb the colors of the lighting, often minimalist themselves. The pairing of lighting and dry ice gave the songs the air of apocalyptic scenes, in front of which the group played the soundtrack of the end of the world… A hell of a slap!
The next day, NIN picked up where they left off with a violent version of Mr. Self Destruct. But what followed was going to be very different from the day before: a few songs from the masterpiece The Fragilethen several lesser-known titles, taken from the material that the group launched in the 2000s.
It’s brave of a headliner to offer a lineup of songs consisting mostly of deep cuts, for a crowd that hadn’t bought tickets to see them. The segment with Shit Mirror, God Break Down the Door (during which Trent Reznor played saxophone!) and Echoplex was a good example.
This second set was therefore a little less “out of the box”, but nevertheless, the lighting effects were more colorful, like a perfect counterweight to the day before.
Moreover, they made another nod to David Bowie by interpreting, this time, the very pop Fashion. The trio The Hand That Feeds – Head Like a Hole – Hurt nevertheless concluded the show, like the day before. We still can’t sacrifice such a profitable final!
Really, Boston Calling can count itself lucky to have had access to a luxury plan B like Nine Inch Nails, which truly gave a headlining lesson, in addition to showing great humility by warmly thanking the fans for their clemency and warm welcome, and to joke:
When we started, more than thirty years ago, I would never have believed that we would one day be the reliable group, the band on which we could count. So if you have a wedding, bar mitzvah, plants that need watering while you’re away: give us a call. We are here for you.
Friday song chartSomewhat Damaged |
Saturday song chartMr. Self Destruct |
43 songs, of which only four in common from one evening to another. It’s hard to do better in terms of “troubleshooting”…
Metallica, Weezer, Run The Jewels and the return of punk pop!
Well, it wasn’t just Nine Inch Nails at Harvard this weekend. Casually, Metallica was the only headliner announced and presented as planned.
We must admit that Quebec is not the only city where James Hetfield and his band are kings and masters: the Boston Calling site was packed on Sunday, and there were many Metallica kids on site!
* Photo by Jeff Yeager.
True to form, the heavy metal veterans put on a well-rehearsed show, drawing as much from their 1980s repertoire (Whiplash, Ride the Lightning, Seek & Destroy, Creeping Death) than among the successes of Black Albumas Sad But True, Wherever I May Roam, and of course, Enter Sandman et Nothing Else Matters. Kinda surprised the band didn’t play The Unforgiven but otherwise, the great titles have been tackled, including the grandiose Master of Puppets et Onebrilliantly interpreted by musicians who are always in possession of their means.
It’s funny to think that James Hetfield and Trent Reznor are roughly the same age (just a year and a half apart), but although the two fifty-somethings have aged differently, both retain the qualities necessary to remain relevant, each in their own way.
Hetfield has softened a lot over the years, and multiplies the good messages, nicknames the crowd “the Metallica family” and encourages whoever wants to listen to him to seek help in case of distress. And to think that our mothers were afraid they would turn us into violent monsters when we were young!
Just before Metallica, Weezer gave a pretty molorous show, but it’s always unifying to sing Island in the Sun, Say It Ain’t So et Buddy Holly together with tens of thousands of people.
Same thing for Run the Jewels, which always gives a good show, especially with a repertoire now enhanced by an excellent fourth album, released in the midst of a pandemic. It’s going to lift opening for Rage Against The Machine at Ottawa Bluesfest in July! (And too bad for festival-goers of the Festival d’été de Québec, which mysteriously eclipsed RTJ in favor of the more popular but less relevant Alexisonfire and Grandson…)
The return of punk-pop has also been noted on the site, with Avril Lavigne who was welcomed as an emo princess, and KennyHoopla, whose songs are visibly inspired by the genre.
For fans of pop-soul, Black Pumas is a safe bet that gives a very good show, which one would imagine in a jazz festival… Whereas Orville Peck would be an interesting choice for LASSO, he who offers a country just enough bizarre to be appreciated by followers of more niche music.
Last little mention for the very funny Oliver Tree, whose show was delayed by about ten minutes, since the parents of little Charlie lost their child. So the festival posted a photo of little Charlie for the crowd to help find him, which took about 12 seconds. It earned him a “Charlie! Charlie! chanted by the crowd in unison. Nice work of the festival!
All in all, Boston Calling managed to offer a very nice weekend to the thousands of festival-goers gathered.
On social networks, hundreds of festival-goers expressed their frustration with the rather major changes to the program and the festival’s refusal to offer a refund, but on the spot, the atmosphere did not suffer.
As far as we are concerned, it was a completely successful experience for a first festival outside Canada in almost three years!