I’m back for my sixth BottleRock Napa Valley. After landing in Oakland in the early afternoon, the drive to Napa didn’t take as long as in 2024.
Even with an early arrival to the hotel, I still missed a few hours of the first day.
After picking up credentials and settling into the hotel room, I arrived on the festival grounds around 3pm. Weather outside was warm and sunny, but not overly hot. I made sure to bring a hoodie for the evening when the temperature was supposed to drop to 9 or 10 Celcius.
I walked over to the JaM Cellars main stage to catch a quick moment of rapper E-40. The last time I saw him perform, he was with rap supergroup Mount Westmore with Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg and Too $Hort. The main stage this year featured a catwalk likely constructed for Justin Timberlake Saturday, but other bands would utlize the stage feature. Later in the day, E-40 performed another short set at the VIP Village stage.
In a lineup that was headlined by mostly male-fronted acts, the women of the undercard would prove to be some of the better performances all weekend.
California singer-songwriter Miya Folick performed over at the White Claw stage, the smallest of the main four stages at BottleRock.
Another California singer-songwriter Remi Wolf upped the tempo bounding around the JaM Cellars main stage. The indie-pop up beat and colourful with a number of high kicks.
A new feature at the festival was a roller rink sponsored by Lululemon. Festival goers could put on some skates provided by the festival and skate around the oval while DJs played in the center.
With BottleRock’s four major stages, culinary stage and two acoustic set stages, covering the festival by myself is always a bit of a whirlwind. I’m rarely able to stick around at a set more than 15 to 20 minutes before having to run to the next stage.
Such was the case catching hip hop legends Public Enemy. Fun fact. Footage I recorded of Public Enemy at Coachella in 2009 ended up on a DVD in one of their greatest hits box sets. Flava Flav was the first tome come out in a flourescent yellow camo ski jacket. He’d later shed the jacket due to the hot sun. Chuck D soon joined him on stage. One reason I didn’t stay to watch more of their set is because they’re scheduled be in Victoria headlining Rifflandia in September.
The other reason was that I had to run to the Williams Sonoma Culinary Stage where country music star Trisha Yearwood was the featured celebrity chef making nachos with tennis superstar Serena Williams and Williams’ young daughter. Yearwood was there promoting some of her food products that were displayed on the counter.
Balthvs were next on my list at the Prudential Stage. The trio from Bogota Colombia brought some psychedelic funk to Napa.
Sublime took to the JaM Cellars main stage in the dinner hour slot. The band now fronted by the late Bradley Nowell’s son Jakob Nowell. Temperatures on the festival grounds were beginning to fall and wind gusts were blowing Nowell’s shaggy hair back while he sang. Nowell definitely added more charisma on stage compared to the time I once saw Sublime with Rome. Those who live in Victoria where Rocktographers is based will get to see Jakob Nowell’s own band Jakobs Castle at Victoria Ska & Reggae Fest 2025
Sofi Tukker was next at the Verizon Stage. The New York dance/electronic duo released their new album ‘butter’ one week before the festival. Sophie Hawley-Weld played her guitar standing on one side of the long DJ table on stage for much of the set while Tucker Halpern hyped the crowd. Not that the audience needed it. Most were dancing away.
Former Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto was joined by Public Enemy’s Chuck D at the Williams Sonoma Culinary Stage. The last time Morimoto was on the stage in 2019, he set a Guiness World Record carving up a 205-pound blue fin tuna into 100 portions of sushi in 12 minutes 59 seconds. I was fortunate to be able to eat a couple pieces of that sushi later. This time around Morimoto was at the festival on his 70th birthday weekend. Prior to him coming on stage a lion dance was performed. Morimoto once again cut up a tuna with various knives and even a sword. He was joined by baseball stars Evan Longoria, Curtis Granderson, Georg Kontos, celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern and Public Enemy’s Chuck D who was live sketching throughout the food demonstration. Seattle Mariners hall of famer Ken Griffey Jr. even showed up as a photographer.
Green Day headlined day one of BottleRock. It has been 27 years since I last saw the pop-punk trio perform live. I was a 17-year-old kid attending my very first music festival with friends. Edgefest 1998 in Vancouver, BC will forever be etched in my brain as one of my greatest life experiences… minus the amount of hearing I lost due to not wearing earplugs. The mosh pit back then was massive. There was so much body heat and sweat pushing and jumping around on that rainy day that the crowd was practically steaming. Green Day set their drum kit on fire that day. That particular show can still be relived on YouTube.
Now, with everyone a lot more mature and audience members carrying expensive phones and $20 drinks, there was a way less chaos for this headlining set. The stage show was super professional with an elaborate stage setup with perfectly timed pyro and lighting cues. Green Day performed an excellent show. For me though, it was also an unusual contrast remembering the spontaneity of the first time I saw them to the structured format their concerts follow today.
One moment that brought back some unpredictability was when Billie Joe Armstrong brought an audience member named Donna up on stage to sing a verse of ‘Knew Your Enemy’ early in the set. Donna, clearly a fan wearing a Green Day t-shirt nailed the opportunity.
Later in the set crew members pulled a ‘Bad Year’ blimp around the general admission area.
