Concert goers were met with a soul-filled rock and roll afternoon as BottleRock 2024 kicked off with young talent before the sun set and Stevie Nicks and Megan Thee Stallion took over the crowds.
Grace Bowers, a Bay Area born and Nashville raised guitarist, blazed the opening BottleRock performance with non-stop electrifying guitar action at the JaM Cellars Stage. Her band, The Hodge Podge, also supplied plenty of crowd-pleasing solos and the singer moved the crowd with every vocal burst.
Over at the Prudential Stage, Naima Nascimento, a 14-year-old high school freshman, got things started with just her acoustic guitar and a microphone. The crowd slowly grew from about 20 to well over 100 by the end of her set at the smaller stage. Towards the end of her performance she announced that she had just released her first ever song on streaming services, called “Blood Sweat and Tears.”
The talented young singer also let those in attendance know that she would be dropping her debut EP soon, titled “In Between.” She played some songs by her all-girl band Salty Sally as well as a cover of Natalia Lafourcade’s “Hasta la Raiz” to showcase her fluent Spanish.
After the trio of kick-off artists, DJ Umami mixed-up some Bay Area hits to get the Williams-Sonoma Culinary Stage. Songs by E-40, Too Short and Mac Dre were all mixed in as she turned the Culinary Studio into a dance pad.
At the Truly Stage, garage rock band ALEXSUCKS brought the energy with upbeat dance-punk songs to their smaller and more intimate setting. Despite the narrower stage and crowd area compared to the other stages at the venue, audience members packed in to create a fitting environment for the punk-adjacent garage rockers.
Meanwhile over at the JaM Cellar Stage, singer and songwriter Pete Yorn proudly announced to the crowd that he was drinking a non-alcoholic beer and that this show was maybe his “fifth sober show ever”, which was met with cheers and applause from those in attendance. He added that performing sober felt “stimulating.”
Shortly after starting their set on the Verizon Stage under the stunning afternoon sunshine, All Time Low’s lead singer Alex Gaskarth mentioned how beautiful of a day it was. The band then played the intro and first chorus to Hoku’s 2001 hit song “Perfect Day” from the “Legally Blonde” soundtrack. The group addressed the crowd throughout the show, even recounting their time being broke on Warped Tour, the traveling rock tour which ran for nearly 25 years from 1995 until 2019.
All Time Low started with some of their older hits like “Lost in Stereo” and “Six Feet Under the Stars” before preparing the crowd for some of their newer songs. They even joked that “if you were here for the old hits you can go now” and that they’re “gonna treat the rest of this show like we’re your favorite band in the world.” They closed their set with their most well-known song “Dear Maria Count Me In” and even cut out their mic and audio to let the audience sing large chunks of the song for them.
As the sun began to drop in the late afternoon, Miike Snow walked out to the Verizon Stage with their band ready for business in matching suits – sans jackets. Miike Snow showed that their vocals haven’t dropped a single octave over the ears as they hit signature high notes on classics like “Black and Blue” and “Genghis Khan.” They also graced fans with a song they said had just come out the previous day, “High as a Sailor.” The band played a clean set into an exciting finish with a high energy “Animal,” in which the trio had fun toying with various sound effects on a keyboard that resembled an American Fotoplayer.
Bebe Rexha’s set on the JaM pad late Friday afternoon had the crowds screaming every lyric and dancing to the rhythm of the deep base that you could feel in your bones. She began her set by saying to the crowd that she was not sorry for the way she looks, pointing to herself in a black jumper with blue stripes, saying that, “We should love ourselves just the way we look,” before performing her hits from “In the Name of Love” to “Meant to Be” and “I’m Good (Blue).” Towards the end of her set, Rexha set a record straight, saying that she was uncredited in the song “Hey Mama” as her voice was in the hook. She then broke out into the song. It was easily the loudest bass-filled song on the JaM pad that afternoon.
St. Vincent brought a unique and dynamic performance to the JaM Cellar stage. The avant-garde musician showed off her virtuosic guitar skills and thought-provoking lyrics during her hour-long set. Vincent and her band performed several songs from their most recent album, including “Broken Man” and “Big Time Nothing.”
The Main Acts
Stevie Nicks capped off the JaM Cellar stage, performing some of her biggest hits. From “Dreams” to “Wild Heart” and “Gold Dust” Nicks didnt let her age get in the way one bit as she nailed every song in her just-under ninety minute set. Nicks also performed “Leather and Lace” with her vocal coach Steve Real towards the end of her set. Nicks connected with fans of all ages while performing, finishing her set with “Edge of Seventeen” with everyone in the crowd singing and dancing along. Her night didn’t end there. Nicks came back out after a brief pause for an encore performance of “Rhiannon” and finally the song everyone was waiting for, “Landslide.”
A video projection of Nicks and her late Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie helped captivate the audience during the encore. There wasn’t a dry-eye in sight as Nicks tearfully wished the crowd well after her performance.
Megan Thee Stallion was the main event on the Verizon stage and was nothing short of a spectacle. She had by far the most lively crowd of the day and got the biggest reactions out of any of the other acts at the festival. She played many of her biggest hits, including “Body”, where at the end of the song she exclaimed “my body, my choice”, which caused the crowd to erupt.
Megan’s dancing and choreography were electrifying and she brought the passion in her vocals throughout her entire performance. She interacted with the audience, having them repeat “real hot girl s***” and asking “where are the real hotties at?” to have the crowd make noise. Along with playing her most well known tracks, Megan wanted to introduce the Bottlerock crowd to “Tina Snow”, the title of her 2018 EP. She played “Cognac Queen” and “Big Ole Freak” from that record and ended the show addressing the “hotties” in attendance to make sure they have a “hot girl summer.”
