The final day of BottleRock Napa Valley 2019 started off as a damp one. Rain showers fell sporadically in the early afternoon. There was some concern of how the rain would affect attendance, but organizers said that by mid-afternoon the number of people arriving was higher than the Friday which was a good sign.
Two rock bands from Australia in Ocean Alley and Gang of Youths performed back to back on the second stage (FireFox Stage). Between their sets I hopped over to the VIP Acoustic Lounge for The Teskey Brothers and over to the Culinary Stage to see Kristian Nairn, aka Hodor from ‘Game of Thrones’ cook with actress Ali Larter and former Top Chef season 16 winner Kelsey Barnard Clark.
Skylar Grey performed on the main stage just before 2 o’clock. If you don’t know the name, you’re likely to recognize her voice featured on Diddy’s ‘Coming Home’ or Dr. Dre’s ‘I Need a Doctor’. Zedd’s ‘Clarity’ is also a song she co-wrote.
From there I went over to the third stage (Bai Stage) to catch what would end up being one of my favourite sets of the weekend. Washington D.C.’s SHAED. The trio consisting of twins Max and Spencer Ernst and Spencer’s now wife Chelsea Lee on vocals put on highly entertaining electro-pop set. I wish I could have stayed for their full set to hear their single, and Apple commercial song ‘Trampoline’ live, but had to duck out early in order to catch Jeff Goldblum and rapper Too $hort cook with celebrity chef Adam Richman.
After taking a lunch break, I headed back to the Culinary Stage to see Canadian chef Matty Matheson make lobster rolls with Big Boi. At the end Matheson attempted to shoot a lobster roll into the crowd with a t-shirt cannon. It ended up just spraying bits with most of it still in the cannon. The main stage was my next stop for a couple minutes of Michael Franti & Spearhead at the JAM Cellars main stage. Franti is practically BottleRock’s house band as he has performed every year of the festival. Franti’s set started just as the clouds broke to bring sunlight back to Napa just in time for him to perform ‘The Sound of Sunshine’.
Bishop Briggs performed to a packed FireFox Stage. She was one of the photographer favourites to shoot at Rifflandia in Victoria last year and having the opportunity to take photos of her show again was just as fun. For her final song, she brought out a choir.
Technically Tash Sultana was next on my schedule, but with their set starting 15 minutes before Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, I had to secure a spot for Goldblum because head Rocktographer Tyson Elder really wanted to see some good shots of him. 10 minutes before his set was schedule to begin, Goldblum stepped out on stage with a mic to chat with the crowd, taking questions, doing a cold read of text message on an audience member’s phone and playing a six degrees of separation game that started with one Goldblum film and looped around to another Goldblum film with even a Kevin Bacon connection in between.
After he and his jazz band performed their first song he stepped away from the piano again to do a wine quiz with the audience. Goldblum read famous wine quotes and the audience yelled back answers of who said them. vocalist Hayley Reinhart performed a few songs with the band. Goldblum’s show was so enjoyable I didn’t want to leave, but I also wanted to see what Tash Sultana was all about.
Sultana, a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Australia had a platform of instruments and looping equipment on stage. I arrived to see Sultana playing a pan flute. Then Sultana proceeded to step out front and rock out playing the pan flute which I didn’t think was possible. Hopefully I get to see Tash Sultana in another festival lineup some day.
The final two hours of the festival was up next and with Mumford & Sons, Carlos Santana, Big Boi and The Crystal Method all having overlapping set times, who do you choose to see? As I’ve had the opportunity to cover both Big Boi and The Crystal Method at shows in Victoria in the past I decided to skip them.
Since Mumford & Sons were one of the top headliners of the weekend I started there taking photos for the first couple songs and then headed to Carlos Santana fully intending to return to the main stage to catch more of Mumford & Sons. That plan was derailed after finding myself not wanting to leave the FireFox Stage as the 71-year-old guitar legend put on a clinic. With both him and Neil Young going to town with guitar solos this weekend, you have to wonder if one secret of a long life is playing guitar? There were no surprise guests during Santana’s set as he had two vocalists in his band to perform late 90s hits ‘Smooth’ and ‘Maria Maria’.
Below are quick photo highlights of Day 3 of BottleRock 2019.
