Live Shows: Sound On: Boston Calling Night featuring Latrell James, sidebody, and Battlemode, WBUR CitySpace, Boston, MA 5/9/25
Friday night marked two weeks before the start of this year's Boston Calling. As part of WBUR's Sound On series, they presented an evening featuring three of the most interesting local artists playing Boston Calling this year. Even though I can see them all in three weeks, when the artists chosen are Latrell James, sidebody, and Battlemode, I'm going to make the trek into Boston on a rainy night to check them out early. First up was chiptune heroes Battlemode. I'm always a little hesitant to see electronic artists live since so much of the genre is just a guy pressing play on a laptop, and seeing that much of the chiptune genre is made up of retro video game noises, it could be a fairly dull show. But, Battlemode are one of the most entertaining live bands in all of Boston. They play live instruments, bring in weird instruments I don't recognize (they called one thing a spit tube(?)), and have an insane energy. As much as I enjoy their recorded music, live they are ...