BottleRock Napa Shines on the Second Day
By Chris Murphy
Photos by Chris Murphy & Middagh Goodwin
It was a toasty day in Napa, reaching in to the mid 90s. The music on the stages and the food around BottleRock was equally hot and amazing. The day started out fast with Panic is Perfect and a tour the the wine lands, where our ViewCrew drink of the day was Rosé over ice with some sparkling blood orange. Yum. Perfect instant spritzer.
Mike Stud was on his game at the Midway stage and got the crowd going, even sharing his beer. The former baseball player was on target all day and was seen throughout the day checking out the other shows. So cool to see the musicians checking each other out. Tre Cool was trying to get into the pit, but even he was denied access so as you can imagine, with three days of sold out crowds, access was closely watched. We were very fortunate to have the media access we had at this key event.
Silverado Pickups are a local Napa favorite and they packed the Miner Family Wine stage with their hits like Wine Country Cowboy and much more. So very fun.
The William Sonoma Culinary stage has been a top focus each day. Saturdays offerings included Phood Fight with Pharcyde, Chef Morimoto and Tre Cool and Mike Dirnt. Tre Cool even played the hand made drum sets made out of pots and pans. 49’er Dwight Clark of “The Catch” fame caught fish from Seattle’s Pike Place Fish market throwers. We hit many of the food places, the Pork Dumplings, the Pizza, the crab fries and everything kept us powered up all day.
The music was everywhere, the Monophonics show was an awesome funky soul review. Chicano Batman was a breath of fresh air and really had the crowd sucked in. Diego’s Umbrella laid down a gypsy punk version Hava Nagila. The Pharcyde laid out the beats and their backing DJs and musicians were dressed sharp in sweet suits and ties. Walk the Moon drew monster crowds to the Jam Cellars Stage and finished off with their big hit Shut Up and Dance, but the they owned the stage for their whole show. The Struts brought their British glam rock big time and the packed crowd dug their new hit “Could Have Been Me”.
Then we got down to big business as Death Cab For Cutie hit the stage. Ben Gibbard and the band never let you down. Their new album “Ghosts of Beverly Drive” is flat out amazing. Even though I wanted to hear more from this new record, I still love their other hits.. And not so hits and we got a little of everything. No Postal Service though. We raced over to catch a session with Ziggy Marley and then the crowd pushed to the stage for Florence and the Machine. Florence is all over the stage, and dress in a green see through fairy gown, she covered every inch of the stage and the fans got an amazing show and huge cheers went up when the Golden State Warriors saved a game 6 finish. As the evening wrapped up with Iration, Day 2 of BottleRock had something tasty for every one. There was a surprise appearance from Mellissa Etheridge at the Moon Alice show where she laid down Bobby McGee. Wow. We missed but heard about it. Dang.
Ended the night with some Do Good Rum from our Modesto friends that we brought from home. Back at it tomorrow
