Day three of BottleRock brought North Bay sunshine and serendipity to the Napa Valley Expo.
Though there was a brief lapse in sunshine and a pinch of despair due to Flo Rida’s cancellation, artists Moonalice, Noah Kahan and Khruangbin ended the balmy weekend on a high note.
Goldie Boutilier
Adorned in a Barbie pink outfit, Canadian singer Goldie Boutilier, joined by her guitarist and drummer, released her electrifying voice upon a small 12:30 p.m. crowd.
Though her voice was drowned out by the guitar for the first few songs, she belted her heart out during “Penthouse In the Sky.”
Boutilier’s set was filled with quick jokes pointed at the stereotyped Napa rich. Laughs echoed throughout the crowd, who clearly enjoyed her quips as well as her smooth, sultry voice during her hit song “Cowboy Gangster Politician.”
Announcing her final song “Pretending,” Boutilier told the crowd, “Repeat after me, thou shall not pretend… Because I am a legendary bitch.”
Though she only gathered a small crowd, she received laughs, screams of adoration and a few nods of approval from the older folks.
Moonalice
BottleRock veterans and Bay Area locals Moonalice began their soulful set with their classic “Yes We Can Can.”
With Moonalice OG Lester Chambers on lead vocals and legendary Jefferson Starship bassist Pete Sears, the band played the swinging psychedelic grooves they’re known for.
The T Sisters, the band’s backup singers, took over main vocals as Moonalice played their latest release, “Me and My Family.”
Son of Lester, Dylan Chambers shouted out to the crowd between songs, hyping up his dad during Nick Lowe’s “(What’s so funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding.”
Moonalice brought the blues to BottleRock during “Arm’s Reach Out,” which had the crowd swinging and clapping to the beat.
As always, Moonalice did not disappoint and brought all their good vibrations to wine country.
Noah Kahan and Joshua Weissman: Williams Sonoma
Artist Noah Kahan and social media chef Joshua Weissman joked their way through their set at the Williams Sonoma Culinary Stage.
With Weissman bringing the elevated gas station snacks recipes and Kahan bringing the humor, they created a delightful duo.
“Just like how the pilgrims did it,” Kahan remarked while stirring a molten pot of melted marshmallows, “It’s like churning butter.”
After co-creating a few cereal based snacks, Kahan gave some advice on what to do after a drunk dial: “You should just call the cops on yourself.”
Goose
Up-and-coming jam band Goose drew a massive crowd as they took the stage by storm with their unique jazzy sound.
Lead singer Rick Mitarotonda received a few whistles from the women in the audience as he laid down riff after riff in his rustic sleeveless flannel.
Drummer Ben Atkinson adorned a raccoon skin cap while Peter Anspach, playing keyboard, stood out with his macho man mustache and fluffy bowl cut.
The crowd got to grooving during “Animal.” The audience did indeed “get up and move your body” as the song directed.
Before, during and after their set, fans of the band called out “Gooooose,” which to the untrained ear sounded like a disapproving boo.
DRAMA
Hip-hop duo Na’el Shehade and Via Rosa drew a large crowd at the Version Stage.
Dressed in an all white outfit, Rosa looked angelic as she regaled how she and Shehade met. “He actually owned a bunch of restaurants and I went to culinary school,” Rosa said, relating personally to the festival’s purpose of bringing food and music together.
During the second song of the set, the instrumentals dropped out, leaving Rosa alone to improvise on stage while the mis-hap was corrected.
The crowd went crazy, and so did Rosa, when the duo’s hit song “Nobody” began playing. Bouncing around her mic, Rosa brought the vibe from a 10 to an 11.
Khruangbin
Starting at 6:15 p.m. on the dot, bassist Laura Lee stepped onto stage donning a yellow 1960’s mini dress and white go-go boots. Accompanied by her bandmates, Mark Speer on guitar and Donald Johnson Jr. on drums, the group played their ethereal music to a massive crowd.
As the evening wind began to blow, Khruangbin’s music seemed to float on the growing breeze to the audience beyond.
Lee and Speer made use of the stage, dancing from one side to the other to their radiant rhythms. Speer’s signature shag mop haircut hung over his eyes, making it appear as if he was playing without even glancing at his fretboard.
Many of the male members of the crowd made remarks on Lee’s looks, however her steady, inventive bass lines proved she was much more than her figure. Lee played the entire set without a guitar pick, a decision that would turn any amateur’s hands to a blistered and bleeding mess.
At one point in the show Speer and Lee brought out wine bottles and drum sticks, playing them like cowbells.
Walking dramatically in unison, Speer and Lee proved they were one with Johnson’s drums. Everything from their slow, sly steps to the plucking of their instruments melded together to create something truly out of this world.
Even more amazingly, the band didn’t stop playing for the entire set, slipping seamlessly from one song to the next. The stoned crowd swayed through the syrupy haze to mind-bending guitar riffs.
Khruangbin finished their set chanting “still alive” with the crowd, finalizing their impression on an audience of hundreds.
Noah Kahan
Taking to the stage with both melancholy and reckless abandon, Noah Kahan brought festival goers to a screeching halt when they caught wind of his music while passing by.
Kahan played mandolin during his first song “All My Love” to a crowd of what seemed to be 90% of the festival’s population.
“My only goal is to leave y’all a little worse off than you came,” Kahan quipped. His humorous one-liners were continuously met with resounding laughter from the crowd.
The wind whipped up as he began his popular ballad “New Perspective.” Fans belted nearly every lyric of his set as he sang in his trademark pleading southern tone. So many people sang along that it sounded like the audience was a choir.
“This next song has a phone number in it. Don’t call it you weirdo,” Kahan said as he introduced his next stadium rocker “She Calls Me Back.”
Kahan announced that he is working on an upcoming album, which caused quite the stir in the crowd as fans looked to each other with expressions of excitement.
One of the highlights of Kahan’s performance was his crowd work, saying, “you Californians are all so fit and beautiful, it’s actually pissing me off a little bit.”
Kahan introduced “Maine” as the only song of his that he can bear to listen to in his own time.
The singer pump-faked the end of his show by performing “Northern Attitude” and promptly exeunting after thanking the crowd only to reappear a few minutes later saying, “We tricked you guys so hard. We got three more songs.”
The spiritual closer of the night, “Northern Attitude” rolled through the crowd alongside the heavy coastal fog, showing the warm-blooded Californians why Kahan wrote, “I was raised out in the cold.”
Kahan introduced his final song of the evening by asking the crowd, “Who’s ready to get sweaty? Who’s ready to pretend to know what wine tastes like? Who’s ready to get sticky?” before serenading the adoring fans with his seminole track “Stick Season.”
Kahan concluded his set by assuring the crowd, “I’d stay out here forever if I could.”
Cage The Elephant
On the opposite side of the venue from Noah Kahan held a very different energy as Cage The Elephant sang their head banging rock and roll.
Passionately dancing to the beat of his own, lead singer Matt Shultz bellowed “Neon Pill” from the band’s most recent album.
Though Cage The Elephant drew a far smaller crowd than Noah Kahan, it was obvious that almost everyone in attendance was a die-hard fan. The crowd began clapping during the final moments of “Halo,” which only elevated the atmosphere of mutual love between the band and audience.
Screams erupted from the crowd at the first few lines of “Trouble,” one of the band’s biggest songs.
About halfway through their set the band played “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked,” causing onlookers to scream the well-known lyrics at the top of their lungs.
When Shultz began singing “Cigarette Daydream,” the noise from the crowd rivaled a muscular blast in volume. Swaying, stomping and screaming fans surely let all of Napa know of their love for Cage The Elephant.
Festival goers with eyes so red they nearly glowed slowly stumbled out of the venue, bringing BottleRock 2025 to a bittersweet end.
