Boston Calling has announced its line-up of 50-plus performers for its annual Memorial Day weekend at the Harvard University Athletic Complex, with a ticket presale for general admission, VIP, and Platinum starting on Jan. 11.

The three-day event line-up for May 24-26 features performers from a range of genres, including pop singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran, indie rockers The Killers, rapper and force of nature Megan Thee Stallion, and country/bluegrass/folk singer Tyler Childers. The Friday lineup is heartthrob and songwriter heavy, Saturday will have a country focus (the Castellows are up and coming), and Sunday will go back to Boston Calling’s indie music roots.

Boston Calling attracts national and international acts, plus sets a stage aside for locals, including Bad Rabbits, Beach Weather, and Senseless Optimism. It’s fun to catch rising stars on accessible stages during the event, which typically features 4 stages, at least 2 of which are going at any 1 time.

More details on food and drink partners will be released later on.

We always seek out Wellesley angles, such as rapper Cam Meekins performing in 2022 and Couch in 2023.

If you know if any Wellesley angles from this year’s event, please let us know: theswellesleyreport@gmail.com

More local festivals, such as In Between Days, FreshGrass Festival, and the Levitate Music & Arts Festival will be rolling out their line-ups in the days and weeks ahead. The Green River Festival, June 21-23 in Greenfield, will have Cake, Joy Oladokun, and Fleet Foxes, among others, and Solid Sound in North Adams features Wilco, Jason Isbell, Horsegirl, and more on June 28-30.

Beyond Wellesley music coverage:

• Breakaway Boston festival: ‘New England EDM, finally!’
• In Between Days music & arts festival breaks through in Year Two
• Slow Pulp & Babehoven brighten up Brighton Music Hall

So many concerts start with a small crowd for the opener, then get packed between sets in anticipation of the main attraction. But for the sold-out Babehoven and Slow Pulp twin bill at 500-person capacity Brighton Music Hall on Nov. 3, the room was nearly full from opener Babehoven’s first chords. These two female-led indie bands synced well, attracting a largely 20-something crowd happy to sing along on some songs, and quietly shoe gaze during others.

Slow Pulp’s buzz has been building since the Chicago band completed and released its “Moveys” album at the height of the pandemic in 2020. Its new “Yard” album, a 10-song, 30-minute eclectic mix of music on the ANTI- label ranging from poignant ballads to alt-country to glimmery rock, was written and produced using some of the same remote work processes that proved effective on the earlier album. The band is coming off opening shows for big-name alternative music bands Pixies and Death Cab for Cutie.

At Brighton Music Hall for its Friday night all-ages gig, Slow Pulp stuck with the general setlist it has used since kicking off its tour in Wisconsin, where the band has its roots. The 5-piece live band played all but two songs from “Yard,” a batch from “Moveys,” plus a few songs released as singles or via EP. Most of their songs have one- or two-word titles, like “Slugs,” “High,” and “Steel Birds.” They keep things simple, though their lyrics can be interpreted in many ways.

Despite having as many as four guitars going at once, Slow Pulp’s centerpiece during the concert was lead singer Emily Massey’s often hoarse voice, which soared and cracked at expected and unexpected times. It soothed on quiet numbers like “Fishes,” when the rest of the band backed down and the singer handled things herself on vocals and guitar, and on the wrenching “Yard,” with Massey backed only on keyboards as she sang of her family home being put up for sale. The singer ditched her guitar for “Broadview,” breaking out a harmonica partway through, eliciting a big crowd reaction.

The 70-minute concert began with summer love song “Slugs” and its chorus of “You’re a summer hit, I’m singing it,” which on this early November night raised the temps in an already warm room, ceiling fans barely moving above the close bodies below. After keeping it mellow with “Idaho,” Slow Pulp brought out bangers like “Doubt” and “At It Again,” with electric guitars all around.

Slow Pulp invited Maya Bon from Babehoven back onto the stage to combine with Massey in singing “Falling Apart,” which tells the story of an expert in falling to pieces who tries to put on a good face (“Why don’t you go back /To falling apart? /You were so good at that/You’re one in a million now”). Massey invited the audience to sing along “if you know the words to this one,” and they did. She did likewise on “High” near the end of the show, where she challenged the Boston crowd to outdo New York, where Slow Pulp was headed next.

The band “jammed” at the end of a few songs—as in, maybe adding 20 seconds of fuzzy guitar rock that rarely exceeded 3 minutes. My kinda jamming…move it along.

The biggest laughs of the night came during the intro of “Cramps,” during which Massey asked if anyone out there was having their period. Many fans whooped that they were, to which the singer said: “Boston’s synced up. You all must be hanging out a lot.”

As Babehoven was about to step on stage for its first “real” Boston show, a woman in the crowd assured me that this band “is going to blow up! Just like Real Estate did” (no, Wellesley, not our town’s $1.8M median sales price real estate. “Real Estate,” the band.).

She might be right, as lead singer Maya Bon’s voice is hypnotic, and even stronger live than on the recordings of the Hudson, NY band’s heartfelt songs. A group still in its early stages, having released its first full album (“Light Moving Time”) last year, Bon urged attendees to follow the band on Instagram and buy its merch to help fund its tour, for which she said the band members are “kissing their lucky stars every night.”

Babehoven’s been described as indie-folk, though seemed more indie than folk in person, with slow-burners like “Break the Ice” starting quietly with barely perceptible lyrics and then ramping up with energetic guitar from Ryan Albert, Bon’s main collaborator on stage and in production. Albert even ended the show with some faux guitar smashing—he might just have the real thing in him.

While song tempos sped up and slowed down throughout the set, Bon’s voice and acoustic guitar were steady presences sandwiched between her bandmates on guitar and a mainly light-touch bass. Bon hit high notes on standout numbers “I’m On Your Team” and “Fugazi,” with Albert windmilling his right arm on guitar for extra oomph on the latter. A drummer snuck in for part of the set, too. and Bon was joined on harmonies for a handful of songs.

The band got downright jangly at times, including on “Alt. Lena,” in which we learned the main character “loves chocolate milk and sex.” With vivid lyrics throughout their songs, we learned quite a bit about Babehoven, too across their 40-minute set.

 

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Recent “beyond Wellesley” music coverage:

• Black Country, New Road mesmerizes at Sinclair doubleheader
• Breakaway Boston festival: ‘New England EDM, finally!’
• Levitate Music & Arts festival
• Boston Calling festival
• Mountain Goats concert
• In Between Days music & arts festival breaks through in Year Two

Those of us attending either of the sold-out Black Country, New Road shows at the Sinclair this past weekend pretty much knew what we were in for even though most of us had never seen the English band in person. As has been well documented, the band stopped playing live versions of songs recorded before former frontman Isaac Wood left last year for mental health reasons, and produced a new set of songs released earlier this year on a live album. It’s those songs, plus a couple more, that the band has been playing on its first big U.S. tour, and some of us had to retrain our brains to grasp and embrace this edition of BCNR.

This ensemble, featuring a keyboardist, violinist, drummer, bass, guitar, and sax/flute player, with rotating vocalists, is otherwise challenging to describe. Maybe the best I’ve seen is that BCNR plays fairycore—no one in the audience would have been fazed if an elf or hobbit zipped across the stage.

Not that this is a completely precious outfit. Their offerings in a just-over-an-hour, 10-song set ranged from bouncy to melancholy to dreamy, with plenty of flourishes combining different instrument mixes. 

The all-ages crowd was hushed at points throughout the show, especially when keyboardist and accordion player May Kershaw led on vocals and hit high notes, such as on the 3-chapter fairytale song called “The Boy.” During “Turbines/Pigs” (“Don’t waste your pearls on me/I’m only a pig…”), most of Kershaw’s band mates huddled without their instruments as if around a campfire, before going full-on jam to end the longest song of the concert with a flute and more.

At other times, the room got excited and a bit silly, like when sax player Lewis Evans ambled through his big number, “Across the Pond Friend.”

Evans did the honors early of introducing his bandmates.

Sporting what appeared to be a newly acquired Harvard hat, he also pandered to the crowd with a “Can I get a quick F— Yale?”—not that many of us were necessarily Crimson faithful. He also assured us that we were his favorite crowd of the two that would fill the Sinclair for that day’s doubleheader (did he tell the nighttime crowd the same thing?).

The crowd got a bit giddy later on, during a violin sound check, with someone shouting out “Happy prom night!”—a reference to a shout-out from the band’s current “Live at Bush Hall” album.

BCNR is one of the most interesting bands I’ve seen of late simply because the players constantly shift roles and instruments. The drummer cameoed with a banjo, Kershaw sometimes played with an accordion on her lap, but also reached around to hit the keyboard. Bassist Tyler Hyde handled the majority of vocals, including on buoyant opener “Up Song,” in which the band celebrates their accomplishments as a group, and on the self explanatory “I Won’t Always Love You,” going acoustic, then accompanied by her bandmates one by one to finish strong. 

Black Country, New Road mesmerizes at Sinclair doubleheader https://t.co/CowgvLqtzS @BCNRband @TheSinclair pic.twitter.com/SgGPylvfrQ

— swellesley (@swellesley) September 22, 2023

Hyde complimented us on being “really nice,” and promised the band would be back in these parts. What version of BCNR we’ll get next, who knows?

I go to more than my fair share of concerts and music festivals, but I was up front with promoters for the inaugural Breakaway Boston electronic dance music (EDM) festival when they reached out to offer a media pass—this style of music was outside of my usual sphere. But what the heck, I’m up for new experiences and also wanted to check out the Stage @ Suffolk Downs, which opened this year at the old East Boston horse racing track that still features many structural remnants of its former use.

I’d only been to Suffolk Downs once before, back in the mid-1990s to see a legendary thoroughbred named Cigar whup the rest of the field at the MassCap. That was before, I’d wager, most of my fellow EDM festival attendees were born.

After arriving at the event via a sluggish green line/blue line combination, I got the lay of the spacious venue, which featured one main stage, a border of merch, food/beverage, and other stalls, plus fun activities in between.

Before I had a chance to get too lost, I had the good fortune to meet Jason, who took me under his wing after spotting my camera and asking me to take his photo wearing a newly acquired “Everything We Need is Already Here” T-shirt in a nod to headlining DJ Porter Robinson.

“You want a headline for your article?” he asked me, upon learning that I’d be posting about the show. “New England EDM, finally!” Done (see above).

No stranger to the club scene from the west to east coasts, and in between, Jason said it was about time an EDM festival came to town. Breakaway has been hosting such events in other parts of the country, beginning in Columbus, Ohio, since 2013.

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My new festival friend pulled me into the fray at Breakaway as I peppered him with questions about what we were seeing, hearing, and experiencing. I’d been to EDM performances at festivals like Boston Calling, seeing the likes of Odesza and Disclosure, just not to a full-on EDM extravaganza.

And it wasn’t like I hadn’t done my homework for this event. I knew that Night Tales, the first performers I saw upon arrival, hailed from Australia. The tandem, splitting duties between DJ and vocals, got the pre-dusk crowd jumping with offerings such as “Phoenix,” with its chorus of “Come out from the dark, in through the fire,” and “Lovesong,” a cover of The Cure song familiar to alternative music fans like myself.

Knock2 out of San Diego has been enjoying his rapid rise, and ratcheted the crowd enthusiasm even higher, moving between his spot behind the DJ gear to strutting across the platform. Banter was limited during my spell at the festival to obligatory “How you doin’ Boston,” urgings to get crazier and louder and raise those hands, and requests for end-of-show selfies.

Jason filled in my knowledge gaps as we wove toward the front of crowd with future house DJ Tchami taking the stage high above us, manipulating mixers and digital turntables to pump out non-stop danceable music heavy on bass and drops. The artists at these shows, he said, are typically some combination of performer-producer-DJ, with Tchami excelling as both a producer and DJ. The French producer is partial to religious wear and symbolism, and indeed appeared as a shadowy figure on stage as he hit us with beautiful and blinding visuals ranging from stained glass imagery to complete conflagration.

“This is where the heart of the crowd is,” Jason emphasized, as we took in a spectacular sunrise washing over blissful attendees fully bowing at Tchami’s alter as he pumped out “The Calling,” with its chorus of “Searching for a higher calling…”

The sunrise took an already spectacular light and visual show up a notch, and I’m not just talking about the stage effects. Attendees went all out with their light-up and sparkly outfits on what could be one of the last chances to show them off before cooler weather hits the region.

A show-goer named Matt next to us really liked his colors judging by his choice of wardrobe, which featured all of them. He introduced himself by saying: “I’m completely sober, but take a look through these glasses.”  He handed me a pair of 3D diffraction specs that added a layer of kaleidoscope over the already visually enveloping stage show. “Whoa!” was the only appropriate reaction.

Matt, a veteran of much larger EDM festivals, said he was impressed with the opening night of Breakaway’s 2-day stay at Suffolk Downs. “These shows are great for meeting people from all over, the crowds tend to be very international.”

If you’ve never been to an EDM festival, half the fun is people watching and meeting, as groups assemble in coordinated outfits based on color or themes. At Breakaway, there were the horse people, the lobster people, and the giraffe people, among others. But all members of the human/animal kingdoms seemed to get along just fine, whether it was rolling or stumbling around the roller skating rink or blissing out at the Silent Disco, where we donned illuminated headsets fed music by one of three DJs depending upon whether we switched on the red, green, or blue on our gear.

And for those embroiled in local pickleball noise disputes as in Wellesley, by the way, it would appear the real solution to drowning out the pop-pop-pop of the paddle sport is to crank up the EDM. A pickleball court in the middle of the spacious Suffolk Downs venue provided entertainment for those playing and watching, as errant strikes floated past passersby.

Much of the rest of the venue is covered in grass, providing a soft landing for those of us who needed to give our feet a break here and there. After all, as an EDM festival newcomer, I knew pacing was key to survival, and so did many other attendees, as there were still after-parties to hit.

 

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Invite us to cover your music festival: theswellesleyreport@gmail.com

Recent “beyond Wellesley” music coverage:

• Levitate Music & Arts festival
• Boston Calling festival
• Mountain Goats concert
• In Between Days music & arts festival breaks through in Year Two

This past weekend’s In Between Days festival was clearly an example of a music event on the rise. The Quincy-based music and arts extravaganza expanded this year from 1 day to 2, highlighted local, national, and international acts, and seemingly got the word out based on the big-but-not-suffocating crowds. As performer Cautious Clay—a sax- and flute-wielding multi-instrumentalist— put it on Sunday: “This is a very eclectic little festival.”

Even with at least 4,000 attendees per day, In Between Days also is still new enough that it has the casual vibe larger events can no longer muster. Many of the performers could be seen checking out their peers’ sets and interacting with fans. I went for the first time this year, and enjoyed the breathing room, and ample seating—benches, turf, stadium, under shade trees—that can be hard to find at more established festivals. With the 2 stages right next to each other, concert goers didn’t need to break any step-counting records to make it back and forth between shows, of which there were a dozen each day, none overlapping.

Fans were on their game with creative and sparkly attire—some upgraded by visits to the on-site shops curated by Little City Thrifty Vintage Market and The Good Trade Makers Market. Uncle Sam, when he wasn’t reattaching his goatee, handed out red, white, and blue balloons early on Saturday. Little kids scrambled around, hit up the vintage arcade tent, and threw rugby footballs through a hole at a carnival game set up by the New England Free Jacks major league rugby team that plays at the Veterans Memorial Stadium where In Between Days was held.

The crowd was friendly and enthusiastic. Slothrust‘s Leah Wellbaum marveled seemingly in surprise at this “respectful Massachusetts crowd,” and warned later “Careful with that moshing—don’t bump into anyone!” Not that attendees wouldn’t have done it anyway, but they were regularly encouraged by performers to hydrate and be kind to each other as they listened to music and lined up for a variety of food and drink options. One thing I’d never seen at a festival—1 Million Strong brought a sober-supportive sanctuary to the grounds, offering non-alcoholic beverages and spreading swag throughout.

To the credit of the performers, we heard lots more “How you doin’ Quincy” than “Hey Boston,” indicating the artists were well aware of where they were. And on that note, we were actually able to hear most of the performers’ comments, even most of the ramblings of Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock, thanks to a steady and clear sound system.

The inevitable Wellesley angle

We always seek out a Wellesley angle whenever we take it on the road, and sure enough, we found one thanks to Wellesley Hills cafe CrepeBerry

(We also learned after the event that Slothrust drummer Will Gorin is Wellesley born and bred.)

CrepeBerry owner Amelia Childs Schwartzman mentioned that former employee Haley Senft’s band, shallow pools (yeah, arg, all lower case) was on the bill, so we connected with the band at the event before its well-received set of pop-with-a-message music on Saturday. Drummer Ali Ajemian said Senft would play shallow pools music whenever possible at CrepeBerry, allowing it to seep into the ears and brains of customers from Wellesley and elsewhere.

The 4-piece band, which says all of its members belong to the LGBTQ+ community and are advocates for inclusivity, debuted a couple of songs from their upcoming album, dubbed “I Think About It All the Time.” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what “It” was, but they said it referred to many things that they obsess over and that were accentuated during the pandemic. The first single, “Nightmare,” is straight-out dark, though guitarist Jess Gromada assured songs on the album “go from dark to hopeful.”

Shallow pools lead singer Glynnis Brennan introduced the band on stage as being from Quincy, getting a rise from the crowd, which included plenty of locals, including Quincy first responders both on and off duty.

Shallow pools wasn’t the only band representing the hometown: I chatted with Chris Conway, guitarist for the Gypsy Moths, who told me that 5 of the 6 band members got their high school degrees on the field where the festival took place. “It was wild to be here now for this,” he said, referring to his band playing in the opening slot on Saturday.

Music from near and far

The local focus was big for In Between Days, which included other homegrown acts such as Dutch Tulips, Mint Green, and Paper Tigers, whose lead singer Michael Medlock celebrated his birthday at the show (“I’m 14 years old,” he joked, but more seriously: “There’s no place I’d rather be.”).

The festival also drew performers from afar, including The Beths, all the way from Auckland, New Zealand (but not so far away that they don’t know that words are spelled 1 way here and pronounced another, as guitarist Jonathan Pearce remarked). This hot band, which whipped through one piece of ear candy after another, might have won the merch competition judging by the number of t-shirts worn by fans. One of the more unusual scenes at the event was the pack of press photographers all wearing masks during The Beths’ show—the indie rock band required us to wear them if we wanted to take photos from the pit (New Zealand just lifted the last of its COVID-19 restrictions).

Geography-wise, In Between Days had Portland covered, too—Modest Mouse and Blitzen Trapper from Oregon’s, and Weakened Friends from Maine.

The geographical expanse translated into musical diversity throughout the event, with indie rock, harder stuff, country/folk, Americana, and other genres on display. Banjos, flutes, fiddles, stand-up bass, and harmonicas meshed with the usual collection of drums, guitars, and keyboards, though of course any time you have Modest Mouse on the bill you’re going to get a whole lot of stuff on stage. The indie rock icons banged out about 20 songs, old and new, keeping longtime and newer fans happy.

Fantastic Cat, a quirky supergroup of singer-songwriters out of New York, was among the other bands on Day 1 of the festival that brought a little bit of everything. This included at least three of their members taking the lead on vocals, and the debut of a tune with the chorus “I just keep on getting screwed.” Veteran folk-rock band Blitzen Trapper captivated the crowd with the only a cappella number I caught at the event, and jammed out royally to finish their set.

Miko Marks injected country and Americana music into Sunday’s mix, alternating between bringing the crowd “here” (rambunctious songs like “Ancestors”) and “here” (poignant tunes like “Hard Times,” with a nod to Mavis Staples). Marks performed not just for the many locals at the show, but for family members who attended, too. “The ancestors are in the building,” she announced at the start.

Perhaps the event’s most heroic performance came from Kat Wright, who said she woke up without a voice, so alternated with bandmate and guitarist Bob Wagner on vocals. Those of us close up could hear bassist Josh Weinstein urging the others to get going at the start (“They’re ready for us”), as they made last-minute plans. Wright said this would preview how she’d sound at the age of 80, and promised that “I’m actually a good singer,” encouraging fans to check out the trio in November when they trek back from Vermont for a show at City Winery in Boston.

Lord Huron, bathed in green and other smoky lights, ended the event with a set of soothing indie rock that lead singer and guitarist Ben Schneider jokingly referred to as their version of “The Eras Tour,” with “not as many costume changes,” but with all the emotions. Phantogram served up an electronica palette cleanser in between Trampled by Turtles and Lord Huron, with Sarah Barthel swirling about the stage mainly on vocals, as Josh Guitar led with guitar.

One festival highlight is always cross-pollination among bands, and In Between Days kept this tradition going. Bassist Annie Hoffman doubled up on Saturday with Weakened Friends, her usual gig, and also with Slothrust. Early Sunday performer Allison Ponthier made a quick change out of her dancing duds after watching the Phantogram show among the rest of the crowd, then wound up on stage with Lord Huron singing “The Night We Met.”

Then there were also bands there in spirit, represented by covers played by those actually at In Between Days. Mint Green shared its rendition of Radiohead’s “Creep,” and Slothrust dug into Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time.”

Radiohead also made its presence felt when Adrian Galvin, who performs as Yoke Lore, turned Trampled by Turtles’ side-by-side-by-side-by-side-by-side-by-side sextet into a septet Sunday armed with his banjo for a rendition of “Fake Plastic Trees.” The Duluth bluegrass-plus band earlier in the set had members of the crowd locking arms and spinning in circles, fueled by Ryan Young’s extreme fiddling.

Chatting up Yoke Lore

Shortly before that set, I sat down with Yoke Lore’s Galvin at a picnic table in the artists’ village to talk about the banjo and his upcoming album, Toward A Never Ending New Beginning. I broke the ice by noting that my paternal grandfather was a banjoist who had his own bands back in the 1940s, and also learned that Galvin has visited Wellesley College, in relentlessly pressing for my local angle.

I’d been listening to Yoke Lore that morning while mowing our lawn, leading me to ask Galvin if he thinks much about how people hear his music. “I kind of think of it, but I want people to make it their own and use the music to make their lives better in any way they can.” Hey, it helped me get through that chore before hitting the festival, so mission accomplished.

In starting Yoke Lore, Galvin was looking to do something with an instrument beyond the usual guitars and drums. “The banjo’s such a great instrument. It’s really specifically American in some wonderful ways, and because of that, you tend to mainly see it played by guys in suspenders and bluegrass bands. With the guitar, people play it behind their back and in all kinds of weird ways, and nobody’s done anything like that with the banjo… it makes a really cool sound and I want to find more ways to manipulate it.” Galvin has done that, rocking, spinning, and jumping with it like he’s wielding a guitar, and in Yoke Lore, backed by drums and electronic beats. He regretted missing Modest Mouse the night before, which started its show with lead singer Isaac Brock ripping into his banjo on “King Rat.”

Yoke Lore’s new album debuts in a month, and they played songs from it, such as “Hallucinate” and Winona,” at the show. Galvin says the album is inspired by the I Ching. “I kind of want this album to be my little book of change,” he said. “I hope people use these songs as orientation tools to figure out where they are and what the hell they’re supposed to do.”

Songwriting serves as Galvin’s therapeutic process, he said.

“Art making forces a sort of self-involvement, for lack of a better term,” the Los Angeles-based artist said. “It forces you into your head in a lot of wonderful ways but also it can be somewhat detrimental.”

I thanked Galvin for appearing at the festival, noting that I likely wouldn’t have come across his band if he hadn’t. One thing for sure is that Galvin’s live performance is way more charged up than you’d expect from listening to his sweet voice and lush production on recordings. My favorite thing about festivals like this with a good mix of acts is that you can discover new performers and rediscover genres that you never knew you might actually now like.

 

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Thanks to Michael Marotta & the entire In Between Days festival team for their support.

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As I approached the House of Blues box office across from Fenway Park to grab my press pass for Saturday’s Mountain Goats concert, a group of baseball fans leaving the Red Sox game asked who was performing. When I told them, one seemingly boozed-up guy who had clearly never heard of the band mocked their name and feigned excitement. But another passerby said, “Wait, The Mountain Goats are playing? Love that new song…” and he nearly wound up joining us.

So the Mountain Goats, either you love ’em… or you never heard of them (or like Mrs. Swellesley, you’ve heard plenty of singer John Darnielle’s unique and reedy voice, and you ask your husband to prep for the concert using headphones).

The Durham, N.C.-by-way-of-Claremont, Calif. band has been around in one form or another since the early 1990s, attracting an indie folk-rock following with their often obtuse, though memorable lyrics that include references to everything from St. Joseph baby aspirin to a monkey in the basement. Among the curious titles on the Boston set list: “Cadaver Sniffing Dog,” “Getting into Knives,” and “Liza Forever Minnelli.”

With the band’s longevity, you might expect an older crowd to have filled the 2,200-person capacity venue, and while that demographic made a strong showing, the Mountain Goats also now pull in the TikTok generation thanks to their 2002 divorce anthem “No Children” going viral on that social platform in 2021. Fans across the spectrum clapped and bobbed along to some songs, and of course shook their heads and pointed their “bony fingers” during a rousing edition of “Up the Wolves.”

Given that singer/guitarist/pianist/author John Darnielle has written hundreds of songs under the Mountain Goats moniker, the band can take its set lists in any direction, and on its current tour it’s generally making the youngsters and the rest of its fans wait ’til the end for “No Children” and some of their other songs that have become sing-alongs. The Mountain Goats chose in Boston to take the slow burn approach to its set list, with a few of their livelier songs mixed in early among slower (their opener, “The Slow Parts on Death Metal Albums,” literally includes the word “Slow” in the title) and more obscure ones. They then pounded out crowd-pleasers over the last 45 minutes or so of the roughly 2-hour show, with Darnielle dramatically shaking his head in anger for certain lyrics and pogo-ing at other times, while bassist Peter Hughes increasingly chimed in on vocals.

The rhythm section of Jon Wurster on drums and bassist Hughes set the mood on lower-key pieces such as “Younger.” Straightforward lighting in reds, purples, greens, and yellows added ambiance. As some in the crowd grew restless during Darnielle’s 3-song solo set (one heckler encouraged Darnielle to move onto the next song on the set list), it also perhaps took inspiration from the upcoming “This Year,” to paraphrase its lyrics: “I’m going to make it through this year solo set if it kills me.”

The 4-piece band (singer/guitarist/pianist, keyboards/brass, bass, and drums) on this night sometimes added a fifth in the person of Kyle Leonard, a recent local high school grad who wowed on the sax and quickly became of fan favorite of the cheeky crowd, which broke into “Kyle! Kyle!” chants throughout the show. Darnielle quipped regret at not making Kyle t-shirts. While not all Mountain Goats songs feature the sax, the instrument adds punch to numbers such as “Cry for Judas” and “The Diaz Brothers” both on recordings and live. Leonard and Mountain Goat member Matt Douglas doubled up on the brass for those songs. They respectively worked the baritone and tenor sax on “Foreign Object,” a choice from the band’s pro wrestling-themed 2015 album “Beat the Champ” that features the jauntiest chorus about jabbing someone in the eye that you’ll ever hear.

Darnielle and Douglas also joined forces on guitar on rowdier songs, though you had to cross the street to the MGM Music Hall if you wanted truly soaring guitar solos: Carlos Santana was playing there. Drummer Wurster, formerly with the band Superchunk, punctuated songs like “You or Your Memory,” which felt much bolder live than on recordings.

One highlight of the show was the performance of “Clean Slate” from the band’s upcoming “rock opera” album dubbed “Jenny from Thebes,” with Darnielle switching over from acoustic guitar to keyboards. This was only the second public playing of the song, which the night before had debuted in New York at the Rooftop at Pier 17, a scenic and roomy venue I’d taken in last month and highly recommend if you’re in the big city. While crowds can cringe over too much new material at shows, “Clean Slate” seems like an instant classic for Mountain Goats fans with its ominous chorus of “Remember at your peril, forget the ones you can.” It starts with tinkly piano and transforms with flourishes and hooks that would make Belle & Sebastian proud. Darnielle shook his head after playing the song, commenting on the enthusiasm of Mountain Goats fans: “That’s a brand new F-ing song and half the people in here know it already.” The album’s due out Oct. 27.

Darnielle started the show modestly by announcing, “Hi, we’re the Mountain Goats,” then had a playful rapport going with the crowd throughout the show, acknowledging his Chicago Cubs support (“I know how you feel”), puzzling over ovations for him hydrating, and dropping local references, even switching in Somerville for Austin in the song “Source Decay.”

The Mountain Goat GOAT introduced “First Blood,” which references John Rambo and Sheriff Buford Pusser, as a dance song. When it came to previewing the song we’d all been waiting for, “No Children,” Darnielle introed the bitter divorce song sung by the band with big smiles and accompanied/overwhelmed by the crowd’s participation, as being “for the lovers…who have lost their way.”

More music:

• Levitate Music & Arts Festival ’23: Love was in the air, in the hair & from a chair
• Boston Calling 2023: Music marathon makes for Memorial Day Weekend to remember

Every so often we go “beyond Wellesley” for music, sightseeing, and other coverage. Thanks to Grandstand Media for its support.