Friday was a beautiful day in Napa, and a great day to kick off BottleRock 2025. 72 and sunny with a nice breeze is exactly what I want, and this weekend shows up for us every single year. My day started with Ultra Q on the JaM Cellars stage.
I hadn’t really heard too much of this band, but at the last minute, someone recommended them to me and I decided to check them out. As soon as their set began, I thought, ok, these kids have definitely been influenced by Green Day, and thought it was a great choice that they were playing on the same day. Shortly after their set, I said that to another photographer friend, who told me why I thought Ultra Q sounded like they were fans of Green Day: because their singer is Jakob Armstrong – Billie Joe’s son. Oh. Anyway, they were great and their set was a great start to the weekend.
Next up was Beach Bunny over on the Verizon stage. I liked them immediately. Frontwoman Lili Trifilio in particular is freaking adorable: she has fantastic energy as she bops around all over the stage, kicking her feet high and shaking her ass to the beat of the drums. This isn’t a band I’m super familiar with, but now I’ll be checking out more from them. I particularly enjoyed “Ms. California,” as I must agree that “everything’s better in California.”
Next, it was back to JaM for E-40. BottleRock is pretty great at giving us a fairly varied mix of genres and artists, but I think they’re particularly good at bringing in classic hip-hop artists (Public Enemy, Snoop Dogg) and ’90s acts (Spin Doctors, Gin Blossoms). This year, the list expands to include E-40, Ice Cube, and 4 Non Blondes, to name a few.
With E-40 being about as close as it gets to a local artist (he’s from Vallejo, which is 20-30 mins’ drive from Napa), the crowd was stoked for him to arrive. Unfortunately, a DJ who took the stage when it was time for E-40. 20 minutes later, still no E-40. Eventually, the photographers collectively had to decide that we couldn’t keep standing around waiting for him to materialize. Then we found out he hadn’t yet even arrived at the Napa Valley Expo, so we were just starting to head back to the media room when we spotted him rushing toward the stage.
Was he worth waiting for? Sure. It was fun to see him, and he’s an icon. 40 minutes late makes me pretty annoyed with him, but ok… shit happens. Who knows why he was so late getting here? Maybe that’s what the “40” in his stage name represents? Who knows. I’m still glad I caught part of his set.
Later, I found myself over at the Williams-Sonoma Culinary Stage for Trisha Yearwood and Serena Williams. Serena is the G.O.A.T. and I was so excited to see her in person. She did not disappoint – what a stunning woman! Better still, her sous chef for the evening was none other than William’s 8-year-old daughter, Olympia. What a cutie! Trisha was cooking up some gorgeous food, so it wasn’t long before I had to wander off in search of something to eat.
Back over at the JaM Cellars stage, it was time to see Sublime. I was so excited to get to see them. I’ve seen them perform in the past with Rome (and sadly never before Bradley Nowell passed), but these days they’re fronted instead by Nowell’s son Jacob, and I was really looking forward to hearing his voice and checking out the vibe of the new iteration of the band. They had a sleepy start, but by the third song they were starting to get into a groove. I can’t necessarily say that the younger Nowell sounds terribly like his dad, but even more importantly, he does have a fantastic voice with a little bit of a rasp (which I’m a sucker for). I would buy a ticket to see this band again.
Later at the Verizon stage for the last time today, it was time for Sofi Tukker. While I only really know one song (“Best Friend”), it’s a song I love, and another photographer told me about following the band on social media, and how fun and random they can be. He gave me the impression that we were in for a good time, and he was not wrong. This is another band I’d already like to see again. Their energy was so great: somehow, they were not just high energy, but also so relaxed and chill. They’re just having a great time living life, and that laid-back positivity is so infectious.
At one point, I walked past the Verizon stage while EDM artist Kaskade was performing his set. He sounded fantastic, and his crowd was absolutely loving it.
Before heading home for the night, I had to go witness some Green Day. I love this band so much, but this was my first time seeing them live. I can’t say enough good things about how much joy it created for me to finally see a beloved band live, in my treasured hometown, too. (Since Green Day is “local”/Bay Area, it feels even a little more special.) They took the stage to the sound of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which never gets old. I enjoyed hearing “American Idiot,” “Holiday,” “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” “Longview,” and “Welcome to Paradise” in particular. Thank you, Green Day, for making a small town girl’s dream come true, and for being everything I hoped for and more!
That’s it for day one – see you tomorrow for Day 2 (and Sunday for Day 3)!
