Even if you haven’t moshed with the Dropkick Murphys or engaged in a drunken singalong to the Standells’ “Dirty Water” at Fenway Park, it’s hard not to be impressed with Boston’s passion for music. The city has cultivated top-notch talents — Aerosmith, New Edition and the Pixies, to name a few — and now it has a festival to match: Boston Calling. The two-day festival launched in late May, but rather than wait a year, Crashline Productions worked with Bowery Presents and Sonicbids to throw a second edition on Sept. 8 and 9, when Boston’s many colleges and universities are back in session. Co-curated by the National’s Aaron Dessner, the lineup features Passion Pit, Kendrick Lamar and others rocking City Hall Plaza. “The location offers easy access from every subway, surrounded by over 100 bars and restaurants within a quarter-mile,” Crashline co-founder Brian Appel says. “We also have a readmission policy: We want people to leave, explore, then come back in.” Dicky Barrett of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones loves the idea: “City Hall is right in the center of it all, and Boston is a walking city.” New Kids on the Block alum Donnie Wahlberg recommends taking a quick ride on the Green Line subway to the Back Bay and South End areas near Berklee College of Music, which boast “a big scene with a lot of clubs and live music.” Ryan Vangel, VP of booking for promoter Crossroads Presents, suggests heading farther west, to Allston: “They call it Allston Rock City,” he says. “It’s where a lot of musicians live.”
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STAY Appel loves Ames Hotel, which features live lobby performances. “It’s got this independently owned vibe,” he says. “It really caters to a music clientele.” WXKS DJ Romeo prefers Liberty Hotel: “It used to be a jail, and much of the structure is still the same,” he says. “They have three bar/club areas with live music and DJs.” Vangel calls Hotel Commonwealth a music-biz favorite: “If your band is playing House of Blues, and agents and managers come to town, they stay there. It’s a two-block walk — and they can go to Sox games too.”
EAT Bite into Boston’s famed seafood at popular Faneuil Hall dive Salty Dog, Barrett says: “Go there for your clam chowder and your fisherman’s platter.” For vegetarian options, Passion Pit’s Jeff Apruzzese chooses close-to-Fenway haunt El Pelon Taqueria: “I dream about those burritos.” Wahlberg’s go-to is the gourmet O Ya, in the Leather District. “I dislike foie gras with a passion, but I would walk 20 miles to eat theirs,” he says. Nick Mineri, founder of Zakim Records, says the North End’s Italian cuisine is a must: “A lot of the restaurants open onto the street so you can really take in the atmosphere.” If you prefer to stick close to the festival, choose Sterling’s, Appel advises. “They have a great outdoor brunch. Come on the early side and have a cocktail beforehand.”
PLAY Paradise Rock Club, near Boston University, is “the resident marquee room in Boston,” says Vangel, who booked there for 10 years. Letters to Cleo vocalist Kay Hanley agrees: “Every band on tour stops there.” Apruzzese hits the Sinclair in Cambridge’s Harvard Square for songs and sustenance. “I don’t think I’ve been to a venue that books shows as good as they do, [with] the best food in the area,” he says. Carl Mello, head of purchasing at music-store chain Newbury Comics, praises the curation at Allston’s Great Scott and Cambridge’s TT & the Bears and the Middle East: “They’ve got a lot of smaller national bands and tons of local music.” Get a crash course in Beantown bar culture at McGreeveys, owned by the Dropkick Murphys’ Ken Casey. Mello stays away from Faneuil Hall’s drinkeries, citing the concetration of “bro bars — backward-baseball-cap kind of stuff.” A true Bostonian, Chad Urmston of jam band Dispatch loves the “fireplace and great Guinness” at James Gate in Jamaica Plains. Barrett, meanwhile, is a regular at JJ Foley’s, a South End bar where he’s had a tab since the ’80s. “They like to pull it out and yell, ‘Dicky Barrett still owes us money.'”
(Additional reporting by Gabrielle Sierra.)