Festivals fans Reggie and Jessica join Brad, Barry and Lord Taco to discuss what they love about Boston Calling, but also to compare European festivals to those here in America.
Topic: Boston Calling
In 2013, the Boston Calling Music Festival launched as a spring and fall festival.
Years later, it still pumps out some of the best lineups of the entire season.
So for the first time ever on the What Podcast, we're going to spend an entire episode dedicated
to Boston Calling.
What do we need to know?
Who do we need to see?
Diving deep on one of the unheralded music festivals of the year, Boston Calling today
on the What Podcast.
Lord Taco, Barry Courter, Brad Steiner, it starts right now.
Cheers.
Welcome back into the what podcast which bands this year that matter.
There's Lord Taco back at it.
Nice to see you buddy.
It's all rinsed out.
All rinsed out.
All dried up.
We'll see.
I can't wait to hear how that week went.
I don't know.
I don't know if I believe there's Barry Courter.
Barry Courter looking like you just got a fresh cut.
Did Barry Courter just get a fresh cut?
I've got this Boris, what's his name?
Boris Yeltsin?
No, what's the Johnson?
I don't know what's happening here.
Boris Johnson, yes.
I was about to say if you're making a Boris Yeltsin reference, we have gotten way, way
too old.
That's how old I am.
Yeah, you remember the czar?
How's everybody doing?
Good.
First time the whole team's been together in a while.
I really do want to hear about Taco's trip.
Oh yeah.
Taco came to New Orleans and my job was to take him to every dive bar in the city.
And I think we did it.
I think we missed a few, so I'll have to come back for another round.
I love the spirit.
I really do love the spirit.
The guy's got a never ending attitude.
He never wants to stop.
And that's what's going to make him successful.
One of these days I'm going to make it.
I did hear you broke out a little bit.
You had not only your regular 12 ounce, but a couple of 16 ounces and some draft.
That's right.
I tried all the flavors.
You must have been crazy.
You went crazy down there, I heard.
Draft, cans, bottles, 12, 16.
He tried so many different variations of PBR.
At this point, it better be Russ Blue Ribbon.
They just changed the name to Russ Blue Ribbon.
If you're going to go to New Orleans, you might as well go all out.
So I respect you for it.
He went all out.
He showed boobs.
It was nuts.
He slept on the floor too, like a real New Orleanian.
He said, screw it.
This looks good to me.
We were worried about you on Monday because we couldn't find you.
Couldn't find you.
Yeah.
I overslept Monday.
Sorry about that.
We were afraid you were on the side of a road or a ditch.
So if you don't know, Lord Taco, being in North Georgia, Barry Courters in Chattanooga,
I'm in New Orleans.
And for the first time, one of my podcast pals came and visited me.
Now I knew it would never be Barry Courter because Berry has not left the state since
the 80s.
So luckily, and luckily at Russ to come down and it was your first time since when you
hadn't been here in a while.
First time I went to New Orleans was 2013.
And we just did all the typical Bourbon Street hurricanes, all the tourist stuff.
We never really ventured far out of that.
So this time I actually got to go into all the side neighborhoods and all the, where
the locals go.
And what Taco said that I love so much when he got here, he's like, every neighborhood,
it's just like house, house, house, bar, house, house, house, bar, house, house, house, bar.
And that's really the way I love, the thing I love the most about it is all the great
spots are just in between a couple of houses.
I love that.
Whereas here it's house, house, house, church, house, house, house, church.
It's a difference.
The trip was actually a lot of fun.
You know, Russ is one of these guys that, you know, he can fit into any shape you pour
him into.
Right.
So it doesn't matter what you decide to do.
He's always game for it.
And so flexible.
Yeah.
So when I say, so should we go to this bar?
His answer is, yeah, we should do that.
Yeah.
It was a very last minute decision because Kelsey was the one who decided to go.
And she was like, Hey, I'm got some days off.
I'm going to go.
You want to go?
I'm like, can't say, can't say why not.
So and I need to drive with her and yeah, well, I ended up driving her, but either way.
But yeah, she was like, oh, I want to go to this store and this restaurant and this fancy
place and this shopping trip for her.
And so what did me and you were going to do?
Exactly.
So I was just like, well, you know, whatever, let's go, let's go to a bar.
Let's go.
Let's go.
Start drinking.
We only, we did the quarter.
We did a day in the quarter and we bounced around.
And I think that taco's favorite place is a place called the golden lantern.
He was a big fan of the golden lantern.
It was, it was nice.
It was, yeah.
And then, and then cheerful.
And then I took him very to the white whale, the grand pooba, the greatest of the great,
the greatest bar in the world.
I will put everything that I have on it.
The greatest place on the planet.
And that's what taco?
Pals.
Pals lounge.
Yes.
That the one right near you?
Yes.
It's near me.
And it's gotten to the point where, um, when, you know, we go to move and buy a house, it
will be within 500 yards draw a circle around pals because I cannot leave my favorite spot
in the world.
Is that where you did the challenge?
No, that was at snake and jakes.
Yeah.
And then the next night we go to, we do the pals thing and pals is, you know, to me, just
the best bar on the planet.
And then go back.
Let's go back.
Why?
Sure.
Why?
Okay.
Well, taco, taco, you start because I blow V eight a lot and I don't want to like oversell
it.
So let's see what taco has to say about pals.
Not that you have already.
Why would I ever do that?
Pals serves PBR.
So I'm sorry.
I mean, that was, that was a given, but go ahead.
Yeah.
They've got a great jukebox.
They have one of the best dive bar bathrooms that I've seen.
Yeah.
They've got great art on the wall.
I'm going to need more detail.
What's on the jukebox that makes it special and what's special about this bathroom?
Yeah.
So first off, a couple of things I am doing a, I think I'm going to start doing, I can
start, I've already started, but I'm going to make a dive bar bathroom field guide of
new Orleans.
That is just pictures of great dive bar bathrooms in the city.
And I wanted to basically be a guide to the crown jewels.
And to me, the great dive bar bathrooms, the great dive bars in this world have great bathrooms
and they can't be clean.
They can't be pristine and you know, filled with beautiful tile and stainless steel.
No, they, they got to have character and they've got to have, they don't have, they don't have
the glass bowl sink.
No, I don't want a glass bowl sink.
The waterfall.
Yeah.
I want character.
Okay, that's not it.
No, I want character.
I want it to, I want it to be its own entity.
Right.
And I want it to be the thing that like, you know, just by looking at it, that's that place.
I've gone around the city and I've taken some of like 150 photos of dive bar bathrooms.
And I want to do a picture field guide of the great dive bar bathrooms in the, in New
Orleans, because there's so many.
When I walked into the pals bathroom, it's the crown jewel.
It's the greatest angels started singing and all that.
It's close.
I don't want to give it away.
I don't want to tell you what's, what's adorning the walls.
I don't want to tell you how you walk into the bathroom because it's just such a glorious
space.
That in and of itself is, is such a great part of it.
The jukebox Berry.
Oh my God.
You know, you go from Dolly Parton to Prince and it's so hand curated by the people that
work there.
And that's the other thing that's important to me about a great dive bar.
It's got to have a great jukebox and it cannot be.
It cannot be touch tunes.
You cannot give me a Spotify playlist.
It's got to be hand curated by the people that work there.
Okay.
And taco was there on a very special day because I had gotten to the jukebox and I always have
like a pretty good idea of what my set's going to be.
Right.
And so I get to the jukebox and I notice they've added the very first ever B 52 CD.
Oh, I was so excited.
It was a new edition.
When you get a new edition jukebox in 2022, it's like it's Christmas morning.
And so I'm so excited.
I've got a new song.
I'm going to add to the playlist.
It's the first song in that first album.
I love that song so much.
So I put it on track one, hit play and the damn thing just starts skipping.
Oh no.
I mean, we miss it.
It's a CD song.
And so the next day me and taco go to record stores and try and find the B 52 CDs so that
we can replace it into the jukebox.
And so I talked to the girl who runs the place and I said, so I went to find a new CD for
the jukebox and she said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
we will curate the jukebox.
Like, no, I don't want to give you a new CD.
I want to replace the CD that you already have.
And she's like, oh, okay.
I can, I just love the, like the care that they're willing to put into this jukebox that
no, no, no, you're not, you're not putting something in that we don't approve.
I love that.
They also, they also followed me on Instagram.
That's the only bar that we went to that followed me on Instagram.
Nice.
That's a big deal.
So real quick, my nephew opened a bar here in Chattanooga called low main it's on main
street and he has a really good gram has an unbelievable taste.
So he's curated their soundtrack, but we had a board meeting for a group that I'm on and
it was a four o'clock meeting and on the TV, well on the jukebox, they were playing a slayed,
which was pretty cool to begin with, but on the TV they were playing a clockwork orange,
the unedited version.
So you can imagine that's another good, that's a good poll because in, in pals, all they
do is show like really old campy horror movies.
Well Star Trek was on the one other time we were there early Star Trek, but, but you can
imagine a board meeting with, with you had half the table with their backs to the TV
and the other half facing it.
So I was staring up with their back because you could see the faces.
If you don't, if you never seen the movie, it's pretty graphic, you know, the rape scenes
and the brutal.
There is a really good, this, this is a mark of a really great bar, right?
I don't like TVs and bars because it's distracting and the whole point of being there is to have
a conversation and chit chat, whatever.
But if you're going to have TVs in there, there could be major sporting events happening
in this city.
These saints games happening and they've still got goofy horror movies, the kitschy horror
movies from the eighties still on.
They do not care.
Go to one of the chain places.
What did we watch at Milan?
What, the Beetlejuice?
Yeah.
Nice.
Beetlejuice one day.
Yeah.
Great.
So, so anyway, so we do that one day.
Then the next night we decide to take taco to the legendary snake and jakes where if you
are a new Bonnarooian, you don't know this, but for years and years and years, because
of the, the roots of Bonnaroo being in New Orleans and half of the organization being
from New Orleans superfly, they brought some of the New Orleans flare to the, uh, the festival.
The first few years, there was a second line that always happened on Thursday.
You know, there's always sort of a parade that happened.
And then there was the snake and Jake's Christmas barn inside center.
Well, that is from an actual place here in New Orleans.
And you know, if you didn't, if you didn't already know that there's no possible way
that you would know it because when you walk up to snake and Jake's, it is the tiniest
bar you've ever seen in your life.
So if you didn't know that snake and Jake's was already a preexisting space in this world,
walking up to it in Bonnaroo, it's like, Oh, this is just this weird place called snake
and Jake's.
So taco, tell Barry your experience with the actual snake and Jake's.
Uh, it was good.
The lighting was good.
The bathroom's good.
The lighting, by the way, it's pitch black with nothing but red lights everywhere.
Oh, I look great.
I look great.
Yeah.
And you're so your first, your first night at snake and Jake's you did what we did the
PBR challenge, PBR challenge.
The bartender was so excited about this.
We put three beers up against each other.
One was a high life, one was a PBR and then one was a Schlitz, Schlitz.
That's right.
We tried to get hams.
We actually tried to get hams for the kids, the hams kids, but no can do.
So we get the Schlitz, we get the high life and taco is ready to go.
I mean, he's never been more confident in anything in his life.
And then what happened?
I picked high life.
We had to go through twice.
I listened.
I went back and forth.
I'm proud of you.
For, for not only, you know, telling this story, but coming on this show and telling
this story, cause you must be ashamed.
It's the walk of shame.
This is the walk of shame for time.
I'm not ashamed.
I got three free beers.
Wait a second.
The Schlitz you gave to me because you hated it so much.
No, I drank the Schlitz.
I thought you gave me the Schlitz.
I had a lot of Schlitz.
You had a Schlitz.
Schlitz also brewed by Paps by the way.
Really?
I didn't know that.
There we go.
Hey, we have a lot of people that are going to be like, Oh, I'm going to drink the Schlitz.
I'm going to drink the Schlitz.
I'm going to drink the Schlitz.
Schlitz also brewed by Paps by the way.
Really?
I didn't know that.
There we go.
Hey, we have guests.
Okay.
We got some guests.
Hi guys.
How are you?
Hello.
Good.
How are you guys?
I'm doing super.
We're doing good.
We're talking dive bars.
Yeah.
We kind of got sidetracked to the dive bars.
We haven't talked festivals at all yet.
We're talking dive bars.
So what is your, how do you guys define a dive bar?
What's your favorite?
Dark, dank, out of the way.
Hole in the wall.
Not a lot of selection.
Yeah.
And it's got to be cheap.
Yeah.
Very cheap.
Yeah.
That's rule number one.
Yeah.
You nailed it.
And to me, you're not going to be a real dive bar unless you have the appropriate bathroom.
And if your bathroom is not divey and gross and a little bit seedy and, you know, it's
got critters running around in the corners.
I just don't, I don't buy it.
I think that you're, I think you're parading around and trying to say that you're a diver.
There's a dive bar here in town that we affectionately say has gotten hussied up.
So they put a new coat of paint on the outside and they painted the inside.
Now the drinks are still cheap.
They're still strong and it's still open 24 hours, but you walk into the bathroom and
they've painted the damn thing purple and put Prince pictures all over the place.
Nice.
You're not a dive bar anymore.
No, you're not.
We decided that the glass bowl sinks and a waterfall faucets.
Yeah.
Immediately you're out.
You're out.
The olive garden is a bigger dive bar than you are at this point.
So the reason why we had, by the way, introduce our guests there, Barry, and then we'll get
the show actually going.
We spent plenty of time.
Actually let TACO.
TACO has met these folks.
So I did.
Yeah.
Good to see you again.
Yeah, we ran into each other or, you know, at the Mark Rebailey show loop daddy in Chattanooga.
That was the third pronunciation that I've heard.
I don't think I've gotten it right anytime.
I don't know what it is.
I'm telling it's pronounced Merck.
Okay.
Yeah.
You're right.
Yeah.
But yeah, Bonnaroo got canceled and you know, we went to the Mini Roo up in Winchester and
me and David Bruce, I am Bonnaroo.
We decided to take a trip to Chattanooga and see that loop daddy show and ran into these
guys and then met up afterwards and went to a bar and just had a good night.
And y'all are from Knoxville.
Is that correct?
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We were just looking for something to do after Bonnaroo got canceled.
So that's how we ended up.
And yeah.
What made you pick Chattanooga?
Just something to do?
Well, Mark was actually the first of the artists after everything got canceled that had the
complete show lineup ready to go.
And we were like, well, you know, we really wanted to see him at Bonnaroo.
So let's do it.
That's true.
They really pulled that show out quick.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was within minutes.
The reason why we wanted to have you guys on and forgive us for doing a little background
here real quick is because we wanted to spend this episode talking not about dive bars,
but about Boston Calling.
Last week we were going through festival lineup after festival lineup.
Then we, you know, it struck me every single year, Boston Calling just, it feels like they
just hit home run after home run.
And you know, you do a little bit of digging and you start realizing that this festival
is quite well done.
And the thing that I didn't know, Barry, Boston Calling completely independent operation.
In 2013, they started, and I didn't know this either.
They started as a fall spring festival.
So they did two of them.
And it all began because Aaron Desner from the national said, I don't know.
Let's do it.
Let's do a thing.
Now I don't know how a Cincinnati kid and part time Cincinnati, part time New York,
then finds himself in Boston curating a music festival lineup, but go to 2013, go to 2014,
go to the fall of 2014.
There is not a lineup that they have curated that is not incredible.
Absolutely incredible.
Now the thing that I don't know anything about is the grounds.
I know they changed facilities somewhere in the, you know, 2014 or I don't know, they
changed at some point and went to a new place.
I don't know anything about the grounds.
I have only been to Boston once.
So we wanted to sort of, you know, fill in the blanks of what Boston Calling is.
Because I tell you, you know, it got my attention last year.
It got my attention the year before.
It got my attention before that, but it must be a Southern thing that because we have Shakenay's
and we have Bonnaroo, these sort of Northeastern festivals just go right by us Barry and we
don't pay any attention to them.
Yeah.
So we talked about it a little bit on the show and then Jessica sent us an email and
basically said, you should check it out.
So being clever, like I am, I said, come on the show and tell us about it.
So that's why you're here.
Clever is saying, can someone else do the work for me?
That's the cleverness.
Yes.
That's how I live my life, T.
Yeah, let somebody else do the heavy lifting.
Sure.
Well, let's go ahead.
Let's go ahead and go and talk to you in 45 minutes.
So tell me, so you guys have been.
Yes.
Yes.
All right.
So why did you choose this festival?
What year did you go and what was the reason for it?
Well, it's kind of twofold.
I have family up there, so it's easy for me to go visit, but I really wanted to go.
We went in 2018 and the reason I like them is because you can get different regional
acts you don't see here in the southeast.
They were actually, Belly was part of the lineup that year, the alt rock band, Belly,
with Tanya Donnelly from the Thuring Muses.
She was one of my favorites and that's why I wanted to go see the band to begin with.
But then I talked to my cousins and we just all decided to go.
And Boston's a fun place to visit.
Yeah.
So it was just really one of those, it kind of met the moment at that time.
And it was like, well, you know, we have a big gap in between them because I've only
been going to festivals for three or four years now officially since a lot of things
have been canceled.
But yeah, it just, it felt right.
And then especially for last year when everything was supposed to happen again, we had signed
up to go to the 2021 and then, you know, that got pushed out.
So.
Let's start with just basic setup.
Where is the festival held and how far outside of the city center is it?
Well, it's moved, like you said, it used to be downtown, but they moved it out to the
Harvard athletic fields.
So it's right to the west of Boston, you know, over near Cambridge and it's in Alston.
It's just south of Cambridge, but it's totally accessible.
It's on their subway system, the T you could easily get to the festival from anywhere else.
And I think that's one of the draws because you can, it's, you know, in a city that's
pretty accessible for other areas.
So close enough to be considered a city fest, huh?
Oh yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
I would call it like a suburb almost of Boston.
I think you said in your email, it's very walkable.
Yeah.
You hit it.
The trains, the T gets you there, it's pretty easy.
So I mean, how close are you able to stay, you know, hotel wise and all that?
Hmm.
See, that's different for us because we stayed with family and then just took the train into
town.
So it was a lot easier.
But I'd say it's pretty accessible.
I mean, because of the subway system, obviously you can stay in Cambridge or Somerville or
anywhere along the subway line and it'd be a pretty easy ride and then walk to the festival.
When are they wanting you out?
When is the sort of like shutdown time?
It does end at about 11, you know, like most cities.
Normal city festival.
Gotcha.
All right.
So when you walk in, what is the setup like?
And could you compare it to any other festival that is the same sort of size?
It actually reminds me a lot of Shaking Ease in that like all of the way the acts are set
up and the stages are set up, it's very back to back to back.
So you go from one show to the next show to the next show.
Like there is no really downtime.
And how many stages other?
Three, four?
I think there's four this year for sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Plus they have the athletic complex that they'll do comedy shows or, you know, in the hockey
arena.
So it's air conditioned.
People like to go in there.
It's nice.
So it's kind of like the old comedy tents that they had at Bonnaroo.
Well, wait a second.
Is the weather bad in March?
Is it?
Wait a second.
It's not March.
It's Memorial Day weekend.
Okay.
Is it hot in Boston in Memorial Day?
It depends.
Really?
Okay.
We've been when it's been warm, but then it also can be cold and rainy.
You know, it's the Northeast.
Yeah.
Interesting.
And you just to give people an idea, you've been to Bonnaroo.
How many times have you been to Bonnaroo?
I've been six times and Reggie's been twice officially three or four times unofficially.
What does that mean?
You tripped in or you didn't get in or what?
No, it was this thing called COVID.
Oh, I got you.
You're not telling your boss you went in?
Is it your first day?
We had this whole pandemic.
I got you.
What other festivals have you been to?
Shaking Ease, I assume.
Yes, Shaking Ease, Lollapalooza.
We've been overseas to Mad Cool and Rock Work Der.
No kidding.
You did Mad Cool, huh?
Oh yeah.
Mad Cool.
Why in the world did you choose that?
The lineup that year was-
I agree.
Whatever he said.
The lineup that year in 2018 was the same year that we went to Boston Colony.
It was really set up so well.
It was a slam dunk of a lineup.
Who was on it?
What was the draw?
Let's see.
We had Depeche Mode, Queens of the Stone Age, Nine Inch Nails, Alice in Chains.
Yeah, but this is in Madrid.
I have to say, how in the hell are you guys getting all this time off?
Well-
It's what we use for our vacations.
It's just our yearly vacation, so it's blocked out the time of, don't expect us to be here
for about a week.
Do you guys set out to do an international festival or did this one just make too much
sense and work out perfectly?
It made a lot of sense because also at the time, we had a friend that lived in Belgium.
It ended up that we were going to just go straight to Madrid.
Then it's like, well, how often are we going to do this?
Then we bounced to Barcelona, Belgium, Turkey eventually happened during that trip.
So yeah.
Barry, if you don't know, these are foreign countries.
So I can't get there from here?
You're not going to be able to drive.
Barry historically doesn't leave the state of Tennessee.
Can I see him from my basement?
So you guys would be, you're the perfect person to ask.
Can you compare them?
How do they compare?
I mean, not necessarily rate though, if you can rate them, that would be okay.
But it's the comparison I'm more interested in.
It is a lot more efficient, I guess is the best way to say it.
Which ones?
Both of them actually, Rock Worker and Mad Cool.
The ones overseas.
Yeah.
The ones overseas for Boston Calling.
I would rank it about at the same level as Shaking Ease, just as far as the ease of being
able to get to it.
But it's a normal city festival in that way, but it's kind of in the heart of the city.
Hang on a second.
You said, you said the, I've always had this feeling that there is, there's a massive difference
between an international festival and an American festival.
What do you mean by more efficient?
I would say it's because they've been around for so long.
They just know, you know, they know what works.
Yeah.
So for comparison, this is something we only saw overseas.
It was crazy.
They actually had people walking around with backpacks, these large backpacks full of beer
and they would come around and they can fill your cup while you're waiting in the crowd.
So you didn't have to leave.
That's what taco does.
That's taco.
Yeah.
We sort of want the same thing.
That's brilliant.
Why don't we do that here?
We have a taco for that.
So okay, so, so beer efficiency, what else, what else is efficient about it that you like?
You feel like the setup is better?
Yes.
The stages were set up where there wasn't a lot of sound bleed.
I think there was one issue that one of the bands that was supposed to be at Mad Cool
didn't actually play because sound bleed for more they were, but that had to do with the
tent issue of just where it was located.
But other than that, it was, they also had a craft, a craft beer and cocktail area at
Rock Worker that it was closed off.
So they actually gave you glass.
Yeah.
They gave you glassware to actually use, but you could only use it in that area.
Brad, that sounds like the bourbon tent in Louisville when you embarrassed me in front
of Ashley Caps.
I did not embarrass you in front of Ashley Caps.
I said something true and you agreed and, but you, yeah.
And then, and then we hugged.
We all hugged it.
It was fine.
Well, I was going to say we hugged Brittany Howard.
Were the grounds bigger or do they take up more space?
Is that because the sound bleed is better there because they just take, they have a
lot more accessible areas?
What is it about the International Festival, Mad Cool especially, that doesn't have, you
know, the sound issues?
I think it's the way they set up the stages because they're kind of perpendicular and
it's the direction that the sound is going and the way that they, they move the bands
in and out, it's always facing a different way, but you don't have to walk very far.
We literally were watching Depeche Mode on one stage turned, you know, turned around
and Nine Inch Nails was starting.
We didn't, we barely, we didn't have to move at all.
Our Moon River Festival is like that.
And I was just thinking, we have a band here in town called Glass Hammer, which is an internationally
known prog rock band and they did a European festival three years ago, I guess.
And I was stunned to hear them tell me that basically it's a city run festival.
They literally fence off the entire city and it shuts down for that weekend.
And once you buy your ticket, you're in, it's, you're in that little small town.
That's not what you're talking about, right?
It's, it's, uh, rock work.
And we were walking through it and it reminded me a lot of Bonnaroo.
And I know Bonnaroo was, um, you know, um, uh, designed to be kind of like a European
festival.
So it did remind me a lot of that.
Uh, so first off, you know, we have an interesting story.
We have a band called The Rocks.
We were, we were, we were, we were, we were, we were, we were, we were, we were, we were
just, uh, so first off, you know, we haven't even said this, I mean, thanks for thanks
for joining us and thanks for jumping on and doing this with, uh, you know, talking about
festivals.
And I'm surprised that we haven't, uh, talked about, talked about boundary with you before.
But um, specifically about Boston Calling.
Um, you guys can have an opinion about this if you want.
I mean, if you don't, it's no problem, but I wonder if there's a reason this thing is
always so well done and it's because it's an independent operation, Barry.
You know, when the conglomerates start taking over a lot of these festivals, you know, you
get a lot of the same things happening in every part of the country.
And Boston Calling's still maintain their independence here.
I wonder if that has helped the overall feel of that thing always seeming to be a tad different
than everything else.
Yeah, I can't disagree.
It goes back to what we've been trying to get at, I think, for this whole time we've
been doing this show is what's the mission?
You know, what's the purpose for doing it?
And the ones that seem to be doing it well have a really clear mission.
And whatever that is, you know, we talked about last week, you know, the forecastle
seems to hit a home run with younger fans.
It's maybe not for us, but it's hit a home run with a certain group.
And I think the ones that know what they want to do and are able to do it are the ones that,
you know, seem to do it right every year.
And you guys are there, do you sense it's mostly locals or is it a good mix of out of
town or so?
I would say it's a good mix.
Yeah, definitely a lot more locals.
But well, it's a college town and it's Memorial Day weekend.
So I feel like there are a lot of kids there since it's the end of the semester.
But there are a lot of people that travel too.
But it doesn't feel young?
No, not really.
No, there's people of all ages.
You know, there's a lot of grad schools there and then, you know, we're a bit older and
professors are there.
Because for comparison, patches on the jacket.
It's the reading glasses, very.
It's walking around like this.
Yeah.
They've got a monocle.
The thing about the shaky, the shakiness comparison is interesting because, and this is no fault
of theirs, but shakiness, even though it's a really well, I actually like shakiness a
lot and, you know, they've really dialed into exactly what they want to be the last few
years.
I do feel like it's still sort of young.
I feel like the shakiness crowd is just inherently young, mainly because, you know, maybe it's
just Atlanta.
But boy, nothing is as young as I've ever seen as Lollapalooza.
I think it feels like the average age is like 16 and a half at Lollapalooza.
I've never been around.
I'm the most geriatric person in the entire crowd.
It feels very odd.
So I wonder, does it feel that young?
No, not at all.
Okay.
Yeah.
And having been to Lollapalooza the one time, I would agree.
I think I was a little taken aback by how young it skewed.
I actually have, I was actually told, and I don't really want to get into it, but the
amount of beer that they sell is actually not even close to any other festival in the
portfolio because the crowd is that young.
They told me the average age one year and it would stun you.
It would stun you.
I believe it.
Maybe I'm trying to ask you guys Brad's question, I mean, cause do you go to Boston Calling
because you have family there because of the lineup and do you think it would do well numbers
wise, ticket sales wise, no matter what the lineup was because it's Memorial weekend and
it's a college town and those sorts of things.
If that makes sense.
Yeah, I would think it has a lot to do with the lineup and just the overall makeup of
the lineup and the location of it with it being so walkable.
It's a combination of all the things.
Yeah.
And it was always one of those festivals that was on our agenda to eventually hit.
It just kind of matched up with her having family there.
So that kind of took away that additional stress of, you know, where are you going to
stay?
Cause you got to put your body somewhere at night.
So I would say it's definitely the lineup too.
Cause I do feel like they do pick their lane and try to skew it towards the audience that
they want.
And you know, it may skew towards college age kids, but I think it's just an overall
lineup is always strong.
Like we bought our tickets when they first went on sale for the pre-sale.
Cause we thought rage against the machine was going to be there.
We were going to have a family reunion with my cousins to go, I'll go see rage.
But you know, even with them, unfortunately having to drop out, I feel like it's a solid
lineup and it has been most years.
And what is the ticket price like?
It was around, I think now it's around like 330.
I know they-
It's still high.
It didn't start that way.
They had their same tiers kind of like Bonnaroo.
I think it started around like 250.
Yeah, I think they were about 250.
In comparison, I wonder what the shaky knees ticket is, Barry.
I don't know.
I'll stop my head.
I wonder though, and if you don't have any answer to this, that's fine.
First off, I think that there is, you get a lot of help when you have somebody like
Aaron curating the festival with you.
You can call in a lot of favors when you've got him making the calls.
But the second thing is I wonder why, and if you had any, like I wish that I could talk
to somebody from Boston Calling, I wonder why they went from two weekends to one.
I wonder if there was like a strategic reason, maybe a financial reason, whatever.
I love this idea of being curated two times a year and then getting two completely different
lineups that way.
Coachella of course does the two weekends and that's fine.
But boy, it's really interesting because we argued, we didn't argue, but we did hear Rumblings
Barry years ago that Bonnaroo wanted to do two different festivals a year.
They wanted to do a Bonnaroo spring and a Bonnaroo fall, then that transition to, well,
maybe it'll be Bonnaroo and then a country Bonnaroo.
And then it became Bonnaroo and a hard rock Bonnaroo.
Yeah, that fall one never got legs.
Never got off the ground.
Real quick to your question, GA.
There's a reason why they don't do it and I wonder what it is.
Yeah, it didn't work.
I'm talking about Boston Calling.
There's a reason why they don't do two weekends and I don't know, maybe because it's financial
stuff.
I don't know.
Maybe the answer is really simple.
I just don't know what the answer is.
Well, I would also wonder if it has to do a lot with the timing of coming in with Memorial
Day and some of the students because I imagine that's a lot of their audience is trying to
grab those students before they head off to do whatever they need to do for the rest of
the summer.
And so I guess they just kind of just condensed it to one weekend, really concentrate and
focus on getting the best they can because it seems like especially looking at Coachella,
how they have their two weekends, that seems a little easier for them to manage.
I don't know with on the scale of Boston Calling if that's something that they can contain,
having all of those same artists stay in that area.
I don't know.
We'll have to find somebody to ask.
But to your question, Brad, shaky knees.
The GA is 205 GA plus and I don't know what the difference is.
It's 430.
Yeah.
And then on up the three day ultimate pass is 7,500.
So I'm going to put us down for two.
Yeah, go ahead.
And yeah, why to make it?
I mean, I look, I think that I'm sorry to be completely out of touch here.
I don't get roasted for this, but when did the prices get this high?
When did the rent get so damn high?
They're in too damn high.
Is this a new thing?
Were the prices this high two years ago before the pandemic?
Yeah.
They weren't as high, I will say though, because last year when we were going to go to Bonnaroo,
it was going to be our first VIP experience because we were like, you know, what the heck?
Let's go for it.
And then when they announced the prices for this year, we were like, that's out of the
range.
A little stiff.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Weather experiences keep going up.
What was the price?
I want to say it was, it's, I think it was like $1,200 a ticket.
Yeah.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
And they have a 3,500 VIP ticket too.
Oh my God.
Well, all said and done though.
I mean, you're going to spend $1,200, $2,000 on a trip to Boston for the weekend when it's
all said and done.
Yeah.
Even if you have friends that you can stay with, you're going to, you know, you're still
going to be spending a good chunk.
What are you doing at night?
Are there any after shows around town at Boston Calling?
There's a lot of food.
We actually meant to look up to see if they did after shows or not.
Cause I don't remember that we did any last time we were there.
I wouldn't be surprised though that they have some kind of after shows.
And it's again, really easy to navigate.
So what did you get?
What did you guys do?
We ate and ran the train and stumbled home.
Lots of different pubs and good restaurants.
There's lots of good food.
When you go even to the European ones and Boston as well, are you the type to get there
as soon as the gates open or you get there when your first favorite band or depends?
Kind of just get there when you feel like it really, because there's so much to do in
the area surrounding it.
Like I think for most of the days we would go and have a drink outside of the grounds
because one, it was cheaper, two, the selections better.
And so it was like, well, you know, the band that we want to see comes on at three o'clock.
So let's wander over when we all feel like it.
Yeah.
We go to museums and such too.
There's always something to find to do while we're there.
Do they have PBR in museums?
That's a good question.
I need to do some more research.
Yeah.
Taco?
I don't think so.
I'm going to say no.
Yeah.
Well, that's why I don't go.
That's why.
I mean, I am very intrigued.
The only catch that I have with this is, and this is totally, I mean, it's nobody but me.
I'm partial to the cities that I already travel to for work.
So the Nashvilles, the Chicago's, New York's, LA's, Austin, like those are the cities that
I just gravitate to.
And I just don't, there's not a time in my life, aside from one time when we were driving
through and I said, you know, I should go to Boston.
I'm assuming that the Red Sox are not in town usually a Memorial Day weekend because of
this or are they in town like the Cubs are for Lollapalooza?
Because I always like to grab a Cubs game when I go to Lollapalooza.
I wonder if you could do the same thing with the Red Sox.
I think you might be accommodated.
Yeah.
I feel like that they do have a game around that time.
Okay.
I mean, I'm really intrigued.
I really want to go because there's something about this festival that just keeps, look,
I mean, when you realize that there's some serious names that are part of this and it's
a completely independent operation that's been now nine years strong, Barry, there's
something that's really, really intriguing about going to this that, I don't know, it's
just been stuck in my head for the last few weeks.
Yeah, I agree.
And I love listening to Jessica and Reggie because they have the comparisons.
I mean, you've been to all kinds of different ones, right?
From not just Bonnaroo, which is a camping to the Boston, which is a city to Shaky Knees
to the European ones.
So do you have a favorite?
Or do they all just, they all have their advantages and you like them all or differently?
That's hard to say.
Bonnaroo still hits so different than everything else, but it's hard to keep it in that same
category as other festivals, especially other city festivals, because they have their own
kind of caveats of.
Yeah.
It's like apples and oranges.
You really can't compare.
So I mean, Bonnaroo, it's its own thing and that'll always be the top because we've been
going and we love it.
Did I miss somewhere?
Where do you guys live?
Knoxville.
Oh yeah.
Okay.
So yeah, Bonnaroo is easy for you.
If Bonnaroo wasn't near you, would you be trekking it every year?
Not every year.
It would definitely be line up dependent and it's getting more so.
Very, I'm telling you, you know, I thought that, you know, living there, I didn't think
that living there was going to be the reason why I went to Bonnaroo every year, but you
know, not living there makes me really start looking around and say, ah, do I really want
to go and spend an effort?
It's a week.
It's an entire easy drive from Knoxville.
It seems like it would be, but it's not, is it?
Not really.
You got to come down here and then go up.
And having to load the car and then prepare and yeah.
Yeah.
It's like two and a half hours.
Yeah.
Is there the same, do you have, I mean, you have family in Boston, so that's a little
bit different, but do you get the same sense of community?
I mean, the fact that you guys met with Taco at the show and came down here.
I mean, what happened this year was to me so indicative of why Bonnaroo is special.
I mean, Brad and Russ and David Bruce who drove down from New Jersey and Nick who's
in our camp, we all ended up on my front porch, you know, that Saturday.
That's because we knew you weren't going to leave the house.
Well, that's the only way we could see you.
It's the only way we were going to see dad is if we went to you.
It was awesome.
But there were so many little mini roos is what I'm getting at.
Do you get the sense that there's anything like that from these others?
Some yes.
I would say yes.
I saw heads going.
I went all over the place.
I was like, I think that community is everywhere.
I think sometimes you have to look for it.
When we went to Mad Cool, we stayed in a hostel in Madrid and that was very much like Bonnaroo
because you've got a bunch of people that are all there for the same reason.
We, you know, we met other festival goers and spent time with them.
I think, no, it just depends.
Like city festivals, it's easy to just stay in your hotel room and, you know, maybe not
interact as as often and as much with festival goers until you get there.
I think you just may have to go look for it a bit more.
Yeah, it seems a lot easier at Bonnaroo, mostly because when you're there, you're all there.
There is nothing else for you to do.
It's like I've heard that before.
Where did that come from?
Let me write that down.
When you're there, you're there.
But at the other city festivals, you do get that sense of community.
It's just the fact of, you know, at the end of the day at 11 o'clock or midnight or whatever
it is, you all kind of just go your separate ways and hope you come back the next day the
same way.
So gotcha.
Gotcha.
Well, I mean, this has been tremendously informative and I appreciate you guys' perspective.
And like Barry said, finding out that you guys go to, you know, every festival, it seems
like up and down the line.
That's pretty impressive.
Why no Coachella?
Still working up to it.
This is the first year I've dabbled with the idea of going just because, I mean, I think
it's so impossible to wrap my head around something so completely, so far away and so
completely out of my comfort zone.
And I don't have anywhere to stay.
I don't feel comfortable, you know, flying, you know, my entire, you know, Diva-like,
you know, wardrobe over to California to camp.
I don't want to stay in LA and drive down there the entire time.
So I've been just waiting for the moment that somebody has had a house that I could, you
know, bunk in.
And I stumbled upon someone who does for the first time.
And you know, I don't know, Barry, I don't know.
Even with that possibility, I don't, I still have this like odd feeling of whether, do
I even want to do this?
Do I really want to go to Coachella?
I don't know.
Maybe the lineup, maybe the lineup, the right lineup will get you there.
I mean, I do love Harry Styles.
I mean, Harry Styles is great.
They have good restaurants in LA, I hear.
Turns out.
Yeah.
You know, you're never going to see them.
I'm talking about you.
Cause you're not going to go see the music anyway.
No, no, no.
I'll be well into the city.
Well, that's going to be the problem.
Like I, I want to see, that's the other thing about Coachella.
Follow my logic here.
I'll get a house in the Valley or wherever the festival is, but I'll still be going to
LA every afternoon and evening for dinners.
So where should I stay here?
That's why it's really tricky for you.
It's really tricky for me.
All right.
Well guys, thank you so much for not only being a fellow Bonnarooian for being on the
show, talking to us about Boston Calling.
It's a very informative and I can't wait to see you guys if we do at Bonnaroo.
All right.
We hope to see you too.
We're big fans of your shows.
We're big fans of you.
Yeah.
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this.
This was great.
Yeah.
Thanks.
Thanks guys.
We'll talk to you soon.
All right.
Thank you.
Yeah.
See you.
See you again.
That was great.
That was great.
Yeah.
And very informative.
I'm not kidding about this.
I seriously do want to try and figure out how to go to this.
You know, it's Boston Calling.
It's a great place.
It's a great place.
It's a great place.
It's a great place.
It's a great place.
It's a great place.
It's a great place.
It's a great place.
It's a great place.
It's a great place.
It's a great place.
It's a great place.
It's a great place.
It's a great place.
It's a great place.
It's a great place.
It's a great place.
It's a great place.
You know, it's Boston and it's a city I don't I've only been in for an hour and a half.
So it's it's wrapping your head around.
I think we would find it a lot like Louisville, which I love.
Maybe.
Yeah.
I love the festival and I love Louisville.
So yeah, Boston would be great.
I wanted to wrap the show up with something that happened this week that I was really,
really excited for.
Our old buddies Repeat Repeat launched a new song.
It came out this past week, it's called Arrangements, and I'd like to play it to finish the show,
if you don't mind.
Love it.
If you haven't heard it and if you're not familiar with Repeat Repeat, Jared and Kristen,
we love them with all of our hearts.
They're two of the best people you'll ever find.
And I think the song is incredible.
I think the song is incredible.
It's like 007.
You know, it's just so, so well done.
So I want to wrap up with giving them a new single, a spin here.
Barry Courter, Lortaco, anything else before we go?
Have a great week.
Oh, by the way, if you've made it this far and you work or operate Boston Calling, I
would love to come to your festival.
Love to come and pick me up on the way up.
Yeah.
Anything that you guys want from us, we will be there.
That's right.
Apparently they listened to our show last week and liked what we had to say.
Oh, good.
Please, please, please, if you want the What Podcast part of your festival, you just let
us know.
We can hang out.
We will.
Very rarely are, but boy, we're happy.
The possibility's helping you.
Thanks guys.
I'll see you soon.
You're always trying to do your best.
It's part of a life.
I will.
Amen.
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