BottleRock 2016 Off to Great Start
By Chris Murphy
Photos: Chris Murphy & Middagh Goodwin
The scene was chill and calm for the first few hours. Concert goers, hungry from the drive in to downtown Napa Fairgrounds, hit the gourmet food court right inside the gate. First decision, food or beverage. We opted for food. BottleRock really well laid out, easy to get from stage to stage, the the place is clean, always. Fresh music, fresh food, fresh fun and fresh drinks. One of our favorite drinks was a Ruby’s Grapefruit Aperol. Four stages to choose from, we started off fast and hit the Score on the Jam Cellars stage, follow up quickly by Andy Grammar, who just last year was on stage at the State Theatre with Matt Nathanson. Michael Franti and Spearhead were the afternoon fun as Michael wandered through the crowd, his barefoot style and positive message was loved by all
The culinary stage is really fun, with cool cooking expos from American Pie’s Thomas Ian Nichols and Maya Ericsson, then an Up in Smoke session with Cheech and Chong and Chris Conentino
This was a green session in many ways. Soon super chef Gordon Ramsay hit the stage and went head to head, even tossing off some dishes in “disgust”.
VIP was the place to be for special food court with Crab Salads, donut ice-cream “burger” and cool music performances and perfect view of the stage. Lot’s of VIP sightings, Fantastic Negrito cruised around and Lars Urich of Metallica and other.
The evening blew up big as Lenny Kravitz tore up the afternoon, playing one of my faves, Mr Cab Driver and finishing up with Are You Gonna Go My Way. His band, the singers and the horns were insane. Despite a few tech glitches, Lenny hit it hard and gave a solo performance of Let Love Rule and then brought it home.
Stevie Wonder was in the house and he also brought his alter ego DJ Chick Chick BOOM. After a long line of hits, he spun hits from Bowie, Eagles and Prince and our group danced the night away with Stevie playing the beats. So fun to have one of the hall of fames of hall of fame musicians serenading to the 10 pm hour.
It’s lights out a BottleRock at 10 pm, we hit the food stands getting crab fries and corndogs on the way out. All gourmet of course. We will be ready and back in action tomorrow.
