Day 3 of BottleRock had a star-studded line-up on both the musical stage and the Culinary Stage. Artists, chefs, and sports celebrities came together to appreciate music, food, and wine together in the Napa Valley. The day was sunny and beautiful and included headliners Cage The Elephant and Noah Kahan who provided a great ending to this year’s festival.
Singer-songwriter Goldie Boutilier made a stop at BottleRock on her current tour across three countries. She showed off her alternative pop-rock music to the crowd in a velvety dark purple tank top and shorts held together by gold rings. Her fluid dance moves and storytelling between songs really gave personality to her show.
18-year old award-winning musician Grace Bowers & The Hodge Podge took to the JaM Cellars Stage in the early afternoon. Bowers jammed out on her guitar in a white button down crop top, tie, and pinstripe shorts as her signature blonde curls bobbed along with her. Her debut rock album Wine On Venus was released last year and a new single, “Dust” was released in April. Bowers is quickly becoming a star in the Blues world and has performed with legendary performers like Peter Frampton and Chris Martin over the past year.
Over on the Culinary Stage, Canadian actor Antoni Porowski, 49ers tight end George Kittle and his wife Claire, and 49ers fullback Kyle and wife Kristin Juszczyk joined together to make a bite to eat. Porowski, also known as the food and wine expert on Queer Eye led the NFL players on a Polish pierogi journey since himself and Juszczyk share the heritage. Porowski taught the football players how to carefully craft the pierogi, which he said he learned from Martha Stewart.
YouTube chef and cookbook author Joshua Weissman was joined by singer Noah Kahan for some fun spins on classic gas station snacks. The pair made stoner gas station snacks like Muddy Buddies, Elote on Zapp’s Voodoo Chips, and brown butter cereal bars with Honey Smacks and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Weissman and Kahan got along great, cracking jokes and making the crowd laugh during their demo.
Bobby Flay, a world-renowned chef and former MLB outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. went head to head to create a mouth-watering ribeye steak with spice rub. Flay brought out his girlfriend and fellow chef, Brooke Williamson to taste test both steaks to find out who did it best. Williamson liked both steaks so decided that they were both winners.
Mexican singer-songwriter Carín León had the crowd dancing to regional Mexican music on the Verizon Stage. León had an entire band behind him, filling the stage and providing all the traditional Mexican sounds like drums, maracas, and accordion. León walked about the stage, occasionally taking a swig from a bottle of liquor as die hard fans screamed for him on the rail singing along to every word.
Chef Darryl Bell, singer and actor Bobby Brown, and Gary “Baba Booey” Dell’Abate from the Howard Stern Show met on the Culinary Stage in the late evening to fire up the grill. The men made some savory pork with Bobby Brown spice rub, a seasoning from his own line called Bobby Brown Foods.
Guitarist Robby Krieger of The Doors is still rocking out like he did back in the 70’s at 79 years old. His band is composed of his son, Waylon, and Dan Rothchild—the son of Doors producer Paul Rothchild – on lead vocals, Ed Roth on keyboards, and Ty Dennis on drums, who was part of The Doors revival. The band played all the classic hits including “Break On Through,” “Light My Fire,” “Love Her Madly,” and “People Are Strange.”
Rock band Cage The Elephant played a closing set on the Verizon Stage. The 70-minute set included pyrotechnics, all the hits, and front man Matt Schultz jumping and thrashing around. “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked” rang out halfway through the set, sending the crowd into a sing-along. When Shultz finally got to singing uber popular “Cigarette Daydream,” the crowd erupted into song at an incredible volume. Though they didn’t draw as large a crowd as Noah Kahan across the festival grounds, the fans that did show up made it known how much they love Cage The Elephant.
Gold-selling song artist Noah Kahan closed out the JaM Cellars Stage, opening with “All My Love” while strumming out the tune on his mandolin. The crowd grew tremendously until it reached the back of the festival grounds. Kahan recently wrapped up touring for his 2022 album, Stick Season, in July, and has since taken a break from performing, returning back to the stage for BottleRock.
He announced an upcoming new album, which led to excited gasps and an eruption of cheers in the crowd. Kahan introduced his final song of the night, his No. 1 charting song “Stick Season.”These past three days in the Napa Valley were incredible! We are looking forward to the recipes and artists that next year’s BottleRock will bring.