From boston calling 2025: saturday sound bites with all time low, cage the elephant, and the black crowes | arts | the harvard crimson

Boston Calling 2025 day two was all punk and rock, with charismatic appearances from All Time Low, Cage The Elephant, and The Black Crowes. ALL TIME LOW As the morning rains cleared over

Boston Calling’s Green Stage, All Time Low brought classic emo pop-punk back to life. The sun finally burst out from the clouds, and the band played bright songs with sad lyrics — like the

catchy “PMA” — a standard emo band technique. Lead singer Alex Gaskarth wore a blue jumpsuit emblazoned with the music festival’s Boston Terrier logo, thanking the staff for helping him find

something to wear. When his bandmate Jack Barakat paused the set to compliment his outfit and shout out the music festival merch, Gaskarth crossed the stage to give him a playful peck (to

the delight of the audience). The entire set was conversational and fun, with Gaskarth and Barakat taking the lead to direct the crowd, like asking the audience to sit on each other’s

shoulders during “Something’s Gotta Give” and instructing everyone to “JUMP JUMP JUMP!” during “Some Kind Of Disaster.” During “Weightless,” Barakat even crowd-surfed and let fans strum his

guitar. As the set came to a close, Barakat also requested the formation of a mosh pit in exchange for chugging a White Claw. All Time Low rode this infectiously fun energy into their final

track, “Dear Maria, Count Me In.” Gaskarth let the audience sing the song’s intro, and they recited it flawlessly by heart. Leaping from one side of the stage to the other, All Time Low

allowed the music to carry them off the stage, thanking Boston for its support. CAGE THE ELEPHANT As a guitar strum filled the air at Boston Calling, Cage The Elephant’s lead singer, Matt

Schultz, bounced onstage and started yelping out the lyrics of the driving song “Broken Boy” — his energy quickly becoming the mainstay of the rock band’s performance. When the group next

played out “Cry Baby,” Schultz bounded down the stage and started high-fiving fans at the barricade and scream-singing toward the crowd. Throughout the show, Schultz demanded attention,

writhing around in rock and roller fashion, raising his mic stand like a sword and calling out to the crowd. There weren’t many visuals attached to the set — just black-and-white filtered

footage of the band’s performance — which made the audience dial in on the live entertainment. While Schultz was definitely the focus of the show — with his melancholic rendition of “Too

Late To Say Goodbye” being especially dramatic — he also devoted attention to his bandmates, gesturing occasionally to Nick Bockrath as he played the guitar and taking moments to step aside.

Advertisement Near the end of the set, the band admitted to technical difficulties, sometimes wincing as some invisible sound bothered them in their earpieces and being forced to restart a

few tracks. Nonetheless, the group showed professionalism, playing through these problems to deliver incredible live performances. The last few songs were all hits — “Ain’t No Rest for the

Wicked,” “Trouble,” and “Come a Little Closer.” But it was the final song “Cigarette Daydreams” that transported the audience the most, with Schultz giving his all to belt out the chorus

with the crowd. Cage The Elephant was electric at Boston Calling, and if the audience wasn’t already composed of fans, the band definitely charmed a new swathe of listeners with their

performance. THE BLACK CROWES The Black Crowes filled Boston Calling’s Blue Stage as the sun set over Harvard Athletic Complex. Hailing from Atlanta, the group was dedicated to bringing

their rock sound to Boston, with leading vocalist Chris Robinson yelling out, “We get lonely at festivals. We’re the only rock ’n‘ roll band at all these fucking things.” The band proved

their rock prowess by launching into songs like “Rats and Clowns” and “Soul Singing.” They let the music speak for itself, displaying no visuals except for the band’s cartoon crow logo.

Robinson led the vocals, but his two backup singers Mackenzie Adams and Lesley Grant also stole the show, dancing in shiny black dresses in the recess of the stage. By far, the standout song

from the set was “Hard to Handle,” the group’s most streamed track. Robinson prefaced his rendition by paying homage to Otis Redding, who originally wrote and performed the song. While

singing this hit, Robinson was electric, rocking the mic stand to and fro and belting out to the audience. The Black Crowes effortlessly displayed that rock is still alive with their

appearance at Boston Calling. —Staff writer Hannah E. Gadway can be reached at [email protected].