Allen Stone – Spinning Platters

Festival Preview: BottleRock Napa Valley 2025

It’s that time again, music festival fans: BottleRock Napa Valley has announced the lineup for 2025’s festival, which will take place this May 23-25 near downtown Napa.

Headlining this year’s event are Noah Kahan, Green Day, and Justin Timberlake. I’ve seen Kahan once, but am happy to catch him again. I’ve never seen Green Day and can’t wait to finally get my chance! I’ve seen Timberlake many times, but it’s been nigh on two decades since then (not since 2007/ FutureSex/LoveShow days). I’m definitely curious to see how his performances have evolved over the years, as I haven’t really followed his music much (unless Trolls counts)…

Anther act I’m looking forward to checking out is Khruangbin (though I would have loved this even more if the powers-that-be had arranged it when Leon Bridges was there as well, so they could perform together a little). I’m hoping to arrange my schedule to catch some of the following artists as well: Cage the Elephant, Ice Cube, Sublime (loved them with Rome, but I’m really excited to see Jakob Nowell as the new frontman), Goose, Sofi Tukker, 4 Non Blondes, E-40, Flo Rida, Kaleo, Allen Stone, Sharon Van Etten, Two Feet, Kate Hudson, and BBY.

On top of all this fantastic music, remember you can always count on BRNV to provide an endless stream of insanely delicious food and wine choices (this is Napa, after all), plus craft beer & cocktails, shopping, BottleRock Spa, Silent Disco, the Williams-Sonoma Culinary Stage (the lineup for that will be announced as we get closer to the actual event, but it’s always a good time), and much more!

I’m ready now, but the event is still months away. To pass the time, check out this year’s BottleRock Napa Valley Preview Playlist here: I hope you enjoy listening as much as I do! If you don’t have tickets yet, you can get them here. See you in May in Napa!

BottleRock 2013 Review: Napa’s Inaugural Music, Wine, and Food Festival

A brand new festival just outside my front door.

When rumors about the first ever BottleRock Napa festival began to circulate, they were impressive: early flyers listed Dave Matthews Band and Pearl Jam as headliners (neither was ever confirmed). Still, the festival had the attention of the Napa Valley and surrounding music lovers long ago.

Once the final lineup had been released and tickets purchased, however, it was time to finally see what all the hype had been about. Because my home is in such a central location within “Napa proper,” as we all call the city of Napa (so as not to confuse it with the rest of “the Valley”), I didn’t actually experience the crazy traffic so many locals worried about. And while I did hear on one of the first few days (Weds or Thurs, though I’m not 100% certain which) that it took someone approximately 90 minutes to reach the Napa Expo from Fairfield (normally a 25-30 minute drive), I know for sure that the traffic relaxed and was relatively comparable to any other holiday weekend. (Which is to say, not insane as predicted.) The parking situation was the same as it usually is, I know for sure. The first three days, I arrived well before noon. As such, I beat the crowds and was able to find nearby parking with such ease that I chalked that up to my knowledge of the neighborhood, vs. all those who were coming in from out of area who didn’t know where to look (and as a result, were paying $25-40 to park much farther away). Continue reading “BottleRock 2013 Review: Napa’s Inaugural Music, Wine, and Food Festival”

Show Review: San Francisco’s 2012 Outside Lands Festival, Day 3

The one banana that didn't come in a burrito this weekend — The one banana that didn’t come in a burrito this weekend

San Francisco’s annual Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival is always tasked with the enormous duty of being the “other” huge festival of California, and the designation is both a blessing and a curse. On the low end, it has to try and come up with acts that Coachella somehow didn’t have the foresight to book ages earlier, or at leasts acts that will stand up as decent competition, and with tickets to the Indio festival now going onsale a year in advance, they’ve got to get their contenders up and available as soon as possible — usually right before Coachella kicks off. On the high end, the climate is, on the whole, much more pleasant, the acts tend to stick to more large crowd-pleasers and new discoveries, and the fine folks putting on Outside Lands spend many months listening to the irritations and complaints about Coachella to use as a salvo against their festival’s possible shortcomings. The result is that by Sunday afternoon, most of the 65,000+ fans that came out to Golden Gate Park got their fairer shares of mindblowing performances and raucous partying behind them, and were ready for the big finish that would wind down the end of the chilly August weekend.

Continue reading “Show Review: San Francisco’s 2012 Outside Lands Festival, Day 3”

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 3/22/12-3/28/12

In tribute to fun. playing The Indy this week, I googled the word "fun," and this looked like the best example of the word that I could find.

Well, I have returned from Texas ten pounds heavier, with several new calluses on my feet, and a slew of new bands for you to go see, and several old favorites. So, do yourself a favor and come see a few amazing bands this week.

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 3/22/12-3/28/12”