The final day of BottleRock featured some standout performances by women on the undercard and complete dropouts from men higher in the lineup.
It was another sun filled day, but with some relief from light clouds and a cool breeze.
Starting out the day right at noon on the main stage was Nova Scotia singer-songwriter Goldie Boutilier. Rocktographers covered two performances by Boutillier in 2024. She was part of Phillips Tilt 2024 and also headlined a show at Capital Ballroom. This was the largest stage I’ve seen her on and she commanded it from the moment she stepped in front of the early festival goers.
I overheard some in the audience compare her voice to Stevie Nicks. They’re not wrong.
From there I ventured to see back to back sets by teenaged guitar prodigies. Bella Rayne, who turned 18 just a few days before the festival, let her band in a set full of blues and southern rock solos.
Then back at the JaM Cellars main stage Grace Bowers & The Hodge Podge was back for the second BottleRock in a row. I unfortunately missed Bowers’ 2024 set due to her early timeslot on the Friday that year. 18-year-old Bowers seems to be on an even faster trajectory to stardom than Bella Rayne having already shared stages with Peter Frampton, Chris Martin at the Grammys and performing on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
For this show, Allen Stone joined Bowers and her band to perform a cover of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Superstition’. One thing that would have been neat to see is if Bella Rayne had come on stage to have a guitar battle with Grace Bowers.
California indie pop artist BEL was my next stop at the White Claw stage. This is one of those sets during the festival I wasn’t able to stay for very long due to needing to get to other stages, but BEL was fun to photograph with a series of hair flips and impassionate belting of lyrics to the point she ended up on the ground.
As I headed over to the JaM Cellars stage I stopped by the VIP Village to take the opportunity to see Goose perform on a much smaller more intimate stage. Having covered Goose at Ohana Festival 2023 I knew there isn’t many opportunities to get nice group photos of Goose on larger stages as the band members are spread so far apart across the larger stages which was again the case at their main set a couple hours later.
Allen Stone was up for his own set on the main stage bringing his infectious smile and smooth soul vocals to the stage. We’ve covered his shows in Victoria a few times over the years and he has always been a solid performer and is so good at engaging and interacting with his audience.
Another female standout Sunday was Santa Monica, California singer-songwriter Jensen McRae. McRae performed on the White Claw stage which is the smallest of the four major stages at the festival, but she had one of the larger audiences for that stage all weekend.
Over on the Prudential Stage, Chaparelle brought a sound that harkens back to the golden age of country and male/female vocal duos like Johnny Cash and June Carter or George Jones and Tammy Wynette ruled.
The vocal combination of Jesse Woods and Zella Day works so well. This show was one I was looking forward to after Zella Day blew an audience in Victoria away with her incredible vocals at Phillips Implosion Explosion in 2022. The Chaparelle performance did not disappoint. I actually ended up kind of regretting leaving their set, but I ended up seeing them again for an acoustic set at BottleRock’s JamPad stage later.
Next on my schedule of acts to cover was Flo Rida at the Verizon Stage. His show at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria in September 2024 was a really fun show and I figured a set with a much larger festival audience would be even more entertaining. Unbeknownst to me, Flo Rida cancelled his appearance just hours before his set. So that was disappointing. What happened next compounded that disappointment.
Chicago Electronic R&B/Dance duo DRAMA took Flo Rida’s place going from a 3:45 start to the 5:15 timeslot. Things started out fine as the band kicked off their set with ‘As I Am’. Then the music track cut out suddenly. the direct sunlight on stage had overheated a laptop on producer Na’el Shehade’s platform. Vocalist Via Rosa killed time bantering with the audience while the problem was dealt with. They tried to restart the song, but the track again cut out, this time Rosa and the duo’s backup singers continued the song completely acapella. Thankfully, the BottleRock audience took it in stride and the issue was eventually resolved and DRAMA would go on to perform an enjoyable set.
Psychedelic rock was on the menu for the dinner hour. Texas trio Khruangbin were the penultimate act on the JaM Cellars main stage. Laura Lee Ochoa and Mark Spear stopped on stage with their signature wigs and slowly walked around the heavily hazed stage. After taking photos and then watching some of the set with my sister at a viewing area by the soundboard, it was starting to get a little cold so I left to get my hoodie and get a bite to eat.
The final sets of the festival brought the most difficult conflict decision of the weekend. Noah Kahan was at the JaM Cellars main stage, Cage The Elephant were at the Verizon Stage, Robby Krieger of The Doors performed a two hour set on the Prudential Stage and Mix Master Mike supposed to be battling with Tommy Lee and DJ Aero at the silent disco at the White Claw stage.
Robby Krieger was on at the Prudential Stage 30 minute before everyone else so that’s where I ended up first. Krieger walked on stage with American flag pants and him and his band started things off with ‘Break on Through (To The Other Side)’. The band felt like a mish mash of pro musicians with no cohesive wardrobe, but really it was all about hearing The Doors music and seeing one of its legendary founders on guitar.
Here’s where poor decisions on my part messed up moments for the last few acts.
Noah Kahan closed out the festival at the JaM Cellars main stage. Early on he looked out into the audience in amazement and said, “I can’t believe you guys are all here for me. I feel like some mistake has been made. I’m incredibly honored to be headlining a festival like this.”
Prior to his set I noticed a secondary stage was set up near the sound board. I figured Kahan would likely end up there at some point and gambled that it would happen in the latter half of the show.
After taking some general photos for one song, myself and a few other media photographers raced over to the Verizon Stage where Cage The Elephant were headlining. Their set began with multiple bursts of pyro at the front of the stage that I ended up mostly missing. Their show had an element of chaos on stage with lead singer Matt Shultz leaping around and guitarist Brad Shultz running down to the security rail to play practically on top of the front row. This was the type of rock show I remember from my youth. The fun of the unpredictable and the crowd going nuts for it. It’s another set I should have stayed at, but I stupidly tried to cover other moments.
At 8:45, the silent disco was supposed to feature dueling sets by Motley Crue’s Tommy Lee and DJ Aero versus Mix Master Mike at the White Claw Stage. Upon arriving to the stage only DJ Aero and DJ Shortkut were starting things out. A security person then informed me that Tommy Lee was a no show to the festival. After hanging around for 15 minutes with no sign of Mix Master Mike either I decided to go back to the main stage area and discovered I had missed Noah Kahan’s performance on the secondary stage.
Disappointed with that outcome, I walked all the way back to the silent disco to find Mix Master Mike still hadn’t started. He did not start performing until 9:45. 15 minutes before the end of the festival.
A day that started out super strong with some stellar female performances closed out with some disappointments and some bad timing on my part.