Just like on Saturday, Sunday’s high point came early in the day, with a magnificent set by the Australian electronic musician Flume, who captivated the crowd with a nonstop stream of woozy, deconstructed head-nodders. Flume was also the one musician to pair his music with an interesting visual show: as his soulful songs were filtered through the speakers at insane volumes, the audience was treated to images of televisions and cars exploding, as well as short loops of pop videos.
After a solid performance by Solange, who trotted out her now-old-but-still-fantastic cover of the Dirty Projectors’ “Stillness is the Move,” the glorified house party DJs Flosstradamus took the stage. The duo’s set might have been tolerable if they hadn’t stopped the music so frequently to interject comments like “Where my fucking twerk team at today?” and “Fuck Miley Cyrus, y’all know who run this twerk shit!”
The technically skilled and, more importantly, completely silent house DJ Wolfgang Gartner came as a welcome respite following Flosstradamus. The Californian mixed Daft Punk-inspired synths into a build-it-up-and-drop-the-bass pattern that’s been done before, but rarely with such precision. Following Gartner’s set, I made the decision to stay at that stage to be up front for Kendrick Lamar, meaning I had to listen to an almost absurdly energetic performance by dancehall sensations Major Lazer from a great distance.
But it was worth it. Kendrick Lamar’s technical skill is something to behold in person, best exhibited at the festival by his precise and passionate performance of “I Am (Interlude)” from his 2009 self-titled EP. To be fair, though, Kendrick’s showmanship skills could still use a little fine-tuning; for example, he needs to come up with a different method for hyping up the crowd than the elementary school assembly-esque “Which side of the audience is louder?” he used 10 times throughout the course of his hour-long set.
Passion Pit made a lot of very cold tank top-wearers wait for their performance, which turned out to be a slight disappointment after Vampire Weekend’s magnificence in the same slot the night before. Live, the Cambridge natives seemed to lack the rhythmic precision that makes their studio recordings so catchy. However, it was still an enjoyable performance, albeit one that probably would have been even more fun in a much smaller venue.
As it continues to gain a reputation as a well-organized music festival, Boston Calling will only get better, with its third installment presumably coming next May. You might want to wait to buy those plane tickets home.