The Best of BottleRock: Dave Grohl, Backstreet Boys and Wine Country Chaos
BottleRock Napa Valley returned over Memorial Day weekend with the kind of lineup that can only happen in Napa: Foo Fighters, the Backstreet Boys, celebrity chefs, NFL stars, Lil Wayne, and enough food and wine options to make every set change feel a little more magical.
This year’s music lineup leaned heavily into 90s and early-2000s nostalgia, while still making room for a few newer voices across indie, pop, hip-hop and rock.
Here are some of the standout moments from the weekend:
The Beths and Lorde — The Kiwis delivered
New Zealand had a strong showing on Friday. Indie rockers The Beths opened the main stage with a bright, melodic set that was well-matched for the sunny start of a long Napa weekend. Later that night, Lorde made her BottleRock debut and hooked the crowd early with “Royals,” her 2013 hit that everyone was waiting for.
Dave Grohl was everywhere
There’s always at least one celebrity overachiever at BottleRock, and this year Dave Grohl claimed the title without much competition.
He first appeared during Chevy Metal’s Friday set for a cover of AC/DC’s “Let There Be Rock.” Later, he popped up on the Culinary Stage alongside chef José Andrés, drumming on pots and pans during Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House” while Andrés worked the demo kitchen.
A few hours later, Grohl and the Foo Fighters launched into a blistering headlining set that barely paused between songs in the opening stretch. The band ripped through highlights spanning more than three decades, including a nod to Nirvana with “Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam” and an earth-shaking take on Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades.”
Might as well ‘Jump’ with Teddy Swims
Speaking of covers… BottleRock always needs at least one giant singalong, and Teddy Swims delivered it with a soaring version of Van Halen’s 1980s hit “Jump” during his sundowner set on the main stage.
Touchdowns, dunks, and celebrity sightings
There’s a lot of talk about music, food and wine at BottleRock, but it’s also an awesome place to catch some of the Bay Area’s standout athletes up close. San Francisco 49ers players George Kittle and Kyle Juszczyk were on the culinary stage and were spotted enjoying themselves at music stages throughout the festival. For Warriors fans, Jimmy Butler was also in the mix and earned a shoutout from Lil Wayne during his headlining set Friday.
Bush turned into one of the weekend’s biggest surprises
Bush delivered one of the most unexpectedly memorable sets of the festival.
Gavin Rossdale spent a surprising amount of time off the stage and inside the crowd, first going deep into the audience near the soundboard before joking about joining fans in the VIP skydeck — and then actually doing it.
It felt less like 90s nostalgia and more like a band still operating at full power.
LCD Soundsystem sees daylight
James Murphy joked about performing in a “very daylighty” setting, but there was no sign of cobwebs when LCD Soundsystem kicked into gear for their second Napa performance in less than 24 hours (they played an after-show in Napa the previous night).
Surrounded by the band’s maze of synths and gear, the group delivered the slightly chaotic dance party that BottleRock needed midway through the weekend.
There was a Nü Metal time machine
If you happened to cross paths with Papa Roach’s set, they made sure nobody forgot the 90s rap-rock era. Their “Nü Metal Time Machine” ran through a quick montage of some of the most famous riffs from Deftones, Korn, and even Limp Bizkit. We can all safely put those tracks back in the time capsule until 2036.
Hip-hop acts held it down all weekend
Lil Wayne had bars for days Friday night, Busta Rhymes set it off with a Saturday afternoon party, and Arrested Development revisited “Mr. Wendal.” Ludcris leaned into the Napa Valley crowd Sunday with some of his most pop-friendly verses, dropping his feature on Justin Bieber’s “Baby,” for a multi-generational crowd that was ready for another singalong moment. A few songs later, “Move Bitch” was the perfect closer for the 30,000+ attendees who were about to exit into a sea of street hot dog carts on the festival’s closing night.
Backstreet Boys unify the crowd with pure pop euphoria
Finally… There was really only one reason many attendees were at BottleRock on Sunday: the Backstreet Boys.
The group made history as the first boy band to headline a major Northern California music festival, transforming the festival into a massive 90s dance party. Surrounded by clouds of smoke, flashing lasers, and waves of nostalgia, the now middle-aged “boys” had the crowd screaming along to every song and their still-sharp choreography. It was pure pop euphoria, and nobody seemed interested in resisting it.
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