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Festival Preview: BottleRock Napa Valley 2024

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.

After many years of speculation, Pearl Jam will indeed (finally!) headline the BRNV stage, as will Stevie Nicks, Ed Sheeran, and Maná. Headliners aside, I may be most excited to see Megan Thee Stallion, but also Cold War Kids, Queens of the Stone Age, Norah Jones, Dominic Fike, St. Vincent, The Offspring, Nelly, Bebe Rexha, Stephen Sanchez, Cannons, Holly Humberstone, The Record Company, Royal Otis, The Moss, and Mondo Cozmo.

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!

BottleRock Napa Valley 2023 Preview

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!

This year, the Red Hot Chili Peppers return to headline along with The Smashing Pumpkins, Lizzo, Duran Duran, Post Malone, and Lil Nas X!

Beyond that impressive lineup of headliners, there are countless other interesting acts I hope to see, including Bastille, Phantogram, Kennyhoopla, Jean Dawson, Beach Weather, Paris Jackson, local band High Noon, Leon Bridges, Carly Rae Jepsen, Tove Lo, Dayglow, Danielle Ponder, Wu-Tang Clan, The National, Caamp, Sheryl Crow, Los Lobos, The Wrecks, and The Alive. And that’s without listing any of the extensive food, wine, or cocktails available to tempt and delight tastebuds, too!

Here’s my 2023 BottleRock preview playlist for your listening enjoyment, and I look forward to seeing you there soon! Don’t have tickets? Try here, and come on out to Napa for some sunshine at the best fest in the west!

BottleRock Napa Valley 2022 Preview

In the 2+ years since the world changed forever, I’ve missed live music more than most things. Fortunately, I’ve finally been able to start attending live shows again, and I can’t believe how much good it does for my well-being! I always knew music played a huge role in my life (hell, even my last name is musical!)… but it wasn’t until I had to live without it that I came to realize just how much my mental health needs music, especially when experienced live.

It feels like it’s been eons since I was able to bask in the glory of a perfect-weather weekend right here in Napa with loads of amazing food, drinks, and live music. Thankfully, the wait is almost over – this year’s BottleRock Napa Valley starts two weeks from today!

This year’s lineup includes two artists I’ve been hoping I would eventually play this festival: P!nk and Twenty One Pilots. Additionally, Metallica rounds out the list of the biggest names this year, and I for one can’t wait to see each of them! I’m also really looking forward to seeing (in no particular order!) Chvrches, Spoon, Royal & the Serpent, Atlas Genius, The Black Crowes (who I still remember enjoying at the very first BRNV back in 2013), Silversun Pickups, Bleachers, Vance Joy, Amos Lee, The Happy Fits, Blu DeTiger, Mister Wives, The Alive (who have yet to let me down at this festival), Grandson, and Eliza & the Delusionals. I hope these next 14 days absolutely fly by so I can get down to the Expo to soak up all this good music and sunshine! Who are you most excited to see?

As I do each year, I made a new preview playlist to get hyped as I count down the days. Listen, share, enjoy, and I’ll see you in Napa in a few weeks!

Don’t have your tickets yet? Get them here!

BottleRock Napa Valley 2021 Preview

It’s been nearly a year since the original lineup announcement for BottleRock Napa Valley 2020. It was only January, and we hardly knew anything yet about what would become of the world as we know it, especially for us live music lovers.

Fast forward to mid-May 2021, and most of us are starved for live events we might have once taken for granted. Fortunately, there’s finally a light appearing at the end of a very long and difficult tunnel.

I haven’t seen a show since January 2020. If you know me at all, you know that festivals are my favorite – especially one I can walk to from home. And finally, finally, finally, it seems like it’s about that time again. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you…

Bottle Rock Napa Valley 2021’s lineup! I’m happy to see that quite a few of those originally slated for last year’s BRNV will be playing this Labor Day when vaccinated music-lovers can convene to enjoy! This includes original headliner Stevie Nicks, plus Guns N’ Roses (!!) and returning headliners Foo Fighters. In addition to those three, I’m also looking forward to several smaller acts! Personally, I can’t wait to catch Finneas, the freaking Village People (!!), Absofacto, Atlas Genius, Miley Cyrus, Megan Thee Stallion, Brandi Carlile, Cage the Elephant, Portugal. The Man, Young the Giant, Maren Morris, Black Pumas, Jon Batiste, Digable Planets, Matt Nathanson, Mondo Cozmo, Meg Myers, among many others. Who are you most excited to see this year?

Here’s my preview playlist featuring some of my faves. Enjoy, get vaccinated, and I’ll see you in my hometown this Labor Day weekend at BottleRock Napa Valley!

BottleRock ticket info: On sale 5/20 at 10 am PST. Get yours here!

BottleRock Napa Valley 2020 Preview

It’s January, and that means: festival announcement time, ladies and gents! This year, Napa Valley’s favorite festival (that’s Bottle Rock Napa Valley, if you didn’t already know) welcomes back headliners Red Hot Chili Peppers (yessss!), as well as BRNV-first-timers Stevie Nicks and Dave Matthews Band. In addition to those three huge acts, I’ll be trying to squeeze every drop of live music fun as possible into my weekend; I have so many other sets I want to try to catch! Personally, I’m most looking forward to seeing Maggie Rogers, Of Monsters and Men, Foals, Local Natives, Finneas, Caamp, The Band CAMINO, the freaking Village People (!!), Absofacto, Atlas Genius, Eliza & the Delusionals, and always brilliant and fantastically talented The Alive, among still many others. Who are you most excited to see this year?

Here’s my preview playlist featuring aforementioned faves. Enjoy and I’ll see you in my hometown this Memorial Day weekend at BottleRock Napa Valley!

Listen to BRNV2020 Playlist!

BottleRock ticket info: 3-Day Tickets are sold out, but single day passes go on sale tomorrow (1/9/20) at 10am PST).

BottleRock Napa Valley 2019: A Preview

The powers-that-be behind BottleRock Napa Valley never fail to impress me. This year’s festival lineup was announced this morning, boasting so many exciting artists it made my head swim a little: Imagine Dragons. Logic. OneRepublic. Sylvan Esso. Jenny Lewis. AJR. Anderson East. The Dandy Warhols. Neon Trees. Just Loud. Shannon Shaw. Flora Cash. And that’s just day one!

Days two and three add to the excitement, with Neil Young + Promise of the Real, Pharrell Williams, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Gary Clark Jr, Cypress Hill, Elle King, Sir Sly, Mumford & Sons, Santana, Bishop Briggs, Skylar Grey, Houses, and so many more. Also, anyone who watches Top Chef may have noticed that this year’s winner will have a slot on the culinary stage, which is always a fun place to check out between sets.

It’s hard not to look at this list and know you’ve got to be there. I think the hardest part will be, as usual, determining how to get from point A to point B in such a way that you catch at least parts of all the acts you don’t want to miss! Until BRNV releases an actual schedule, however, there’s not much to do but listen to these bands and look forward to May in eager anticipation. To help you do that, I made a little playlist: I’ve included some of my favorites from the artists that are generating the highest levels of impatience. Let’s hope these next 4 ½ months fly by, and I’ll see you this summer in Napa!

BottleRock Napa Valley 2019 preview playlist

BottleRock ticket info: 3-Day Tickets On Sale 1/8/19 at 10am. Single day passes on sale 1/10/19.

Spinning Platters Recommends: Josh Ritter and the Royal City Band, January 19/20 at the Fillmore

Show date: January 19/20, 2018, 7:00 pm

Venue: The Fillmore

City: San Francisco

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Recommends: Josh Ritter and the Royal City Band, January 19/20 at the Fillmore”

Festival Preview: BottleRock Napa Valley 2014: 5/30-6/1

I should start this post off right away by admitting a few things: first of all, if you’ve seen any of my previous work on this site, you’ll already know, but I’m by far the most “mainstream” music listening on the Spinning Platters staff. Many of the bands my cohorts write about are those I’ve never heard of, while I’m running around checking out John Mayer, Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, and Pink. Also, and perhaps more importantly, I’m a huge novice when it comes to music festivals. I’ve been to a good handful of the one-day sort of radio station assembled festivals, and several consecutive years of Warped Tour. But bigger, multi-day festivals? I’ve only been to one so far: BottleRock Napa Valley 2013.

Continue reading “Festival Preview: BottleRock Napa Valley 2014: 5/30-6/1”