Boston Calling 2017 kicked off the festival at a new location – The Harvard Athletic Complex. In previous years it was held at the City Hall Plaza in Boston. The change in venue allowed for the festival to grow from two stages, to three and the addition of a comedy club.
Although day 1 of Boston Calling was wet and rainy, that didn’t stop music fans from coming out to the festival. Whitney was the first band I got to see at the red stage and they did not disappoint. After a lot of hype about the band, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I really loved their sound and the fact that the lead singer is the drummer really kept things interesting. Francis And The Lights brought quite a large crowd to the green stage on day 1 considering the rainy weather, and he had everyone grooving and dancing. Francis danced his way through the entire set and brought Chance the Rapper to the stage at the end of his set which really got the crowd going.
Sylvan Esso was one of the bands I was really looking forward to seeing during the festival weekend and they really drew out a crowd I wasn’t expecting. Their music is the kind of music you can still have fun dancing to even if you only know a few of their songs. Mac DeMarco’s set on the other hand was completely different than the rest of the acts on day 1. He took over the blue stage with his goofy personality and laid back music. He cracked jokes throughout the set and was the first band I saw on day 1 who had crowd surfers! Closing out the red stage, Bon Iver played a 14 song set. During Skinny Love, it started pouring rain and it was quite an emotional moment for the fans.
Even the fans camped out at the green stage for Chance The Rapper were belting out the lyrics. Following the emotional end to the set, Chance the Rapper ended the night with a bang. His set consisted of his own songs and a few covers and he definitely did not disappoint his fans with his setlist. Chance the Rapper was definitely a great headliner to end day 1 of Boston Calling.
