Top 50 Rolling Stones Songs

BottleRock 2015 was a success for the fans and the producers. After a star-studded financial disaster in 2013 and a heroic rescue mission in 2014, this year’s festival came of age – well attended, well run and entertaining for a broad swath of musical tastes and demographics. BottleRock is on the map as a major American rock festival.

YOUTH SYMPHONY RETURNS TO BOTTLEROCK

For the third consecutive year, the Napa Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra will perform at BottleRock, taking place May 29-31 in Napa. The Youth Symphony will play Saturday, May 30, at noon on the JaM Cellars Stage at the Expo.

Napa High senior Jonah Eisenberg, the orchestra’s assistant concertmaster, is thrilled at the prospect of returning to the festival.

“In 2013 we opened for (hip-hop sensations) Macklemore & Ryan Lewis,” Eisenberg said. “It was just a lot of fun — walking out on that big stage, seeing that huge crowd of people (estimated at 10,000). I had some friends who were near the front shouting my name. It was just a thrill. And then, having Macklemore come out right after, I really didn’t believe it happened when it happened.”

“The biggest theater we routinely perform at is the Lincoln Theater,” he said. “It goes back rather far but the stage itself is kind of small and you’re below everyone. At BottleRock, you’re elevated on a festival stage and there’s this sea of people. Just being that high up compared to the audience is very different.”

IMAGINE DRAGONS HEADLINING OPENING NIGHT

When Latitude 38 Entertainment, the producers of BottleRock, put together this year’s festival, the first headliner they signed was Imagine Dragons. The alt-rockers from Las Vegas, among the most popular bands in the world over the past three years, will perform on the Intel Stage at 8:15 p.m. Friday.

The band’s meteoric rise began in 2012 with the release of their debut album, “Night Visions,” which has sold nearly 4 million copies and spawned a number of hit singles, including “Radioactive,” which won the 2013 Grammy for Best Rock Performance. Their follow-up album, “Smoke & Mirrors,” released two months ago, entered the Billboard Top 200 at No. 1. Its ubiquitous first hit single, “I Bet My Life,” is currently No. 7 on the rock charts.

The history of Imagine Dragons traces back to Boston’s Berklee College of Music, where three of the four members — guitarist Wayne “Wing” Sermon, drummer Daniel Platzman and bassist Ben McKee — were students. After graduation they joined up with lead singer/songwriter Dan Reynolds in Las Vegas and the band was born. Its now famous name is an anagram, the solution of which is a closely guarded secret.

TRAMPLED BY TURTLES ON SUNDAY

Trampled by Turtles is not your grandpa’s bluegrass band. With influences stretching from Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley to the Rolling Stones and Nirvana, the quintet from Duluth, Minnesota, is a genre-defying acoustic brew of Appalachian string band voices and rock-tinged folk music. They will play the Jam Cellars stage at BottleRock at 5:15 p.m. on Sunday, May 31.

Over their 12 years together the band has released eight albums. The most recent, last year’s “Wild Animals,” reached No. 1 on the Billboard folk charts. Their lineup is Dave Simonett on guitar and lead vocals, Tim Saxhaug on bass, Dave Carroll on banjo, Erik Berry on mandolin and Ryan Young on fiddle.

There’s plenty of rock ‘n’ roll in the band members’ past and present. All five played in traditional rock and jam bands before the current group came together, and Simonett, Saxhaug and Young continue to rock out as Dead Man Winter in an electric side project.

Popular on the bluegrass and folk festival circuits, Trampled by Turtles performs a number of its songs at breakneck tempos, with some observers referring to to their music as “speedgrass.” Alan Sparhawk, the producer of their recent album, said that this band can play at “the chaotic edge of stringed oblivion.”

DIARY DAY ONE

 

The day had begun small by intention, the joy of a local band, pride of the community. It ended on a grand scale and with a difficult choice. Superstar rockers Imagine Dragons were on the main stage, but next door on the JAM stage was Michael Franti, a Bay Area favorite and one of the most joyful and charismatic performers in popular music. What to do?

Fortunately, the layout of BottleRock allows fans to move relatively quickly — five minutes or so — between the two big stages. You can have a sizable sample of both performances without wasting much time between.

Franti was his usual self, wading into the crowd almost immediately, his visibility intact because of his height — about 6-6. He does this barefoot, which seems hazardous, but he somehow always comes out unscathed. His music and his presence are infectious, his performances a party.

Meanwhile on the main stage, Imagine Dragons’ performance was nothing short of epic. Another very tall fellow, lead singer Dan Reynolds, bounds from one end of the big stage to the other, and out into the crowd as well, while his three mates — bassist Ben McKee, guitarist Wayne “Wing” Sermon and drummer Daniel Platzman — pump out one anthemic Dragons hit after another.

DIARY DAY TWO

 

It must be my advanced age and era, but The Avett Brothers and former Led Zeppelin lead singer Robert Plant vs. Capital Cities and Passion Pit was not a close call. These artists played opposite one another Saturday night at BottleRock, the former on the Intel Main Stage, the latter on the JaM Cellars Stage. That’s one of many great things about this festival — there’s something for everyone, the baby boomers and the millenials, us fogies and the indie hipsters.

For my money, no songs personify The Avett Brothers, musically and lyrically, better than “Down With the Shine” and their epic “Head Full of Doubt, Road Full of Promise,” both performed on Saturday night. They play folk-rock with acoustic instruments and drums, they are intelligent and introspective, they have a pleasing untightness that reminds me of The Band.

Baritone Scott Avett and tenor Seth Avett sing like siblings and are both multi-instrumentalists. They are surrounded by Joe Kwon on cello (which he plays standing up and exuberantly), bassist Bob Crawford, fiddler Tania Elizabeth, Paul DeFiglia on keyboards and drummer Mike Marsh.

Their set drew from songs across their eight-album history, with some emphasis on 2012’s “I and Love and You.” From time to time, Seth picked up an electric guitar and plain old rock ‘n’ roll erupted. It is competent and suited to a partying festival audience, but not their natural musical habitat. Still, you can tell that Seth likes to shred.

DIARY DAY THREE

Well, the hipsters really don’t like pop, and the geezers don’t like rap, but it seemed this weekend that nobody didn’t like BottleRock. From all indications, our three-day music/food/wine extravaganza, attended by over 100,000 people, was a hit with fans, artists and management alike.

Monty, a 30-something music lover, traveled 2,500 miles for his first visit to BottleRock. He lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, a few hours from Bonnaroo, which has long been considered the gold standard for large rock festivals in America. Waiting for Robert Plant to take the main stage Saturday night, he talked with me about the differences between the two festivals.

“Bonnaroo’s a great time,” Monty said, “and always a great lineup. But it’s sweltering heat, very dusty, a younger crowd, concentrated in the 20s and 30s, and not quite as friendly. The laid-back atmosphere at BottleRock has just been amazing. It doesn’t compare to any other music festival. The people have been friendly, the music’s great, the weather has been wonderful.”

“And it’s very family oriented,” he added. “I’ve seen little kids to much older people and everybody seems to be having a great time. It’s been an outstanding experience.”

Roger McNamee is the founder and lead singer of Bay Area jam band Moonalice, the only group that has performed at all three BottleRocks. With broad experience at American music festivals, he spoke at length on Sunday about the Napa festival.

“I got here Friday,” McNamee said, “so I’ve seen the whole thing and I’m blown away. The production here, everything about it is amazing. We’ve played a lot of festivals, we get to play Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Bonnaroo and Summer Camp. These guys (Latitude 38 Entertainment) have something unique. Talk about something that fits the Napa community — the food is amazing. I’m not a wine drinker, but if I was I would think that this is as close to heaven as you could possibly get without, you know.”

“There’s really only one other huge festival that takes place in an actual city setting,” he said, “and that’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in San Francisco. The advantage is not being in the middle of nowhere, and that is staggering. We stayed at the Napa River Inn and walked here. I had running water, I took a shower this morning, they brought this really nice breakfast to my room. It’s like civilized. This is Napa. What they’re doing here you can’t do just anywhere. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is a work of art, it’s a gift, there’s nothing like it. And now we have another thing that there’s nothing like. And it’s within driving distance.”