Sunday at Boston Calling — or as we like to say, Boston Calling, now with 100 percent less precipitation — popped. Maybe the weekend’s lone dry day lent everyone some subconscious spring in their step. Or perhaps the anticipation of an incendiary tag team like Tom Morello and Public Enemy revved up even the muddiest festival-goer trudging between the Green and Allianz Blue Stages for the umpteenth time. Whatever the reason, Sunday felt like a Monster Energy Drink straight to the soul. Here are five (mostly) upbeat highlights from the fest’s final day.
Sam Austins, ‘Seasons’
Wake up babe, a new genre just dropped — a newfangled sound we’re calling “screamo disco,” courtesy of Sam Austins on the Allianz Blue Stage. The recording of “Seasons,” Austins’ 2024 single, betrays the razor-sharp howls that Austins used to inject his performance with an ineffable rawness. On Spotify, “Seasons” sounds like a crystalline cut of electronica from the early 2010s; in person on Sunday, it defied categorization, and instead felt like a welcome hangover from Saturday’s parade of pop-punk.
Goth Babe, ‘Alone in the Mountains’
The year is 2025, and the American dream now consists of riding a giant inflatable Cheez-It or Pop-Tart over a festival crowd as Goth Babe performs a twinkling slice of indie-pop called “Alone in the Mountains.” The fact that it’s barely 60 degrees and overcast is irrelevant. It’s New England, damnit, and if an airy requiem for now-flattened high school dreams can’t transport you to the beach (or a mountain lodge, if you want to keep it on-theme), then I can’t help you. Goth Babe sent two lucky fans cruising over Green Stage guests on food-themed rafts while they traced the song’s swooning melody, creating a rare moment of content rivaled only by their performance of “Casita.”
Vivid Bloom, ‘Out Of Focus’
And now, for the other end of the spectrum of weather-related rock: Vivid Bloom’s tsunami of shoegaze. The Boston band swaddled Orange Stage guests in a weighted blanket of sound, wielding a wall of guitars felt like a rite for awakening an ancient force from its slumber (which, for our purposes, is what? The ghost of Paul Revere, either the guy or the band?) The song was uncharacteristically heavy compared to other material at this edition of the festival — which is part of why its hazy drone remains so memorable. Let’s book more swirls of shoegaze at future editions, please.
Remi Wolf, ‘Kangaroo’
In any other circumstance, saying a festival performer sounded like they were making songs up on the spot would be a dagger of an insult. But that same shade doesn’t apply to Remi Wolf, who seemed to breezily pluck the words of “Kangaroo” from the air on the Green Stage. Wolf added to legacy of the festival’s capital-p Pop acts — like BosCall alums Halsey and Chappell Roan — by performing every lyric as if were a thought that suddenly occurred to her onstage. Alongside other highlights like “Toro” and “Liz,” “Kangaroo” felt like a spur-of-the-moment spout of joy, somehow merged with Wolf’s flaming sass. (Bonus moment: Her demand of fans, “I need your brain bouncing off your cranial walls today.” Whatever you want, sis.)
Tom Morello and Chuck D, ‘Prophets of Rage‘
Why bicker over the respective impacts of Tom Morello covering “This Land Is Your Land” or Public Enemy’s finale of “Fight The Power” when you could merge them both? During Morello’s solo set, Public Enemy frontman Chuck D made a cameo for a quasi-Prophets of Rage reunion, during which they performed — what else? — “Prophets of Rage.” It’s the kind of pop-up appearance that’d be a defining Boston Calling moment 10 years ago. But now, in an era where we get to toss around fun words like “fascism” with the utmost concern? That’s just another step in the revolution.