(You’re reading Day 3. Be sure to check outDay 1 andDay 2!)
The last day of BottleRock Napa Valley 2024 started out warm and clear. Despite arriving at the Napa Valley Expo a bit later than the two days preceding, I had a full day planned. First up was The Beaches at the JaM Cellars stage. I almost missed this set because the band name didn’t ring a bell. Fortunately, another photographer mentioned that they were an all-girl band, which caused me to take a minute to look them up. As soon as I did, I realized that this was a band I’d been hearing recently (“Blame Brett”), so I tagged along to check them out. They’re a fairly high-energy pop-rock band serving plenty of attitude, and their set was a good time. The ladies of the band were cracking me up as they first took the stage, talking about wine hangovers and being “so ready to crush some grapes later!” They were trying to function after one hour of sleep, guitarist Leandra Earl explained, due to having played Red Rocks the previous night. “Who’s ready to be hungover again tomorrow?” lead vocalist Jordan Miller asked as they began “Grow Up Tomorrow.” BRNV is pretty good at putting the right bands at the right times, and this was no exception. You can find their entire setlist here.Continue reading “BottleRock Napa Valley 2024 Festival Journal, Day 3”
(You’re reading Day 2. Be sure to check outDay 1!)
Saturday in Napa dawned bright and sunny for another day of festival fun! My first stop was the Verizon stage, where I caught Holly Humberstone. The girl’s voice is absolutely angelic, and while I only know a few of her songs so far, I enjoyed her performance. She was a treat to start a lovely day, and I was happy to hear both “The Walls Are Way Too Thin” and “Falling Asleep at the Wheel.” You can find the entire setlist here (Verizon; BRNV photos)Continue reading “BottleRock Napa Valley 2024 Festival Journal, Day 2”
Even if I weren’t eagerly awaiting this year’s BottleRock Napa Valley, as I do every year, I would have known it was coming: Napa weather has been absolutely perfect lately. Highs in the mid-70s, clouds are few and far between, and there’s often a lovely breeze if you get a little hot in direct sunlight. Seriously, it’s been wonderful. It’s perfect festival weather!Continue reading “BottleRock Napa Valley 2024 Festival Journal, Day 1”
My favorite thing about SF Sketchfest is catching all kinds of funny people at once in the same room. Not only that, but these are the kind of people I don’t often have the chance to see live, so it’s always fun to peruse the schedule every year and see who’s slated to appear with whom, what’s being celebrated, yadda yadda yadda. As is the case with most years, there were quite a few events I was interested in, but in the end, I only made it to one. This past Saturday night, I found myself queuing up around the block at Cobb’s Comedy Club to watch old clips of Derek & Simon: The Show with the stars and creators of the show (Derek Waters, Simon Helberg, and Bob Odenkirk in particular).Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Derek and Simon (and Bob): An SF Sketchfest Tribute Celebration at Cobb’s Comedy Club, 1/27/24”
Happy New Year, live music lovers! BottleRock Napa Valley has announced the lineup for this year’s festival, and as usual, it’s got me looking forward to the summer!
It may seem like there’s a long time between the lineup announcement this morning and the festival itself, but I know from experience that the rest of the winter and the spring will both fly by, and before you know it, it’ll be time to gather at Napa Valley Expo once more.
As always, you can plan on finding amazing food, wine, beer, and cocktails to pair with your festival weekend. Trust me – you don’t want to miss this one!
You can find my 2024 BottleRock Napa Valley Preview playlist here, so you can listen along and get excited! Don’t have tickets? Don’t worry, you can get yours here. I’ll see you in Napa this summer!
(You’re reading Day 3. Be sure to catch up on Day 1 and Day 2!)
Day 3 of BottleRock Napa Valley is always bittersweet because it’s the last day, and I want to see more phenomenal artists, but my feet hurt, and I’m ready to get back to my real life, too. While I’ve been off to the races the past two days, seeing bands right away in the first hour of the day, today I opted for a slower, easier start. I stopped to catch a bit of Half Alive, where I enjoyed the trio’s energy and especially “Still Feel.”
You’re reading Day 2 – be sure to check out what you missed on Day 1!
Day 2 of this year’s BottleRock started with similar weather to the previous day. By the time I was done watchingParis Jackson‘s set (my first of the day), I was already warm enough to take my jacket off. Despite having heard at least a few of her songs here and there, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Jackson. She has a solid sound with her band, and her set was enjoyable pop-rock. I enjoyed her enough that I’ll be curious to see where her music career will take her.Continue reading “BottleRock Napa Valley 2023 Festival Journal, Day 2”
You might not be able to tell by the weather, at least in Napa today, but it’s almost summer! Memorial Day Weekend marks the unofficial start of summer and the arrival of BottleRock Napa Valley’s 10th festival! The day started out pretty chilly, which had me worried that the weekend might be colder than I’d hoped for a festival weekend, but thankfully it eventually warmed up to a nice breezy, sunny day.
Can you feel it? Summer’s almost here, finally! Besides the fact that the rain has finally stopped and the temps are heating up, you always know it’s just about summer when it’s time to take a look at the upcoming BottleRock Napa Valley festival!
As usual, the folks organizing this magical event in my sweet hometown have done a brilliant job providing us with not just fantastic headliners but quite a few awesome smaller bands. It starts in less than 10 days, and as usual, I can’t wait!
Here’s my2023 BottleRock preview playlist for your listening enjoyment, and I look forward to seeing you there soon! Don’t have tickets? Tryhere, and come on out to Napa for some sunshine at the best fest in the west!
How come this always happens? I hate that it’s already Sunday, and Day 1 and Day 2 have already come and gone. Fortunately, the blow is softened significantly by some stellar artists on Sunday’s lineup. As soon as I got to the festival, I made my way over to the JaM Cellars stage for Blu DeTiger. While I was familiar with her music, I hadn’t even seen a photo of DeTiger, so I was wholly unprepared for how gorgeous she was. And that’s to say nothing of her talent. I enjoyed her set, especially “Hot Crush Lover” and her brief little cover of Gorillaz “Feel Good, Inc.” She puts on an entertaining show, and I’d be happy to catch her again sometime.
Next I hit the Verizon stage for Grandson. As with many of the acts I’m always excited to see at BottleRock, Grandson is one I know from Alt Nation, one of my favorite stations on SiriusXM. Grandson, whose real name is Jordan Edward Benjamin, took the stage in a black t-shirt that read “protect trans kids” and said, “Hello, my name is Pitbull…” I liked him immediately.
Before “Dark Side,” Benjamin requested that the crowd sing along: “so loud the bigots across the street hear it!” The frontman turned out to be quite vocal about the band’s political views, explaining that they were “unapologetically progressive baddies,” but that even Trump supporters were welcome to turn up with them. In a 50-minute set, he made mention of supporting those with addiction (and those who love them), the recent shooting of an elementary school in Uvalde, TX, thoughts on guns and the “talking heads” who send their thoughts and prayers but are in a position to make changes to prevent this kind of thing, and that he believed that “women should be able to do whatever they want with their bodies, you should be able to love whoever you love, fuck whoever you want to fuck…”
Suffice to say I agree pretty wholeheartedly with everything this man is so vocal about. Add to that that they’re a fantastic band with lyrics that say something to me (I teared up not once but twice while photographing the band from the pit, which has never happened to me before). I stayed until I was certain that the band had left the stage before leaving the area, just in case I might miss a single second. The songs I most enjoyed included “Rain,” “Dirty,” and “Overdose.”
(One more thing that’s worth noting: Benjamin addressed a small group of young people directly in front of the stage and asked them if it had been their first mosh pit. He gave them a few tips and added that he might join them later if they did it again. Better still, he not only kept his word, he even instigated the mosh pit at the end of the band’s set and then hopped down off the stage to join as promised.)
Bouncing from the high of such a fun set, I stopped at the Go Bananas food truck for a chocolate and rainbow sprinkles covered frozen banana that was perfect for a warm weekend day. Next up was Eliza & the Delusionals on the Truly stage!
This is another band I know from Alt Nation. They’re a young band out of Australia, and during the course of their 45-minute set, I wondered who the band’s influences were. Early on in their set, I kept thinking they reminded me a bit of Hole (Celebrity Skin era), but I also got a little bit of an early No Doubt vibe. At any rate, they’re a solid little band that I quite enjoyed – they seem to be sweet kids who love to play music, and I liked their sound.
“When I became a musician I didn’t know dancing was gonna be a part of it,” singer Eliza Klatt admitted. “When you’re all dancing with me, it’s better.” This statement quickly became evident as Klatt continued to encourage the crowd to move along with the music throughout their set. I particularly enjoyed their songs “Halloween,” “Save Me,” “Give You Everything,” and of course the brilliant “Just Exist.”
After a break for dinner, I set out for the Allianz stage for the first time this year for Amos Lee. I didn’t have the time to catch his entire set, but wanted to check him out for as long as I could anyway. Once all seven band members had taken the stage, Lee announced the first song, the title track from his most recent album, “Dreamland.” Before he began to sing, I heard a woman standing just behind me in the front row whisper dreamily, “oh my god, you’re beautiful.” I smiled, but couldn’t really disagree.
I only had time to stay for half of Lee’s set, but I really enjoyed his energy and music equally. He seemed to be a lovely man, and had an easy, established relationship with the audience. I was really hoping I’d somehow catch “Sweet Pea,” a Lee song I adore, but he must have played it after I had to leave. Still, I really enjoyed what I did get to hear, and I hope to see a full set in the future.
Finally, it was time for what I considered to be my personal main event for this year’s festival: Pink at the JaM Cellars stage. I adore this woman, and it’s been far longer than I’d like since I’ve seen her live, so I had been looking forward to this performance for quite some time.
When it was finally time, Pink took the stage to “Get the Party Started,” of course. After a string of hits new and old, she paused after “Try,” saying that it was “weird not being thrown around while singing that song!” and added, “I really like being thrown around!”
Before starting her first phenomenal cover song of the evening, Pink admitted that “there are songs out there in the world that I wish I had written,” and admitted “I’m just gonna say I wrote” the cover she was setting up to perform: Bishop Briggs’ “River.” Pink’s version was every bit as delicious as Briggs’ original, and I’m going to hope for a day I can see them play it together, because I truly love both artists.
Later on in the set, Pink’s beautiful 10-year-old daughter Willow Sage Hart joined her mama on-stage for their duet, “Cover Me in Sunshine.” As a Pink fan of more than 20 years, this was a really special moment to witness: I’ve seen this brilliant artist evolve from a popstar with an R&B edge back in 2000 to the massive star that brought us “Stupid Girls,” “Raise Your Glass,” “So What,” “Walk Me Home,” and so many more. To now see Pink as a happy, content, mature woman with children (who also grace the stage with her) is truly a lovely phenomenon.
When Pink covered 4 Non-Blondes‘ “What’s Up,” I found myself not just singing along but singing at the top of my lungs right along with everyone else in the crowd. It was completely unexpected, but in this moment I rediscovered a joy I didn’t know I’d been missing: the full live music experience. It felt so good to be fully immersed in the live set of an artist I love so much. “I Am Here” was next, and she took it to church! The emotion I felt from the previous song carried over so that the lyrics brought me to tears. Seeing Pink live after several years (and a global pandemic that kept us music lovers starved for far too long) made me happy on a level I can’t really describe. Suffice to say it made my weekend.
I wouldn’t have missed Pink for anything: I really needed the cathartic feeling her music gives me, especially when it’s live and she keeps gushing to the crowd about how much she loves her fans. I’ve always gotten the sense that that’s a very honest sentiment from her, and it means a lot. Truth be told, I wrote “I feel healed” in my notes, and I really did.
It wouldn’t be right not to mention that while Pink is the clear star of her show, she’s great about taking time to put the spotlight on her “babies,” including her dancers, backup singers, and members of her band. In particular, she gives plenty of credit to longtime guitarist Justin D’Errico, who was absolutely fantastic, as usual.
And if you’re thinking that an outdoor festival isn’t somewhere Pink could do the aerial acrobatics we’ve know come to expect from her concerts, well… you’d be wrong. (Don’t worry, I was wrong too.) It’s really amazing that they were able to set it up so she could still do some of her “flying,” which must be absolutely exhilarating for her (and is still pretty exciting just to watch from the ground). Unfortunately, the show had to end sometime, due to Napa’s strict 10pm curfew, but while I would have stayed there for four more hours to hear anything she would be willing to sing for me, I also left feeling lighter than I had in a long time. If you’re interested, you can find the entire setlist from Pink’s BottleRock set here.
And just like that, it was all over, again. Thankfully, BottleRock is pretty good about softening the blow of the festival’s end each year by announcing the following year’s dates. So I’ll be ready to do it all over again next Memorial Day weekend!