Sia at Boston Calling
photo by Dana Distortion

Boston Calling 2016 day 1 pics (Sia, Sufjan, Lisa Hannigan & Aaron Dessner)

photos by Dana Distortion

Sia
Sufjan Stevens at Boston Calling
Sufjan Stevens

“Carrie & Lowell,” his most recent LP, is a thing of potent ache and elegiac beauty. But here [Sufjan] Stevens seemed eager to lay ghosts to rest, at least initially.

“We’ve just gone around the world singing songs about death,” he brightly told the crowd after the bubbly opener “Seven Swans,” at the end of which he’d smashed his banjo. “So if you don’t mind, we’d like to have a little fun tonight.”

That declaration was reflected in a romp through a canon that mingles and mixes pensive balladry; smoothed-out soft-rock evocations; grooves and moves nicked from ’80s MTV funk and African pop; and meaningful nods to post-minimalist classical composition. Quiet songs like “Casimir Pulaski Day” and the title track from “Carrie & Lowell” had their place, standing in relief among more boisterous cuts from LPs “Illinois” and “The Age of Adz.” [Boston Globe]

The 2016 Boston Calling festival happened in Boston for the last time (it moves to Allston in 2017) this past weekend. It began on Friday (5/27) with just three performances: Sia, Sufjan Stevens, and festival curator Aaron Dessner (of The National) playing a duo set with Lisa Hannigan (who collaborated with Aaron, Lee Ranaldo and more for the Dessner-curated Grateful Dead tribute). More pictures of day one are in the gallery below.

Boston Calling not only moves to Allston in 2017, but it will now only be an annual Memorial Day Weekend festival (which means no September edition anymore).

UPDATE: Day 2 pics HERE, day 3 pics HERE.