Bit of rigmarole involved in attempting to cover the BottleRock Festival, over in Napa, for my print column, despite the fact that music is big in the South County and a major festival in its second year being just over the border in neighboring Napa is, in my opinion, pretty huge for wine country as a whole.
The fact that Petaluma band, The Incubators scored a highly sought-after positioning in the line-up for the 2014 Festival was a significant coop for rivertown friends and fans.
I didn't want to miss seeing The Incubators vocalist/guitarist Chris Chappell and singer/songwriter Kate Freeman and co bring their brand of harmonious root rock to opening day at BottleRock, even if it did mean plunking down the bucks for the ticket price bounty, standing in line for shuttles from a Mad Max satellite parking lot on the outskirts of the city, suffering sticker shock at $10 to $25 pricing for a single glass of wine (I stuck with Lagunitas being the loyal type and for the much better beer prices), portaloos right behind the food tents, parched, sticker-weed grounds, gaggles of sensibly dressed (if you're hiking) white guys from tech and wine industry over-enthusiastically spraying bald heads and anyone within fifteen feet with sunscreen every fifteen minutes and generally, all the joys of overpriced festival going.
Seeings as I didn't attend in any official media capacity, I can't share any photos of the bands.
Take it from me, though, The Incubators brought it with an outstanding set on the City Winery Lounge stage and it was fun to spot a lot of familiar faces from the home town there early on in the day to cheer the locals on.
Lucky for me that Chris, Kate and co were on the roster for Friday, as headliners for the evening, The Cure were my number one pick for attending BottleRock 2014.
Infrastructure (despite the parking lot aesthetics) worked well as far as getting in/out and around and I hope that the festival's new organizers make money enough to make a third year, next year. I'm sure that each year's lessons learned will keep on improving the experience. In an ideal situation, making a long weekend of it with a place to stay in central Napa would be the perfect ticket. I wasn't much interested in many more than five or six of the 24 bands on Friday's line-up, but there were others dotted around on Saturday and Sunday's schedules that I would have liked to have seen. The chance to wander around the pleasantly improved city center (just outside of the festival gates), enjoy a sit-down meal at one of Napa's downtown restaurants in between top-pick bands would be the way to go.
Robert Smith, larger than life vocalist of The Cure (Indie darlings of 1980s/90s Britain and one of the world's most popular all-time alternative rock bands) packed in crowds of around 20,000 at the BottleRock main stage, disappointing not a soul, it seemed, in an extraordinary two and a half hour, trademark lengthy show studded with scores of hit songs, culminating in nothing less than the power plug having to be pulled.
Tickets for the rest of the weekend are still available. If you go, do take low lawn chairs or blankets. Better still, arrange for a ride to drop off and pick up close to the main gates. Weather was mild for opening day, but it did reach a chilly low later in the evening making Bay Area's famous layering the fashion choice for festival goers. There's no bringing in of any sorts of imbibements. Food vendors do offer a variety of fairly tasty options and are not as overpriced as the wine, which was rather a shame given that this is wine country.
Comments