BottleRock Napa Valley kicked off its 10th anniversary edition Friday. Day one had a chill vibe both in more ways than one.
Traffic heading to northern California seemed busier than normal. Our car got stuck at a draw bridge waiting for a boat to go by so our arrival ended up later than we had hoped. Traffic into the heart of Napa was actually less busy than I’ve experienced before, but that might have been due to getting to town just before 5pm
I arrived to the venue a little around 5:15. Festival goers were in full force taking selfies at the ‘Love’ sculpture and lined up at the near by merch booth. The main path to the stages was bustling with people, but all seemed relaxed with no one rushing anywhere. The weather was cooler than normal. It was warm when you were in the sun, but if you stood in the shade, the wind had some bite.
Day 1 of BottleRock was handed a couple setbacks days before the festival even started with a couple cancellations for medical reasons. Pete Yorn announced on social media he was recovering from a medical issue and was forced to cancel a performance for the very first time.
Rapper Yung Gravy posted a reel on social media Wednesday showing him tripping on plywood at a show breaking his wrist and elbow and announcing that he would not be able to make it to Napa. The festival announced that Run The Jewels’ Killer Mike replaced Yung Gravy on the Verizon stage.
After stopping to get a couple quick photos of Killer Mike from the crowd, I headed over to the VIP section of the Jam Cellars main stage to catch Bastille as they were starting a cover of TLC’s ‘No Scrubs’. It’s been 10 years since Bastille’s breakout hit Pompeii was released from their debut album ‘Bad Blood’. Front man Dan Smith did his best to get the audience involved, including going in to the GA crowd, but an attempt to have the audience get low to the ground late in the set didn’t get a lot of participation. They ended their set with ‘Pompeii’ to the delight of most.
As I headed to the next music performance, I passed by the culinary stage as a cooking demo was just getting started with the celebrity guests being introduced. On stage were former WWE superstars and reality show Total Divas stars Nikki and Bree Garcia (formerly The Bella Twins in WWE).
Phantogram was up next at the Verizon Stage. Phantogram has been one of my favourite bands since I discovered their music 15 years ago. Their performance at Bottlerock 2018 was a highlight and they returned to the same stage Friday. I’ve seen the band perform a few times now and Sarah Barthel has had different coloured hair each time. This time it was bright red. They kicked off their high energy set with a couple of my favourites songs including ‘Black Out Days’.
Over on the Allianz stage indie-pop band Lucious took the stage with co-leads Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig wearing mirror sequined attire. At first glance you might think the two are related, but they’re not. They just act like twins on stage with both having mirrored drums and mirror keytars and with choreographed moves that mirrored each other.
The Smashing Pumpkins were next headlining the Verizon Stage. I’ve only seen them live once in my life and that was 23 years ago. They’re a band that have either had amazing performances or really bad ones. Multiple friends of mine saw them in 1997 during the ‘Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness’ days and it practically changed their life. My experience in 2000 was not a positive one at all. The start of the set did seem to have some sound mix issues with guitars overpowering Billy Corgan’s vocals and the female backup vocalist barely being heard at all, but by the tail end of the set the sound improved greatly for ‘Zero’, ‘1979’ and one of their newer singles ‘Beguiled’ that has gained some traction on rock radio and is off their three act album ‘Atum: A Rock Opera in Three Acts’
I have a couple regrets in my years of covering music festivals. One of those regrets was not seeing Post Malone when he performed in Victoria, BC at Rifflandia 2015 before his career exploded. What I didn’t realize is that he was 20 years old at that time. The stage was set up with an array of lights set up halfway up the stage. Post Malone performed by himself up front. He was all smiles the entire show.
At one point with a cigarette in hand, he raised a red solo cup and asked the audience ““Who’s drunk tonight? Because you’ll have to be to make it through this set.”
He also told the crowd that it was his daughter’s first birthday.
Later, he brought a fan up to the stage to play guitar for his performance of ‘Stay’.
