Editor’s Note: Check out our complete coverage of Nine Inch Nails’ Friday night headlining set here, and see a photo gallery from all three days of Boston Calling 2022 here.
Is the 2022 festival season cursed? With many events coming back for the first time in three years, there’s a rash of bad luck running through the landscape. From bad weather to artist cancellations to simply mediocre lineups, few events have been immune to misfortune in the early days of summer.
Boston Calling was perhaps hit harder than most — by no fault of its own, mind you. If there’s one thing the annual Memorial Day Weekend event could have done to avoid being caught in this whirlwind of crappy luck it would be not announcing headliners a year in advance. Even without a pandemic, situations change, something festival organizers surely learned when they tapped Foo Fighters (who pulled out following the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins) and Rage Against the Machine (who once again rescheduled their reunion tour) way back in May 2021.
But replacements happen; at least Boston Calling’s bookers had an okay lead time to find fill-ins. Nine Inch Nails were brought on to take over for Foos — and then ended up having to play a double-header when The Strokes cancelled at the last minute due to a positive COVID test. That means by the time all was said and done, three of the festival’s original headliners never actually performed, leaving the top of the bill at NIN, NIN, and Metallica.
On top of that, severe weather caused an evacuation and delay during Saturday, forcing a number of undercard acts to skip their sets. When gates finally reopened after about two hours, it came with more bad news, as King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard were also forced to cancel because they too had a member test positive for COVID.
It wasn’t easy, and fans were understandably upset — although directing that anger at the festival itself isn’t exactly fair. If anything, be mad at the unfortunate placement of the VIP entrances at the two mains stages that caused constant logs jams in the crowd, or the lack of a second water filling station. Those are gripes worth having, but moaning over lighting storms, tragedies, and a pandemic virus? What a waste of rage.
The fact is, Boston Calling dealt with all those set backs and still put on a strong event. This is the first summer festival season in three years; we should be absolutely relishing in the fact that we got powerhouse performances from HAIM, the ridiculously high-energy showmanship of Run the Jewels, nostalgia hits like Avril Lavigne and Cheap Trick, and — yes — two incredible shows from legends like NIN.
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