Napa, CA, is one of the most beautiful and picturesque locations in the country and is home to one of the finest food, wine, and music festivals – BottleRock.
Each year on Memorial Day weekend musicians, music fans, oenophiles, and foodies from all over the world descend on the sleepy town of Napa. Napa is the seat of a region well known for its world-class wine growing, gourmet food, and California lifestyle.
This weekend, the best of the best of music, wine, and food come together in a true multi-cultural California experience. BottleRock always has a wide variety of food, drink, and music to satisfy all music fans. This year was headlined by several heavyweights of the music industry. Each day, the festival starts at noon and ends at about 10-10:30 PM. Several restaurants and bars in town stay open after the festivities to cater to the late-night crowd. For the hardiest music fans, with the purchase of an extra ticket, each night offers after-festival shows/parties in town and the surrounding bay area with bands playing at the festival. This year featured The Wedding Band (Robert Trujillo & Kirk Hammet’s cover band) and Chvrches, as well as several others slated to play the BottleRock.
On Friday, LA rockers Dorothy opened the festival on the Jam Cellars main stage. Dorothy Martin made her appearance in all black with her patent leather pants announcing this was absolutely a rock show. The songstress’ head-banging energy made it clear this was no ordinary festival opening set from a local band. The fact that Dorothy was the first band to play in the opening day lineup spoke volumes about the talent level that BottleRock had in store for the lucky fans wearing festival wristbands.
Just a bit later, on the Truly stage, young Savannah, Georgia-based hard rockers Bastardane announced their presence loudly. Bastardane was the first of a trio of Metallica-family bands taking to the Truly stage this weekend. Bastardane features Castor Hetfield (James Hetfield’s son) handling the drum duties in the band, and completing the lineup are bassist/frontman Jake Dallas and guitarist Ethan Sirotzki. Next up, LA hard rock band Liily, took their turn on the Truly stage and delivered another all-out hard-rockin’ set. The Truly stage is truly the place to catch rising stars and always consistently delivers great performances, just as all the other stages do. There is something about this smaller stage that delivers an intimate experience and puts fans right up next to these acts. Friday’s late afternoon lineup included NYC’s Misterwives making an appearance at the VIP Village stage. This intimate VIP tent provides a respite from the sun and is surrounded by gourmet food vendors and has a large dedicated bar. The small stage brings the fans right up next to the artists for unforgettable acoustic experiences.Out on the Jam Cellars main stage, the afternoon saw Marcus King and The Marcus King Band bring their hardcore South Carolina Blues to the BottleRock fans. Marcus King’s shredding blues guitar licks and southern rock style more than represented and held serve, delighting the afternoon crowd with their hour-long set of soulful blues.
The rock-n-roll buzz had built all day and in the evening leading up to the anticipated arrival of headliners, Greta Van Fleet, who took to the Jam Cellars main stage with a fun and powerful set. GVF rocked a great set, bringing their classic rock revival sound to a welcoming crowd. Influences be damned, they were demonstrably claiming their place in today’s rock n’ roll big stage. Closing out Friday night, Metallica were all smiles and were genuinely enjoying kicking ass before the hometown crowd. Messers Hatfield, Ulrich, Trujillo, and uncle Kirk, must have been full of pride knowing they and their sons would all be performing in one place. Metallica’s proud dads setting the tone for how it’s done at BottleRock, and raising the bar for all the bands to follow that weekend. Running through an endless greatest hits set, Metallica crushing on the Thin Lizzy classic “Whiskey in the Jar” standing and surely delivering on fan expectations for the weekend to come. You can read all about day two here.
