NAPA —Whether it was the good weather or the lineup, it felt a little busier than usual at BottleRock Napa Valley as the three-day festival opened its gates on Friday. With many artists in the worlds of alt-rock, pop-punk and electronica, the crowd also felt a little younger.

Attendees were treated to many familiar attractions, as well as a few new ones, including a full-on roller rink. The festival once again honed in on wine country culture, pairing the day’s soundtrack with the food, wine, beer and spirits of the region. Despite all the early arrivals, the festival grounds never felt too cramped—until the evening’s headliners took the stage.

Green Day

It’s not often a band ventures into new territory four decades into its career, but that was the case for Green Day Friday night as it played its biggest ever show in the North Bay.

“Let’s go, fucking Napa, let me hear you! I never thought I’d see the day!” frontman Billie Joe Armstrong yelled as he hyped the crowd.

It doesn’t matter how many times the pop-punk legends come home to the Bay Area. It always carries extra weight. Friday night’s set leaned heavily on the hits and the crowd-pleasers, of which there are many. Green Day also squeezed in a few surprises along the way.

Opening with heavy hitters “American Idiot” and “Holiday,” the band captured the crowd’s attention right off the bat.

“The representative from Rodeo has the floor,” Armstrong announced, referencing his hometown as he shouted out other cities around the Bay Area.

Armstrong dedicated “Know Your Enemy” to Public Enemy, who played earlier in the afternoon. A young fan named Donna joined the band to sing the chorus, nailing it, impressing Armstrong, who smiled from ear to ear. Donna fished out the song, even jumping off a stage monitor, getting a big reaction from the crowd.

“Vacaville! Fairfield! … American Canyon!” Armstrong shouted, going hyperlocal.

The hits kept coming with “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and the newer “One Eyed Bastard.” Bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool carried the rhythm section along with a trio of other musicians.

“How many 1994 fans do we have out there?” Armstrong asked before launching into “Longview.”

It shouldn’t be a surprise at this point, but it’s always remarkable just how many massive songs Green Day has in its catalog; anthems that cross generational lines. That said, there was at least one rarity mixed in.

“This one goes back to 1990,” Armstrong said as the band began “2,000 Light Years Away.”

Being in the heart of wine country, Armstrong did make reference to the audience, poking fun at those imbibing a little too much.

“Ehh, I’ll just drink the whole bottle,” he decided.

Armstrong kept little idle time, fusing tracks from different eras, such as “St. Jimmy,” “Hitchin’ a Ride” and “Dilemma.”

The “Bad Year” blimp (a balloon hoisted by crewmembers on the ground) flew over the crowd during “When I Come Around,” dropping baby blimps on the crowd from above. This crew entourage included a pair of costumed “Dookie Dogs,” from the cover of Dookie.

The set was fiery, quite literally, with as much explosive power as any act has ever brought to BottleRock. There were columns of fire, bangs and sparks. Armstrong introduced his bandmates during the breakdown of “Minority,” adding local flavor in their Bay-centric localities.

“From the marijuana capital of the world, Mendocino County, Tre Cool!” he shouted.

Closing with the epic “Jesus of Suburbia” and the newer “Bobby Sox,” Green Day had one more surprise up its sleeve for closer “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life).” As the track began to wind down, Armstrong searched the stage to his left and right.

“Wait, where’s my confetti!?” he asked.

Rapper Flavor Flav emerged with a giant bucket full, tossing it on Armstrong and his bandmates as they waved to the crowd, offering up his signature “yeah boy” on the microphone before departing.

Sofi Tukker

Electronica duo Sofi Tukker didn’t waste any time and kicked off their set, a combination of art pop and DJ work, with their first hit, “Drinkee.” With Tucker Halpern (in athletic wear that looked like a Nascar jumpsuit) manning the booth for most of the hourlong set, Sophie Hawley-Weld (in a revealing blue top and metallic-colored pants that reflected the sunlight in rainbows) took turns playing a Flying V guitar, dancing sensually or joining her partner at the buttons and knobs.

The tempo never wavered as the two, sometimes supported by a four-member dance troupe, blasted through party songs like “Sun Came Up,” “Bread” and “Summer In New York,” which interpolated Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner.”

Somehow, in the middle of all that, a remix of Santana’s “Smooth” fit in perfectly. How many in the young-leaning crowd had heard the original? Hawley-Weld switched back and forth between English and Portuguese, which added to the mood of the music.

The funniest songs of the set were a new one called “Pick Up the Phone”—”It’s about how bad I am at picking up my phone,” Halpern explained—and “Emergency,” which required Hawley-Weld to sing the word “emergency” once or twice per verse. The whole thing had a “Tequila” vibe to it.

The latter half of the set was highlighted by “Trompa,” during which flames shot upward from the stage, Sofi Tucker’s remix of Passion Pit’s “Sleepyhead,” and a remix of the “White Lotus” season two theme, which only reminded fans how poor the season three theme was.

Sublime

On May 25, 1996, Sublime’s original frontman, Bradley Nowell, died of a heroin overdose at 28. Two months later, on July 30, the band’s self-titled third album came out and made Sublime one of the biggest bands in the world.

Nowell’s son, Jakob, was 11 months old when his father died. Now, at 29, he’s taken over for his dad as Sublime’s frontman for the band’s resurrection after its previous incarnation, Sublime With Rome, ended.

Jakob sounds exactly like his father. If you didn’t know it wasn’t the same guy, you probably couldn’t tell. He’s a near-perfect fill-in both vocally and on the guitar. All the classics the band played sound just like you’d expect. It’s a credit to Jakob that he’s able to step in so well.

Sublime played all the hits, much to the delight of the massive, headliner-sized crowd. They played “Wrong Way” fairly early in the set, considering it’s one of their hit singles, but the densely packed audience ate it up, alongside deeper cuts like “S.T.P.”

The biggest reactions definitely came from their classics: “40 oz. to Freedom” and “Smoke Two Joints” back to back turned into a singalong (and a giant cloud). The band followed it with “Romeo,” which Jakob said was the first Sublime song he ever learned.

The show mostly followed that pattern, with a couple hits followed by a deep cut or two. “What I Got” and “Doin’ Time” together, then a deeper cut. Eventually Jakob said “thank you,” explained that they don’t do encores, and then the band performed “Santeria.”

At that point, the crowd started to flood away from the stage… but the show wasn’t over. And the early departures probably wish they stayed for “Date Rape,” the actual closer and one of the band’s first hits.

Serena Williams and Trisha Yearwood

Two of the proverbial “GOATs” in their respective fields joined forces at the Williams Sonoma Culinary Stage to cook up nachos and plan a dinner party. Country singer Trisha Yearwood now balances her time between both the music world and the culinary world, while Serena Williams is retired as one of the greatest athletes of all time. While the theme was loosely around planning a dinner party, Williams admitted most of the cooking she does at home is for, and with, her daughter.

Both showed a great sense of humor and kitchen expertise. While the culinary stage sometimes leans more toward entertainment than culinary chops, Yearwood and Williams got down to business. Yearwood talked about her husband, Garth Brooks, and how the pair operate in the kitchen at home.

“He’ll open the fridge and make a sandwich out of whatever is there,” she said.

The sneaky star of the show was Williams’ daughter, Olympia, who helped in the preparation and delivered some of the most memorable moments of the demo.

Public Enemy

Chuck D and Flavor Flav have their own things going on these days. Chuck recently released a solo album, and Flav has been spending his time as a patron of women’s sports and Bluesky’s unofficial spokesman and verifier. But their BottleRock set showed that they’re still a force of nature when they combine their powers.

As Chuck pointed out at one point during the performance, he’s 65 and Flav is 66. But despite their combined 131 years, they still had as much energy as they ever have.

“You better never pay another dollar to see someone under 40 who don’t move they ass,” Chuck said.

They also, as the artists behind some of the most hard-hitting activist albums of all time, didn’t shy away from political views. After “Miuzi Weighs a Ton,” “Shut ‘Em Down” and “Can’t Truss It,” Chuck got into controversial territory.

“What I don’t trust is a motherfucking war,” he said after “Can’t Truss It.” “I don’t get why the current President wants to turn Gaza into condominiums.”

But they also didn’t advocate for violence. After “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos,” Flav said, “I don’t like the fact that there was two innocent people coming out of the Jewish museum who didn’t deserve to die.” He dedicated their set to them, then launched into his signature song, “911 is a Joke.”

Public Enemy hasn’t turned to pacifism entirely, however. “This is a small message for 47/45 from DJ Johnny Juice,” Chuck said before launching into “State of the Union (STFU),” the parenthetical standing for exactly what you think.

Closing out with “Bring the Noise,” “Public Enemy No. 1” and “Fight the Power,” the group brought down the figurative house and set the standard for what a hip-hop act can do.

Remi Wolf

Bay Area native Remi Wolf brought a joyful exuberance to the main stage as the sun shined during the warmest part of the day. Wolf is now based in Los Angeles (by way of Palo Alto), but she said the Friday set felt like a homecoming of sorts.

“It feels so good to be back up north; I fucking love it here,” she said. “We’re gonna play some heartfelt, energetic fucking music.”

Wolf indeed brought that energy for her upbeat and bouncy hourlong set.

“This song is about the duality of those two feelings,” she said as an introduction for “Sexy Villain.” “Sometimes you’re the baddie; sometimes you’re the bully.”

Despite playing an accelerated festival set, she made full use of her time to chat with the crowd. At one point she even hopped behind the drums and banged out some beats.

“This song is about having sex repeatedly in a hotel room,” she said about “Toro.”

The performance was full of banter, and she even led the crowd in a round of exercises, keeping the vibes flowing. Wolf even mixed in a faithful rendition of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams.”

Caloncho

Mexican singer-songwriter Caloncho, born Óscar Alfonso Castro, played a fun set of pop-rock that mixed in elements of synth-pop and doo-wop. With two backing musicians, he sauntered onto the stage in a summery all-white outfit—short shorts, vest, paperboy cap and loafers over white socks—and kicked right into “Hora dorada,” which had a nostalgic melody that recalled Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me.” That was followed by the breezy “Wacha checa.” Every once in a while, Caloncho would temporarily set down his guitar to walk around, singing during the poppier songs. The tunes  often went from one to the next, or had connecting threads that made them fit side by side.

“Gracias por escuchar!” he said, apologizing that he didn’t speak much English.

The set included more uptempo pop-rock songs like “Fresh,” “Optimista” and “Amigo Mujer,” as well as the retro-sounding songs like “Superdeli” and “Palmar,” during which the audience started a loud singalong. The island-tinged “Bésame morenita” provided a nice brief diversion.

At one point, Caloncho jumped from a speaker stack toward the audience and stuck a landing on a step at the security barricade to hand a guitar pick to one fan.

Mallrat

Australian pop artist Mallrat (Grace Shaw) had to contend with Sublime and its massive crowd over at the main stage, but she held her own once her backing musicians, a drummer and bassist-keyboardist, got to work. She also made for a striking image, in an outfit that incorporated leather, denim and plaid, with big white headphones over her ears, and black gloves that reached to her elbows.

“You’re in the right place,” Shaw said, owning the moment.

Mallrat began with the dreamy, bass-laden (like many of her songs) “My Darling, My Angel” and “Pavement,” sounded every bit like ’90s  electronica. “Hocus Pocus” sounded like a cross between Massive Attack and Chemical Brothers, but with sugary vocals overtop. She also mixed in Neo-soul vocals on songs like “Surprise Me.”

On the other end of the spectrum, “Teeth” was solid crunchy alt-rock, and “Groceries” was a lighter guitar-ed tune with a four-on-the-floor beat. With less bass, her sweet voice shined through.

“My dad and his beautiful partner Joe are here,” she announced. “They flew all the way from Brisbane to be here.”

Following “R U HIGH,” her collab with The Knocks, she switched gears completely with “Horses,” a stripped-down ballad with (prerecorded) mandolin and acoustic guitar parts.

Baseball stars with Chef Morimoto and Chuck D

You’ve probably never watched anyone break down a 200-pound tuna. It’s not really a common sight. If you have, it almost definitely wasn’t original Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto. Though to be fair, he did break down a tuna at BottleRock a decade ago to set a world record, so you may have seen that, too. But have you watched it while he was surrounded by Chuck D of Public Enemy, four baseball stars and celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern?

Even by the standards of the Williams Sonoma Culinary Stage, that was a weird one. Morimoto and the giant tuna were the stars, of course. Zimmern did a play-by-play of the tuna breakdown. Early on, they brought out Chuck D, not to sing but to sketch, but after he finished his portrait of Morimoto, he left. They also had retired Giants pitcher George Kontos to cohost, as well as Giants and Rays third baseman Evan Longoria and Tigers, Yankees and Mets outfielder Curtis Granderson. Then, apparently not an official part of the show, Hall of Famer Ken Griffey, Jr. showed up, taking photos.

That seems like a random group, but the explanation for the selection was that, obviously, the baseball players all played baseball. Morimoto also played baseball in Japan before becoming a chef. And Chuck D wanted to be a baseball announcer, crediting the speed of play-by-play calls with influencing his style as a rapper.

The whole thing was barely controlled chaos: a very crowded stage where nearly half a starting lineup stood very close to an Iron Chef slicing a tuna, which weighed as much as a Major Leaguer, in half with an actual sword while one of the greatest rappers of all time sketched it. It was hard to follow what was happening, and sometimes someone would start throwing baseballs into the crowd.

It was a lot of fun, and it’s highly recommended that you be there for Morimoto’s next tuna-related show.

E-40

Vallejo native, hyphy pioneer and Bay Area legend E-40’s set got off to a bit of a late start. His DJ, KMP, performed for 25 minutes before the man himself got to the stage. Rumor was he arrived late. While someone really should have told him “when to go” to avoid the traffic up I-80 from the East Bay, once he arrived, he put on a very good set.

He got off to a bit of a slow start, with a muted crowd reaction early despite opening with classics like “Yay Area” and “Put Me On Somethin’,” though it may have just been fatigue from the extended DJ set. The audience started to get back into it during “Sprinkle Me,” and by the time 40 did his verse on Lil Jon’s “Snap Yo Fingers,” fans appeared to be back on board.

”I need you to go deep into your energy bank and get energized,” E-40 told the crowd before “Tell Me When To Go,” but by then, nobody needed the reminder.

Spiritual Cramp

San Francisco punk rock band Spiritual Cramp turned a sunny Friday afternoon into a sweaty and intimate club performance. The band brought the kind of energy that drew passersby in to listen. Vocalist Michael Bingham was focused and electric — a cross between The Clash and The Ramones, with a modern punk sheen.

“I called up the CEO of rock and told him, ‘It’s Mike. I want to go on tour,” he proclaimed. “He said, ‘come to Napa.’”

The BottleRock appearance was the band’s final date of a five-week tour with Bad Nerves. Bingham frequently offered his appreciation for being back home in Northern California. He also frequently shouted out other bands, friends and tourmates on the BottleRock bill.

“I’ll be up in that pit like a demon for Green Day,” he said.

The set was heavy on uptempo energy with “Blowback,” “Rattlesnakes” and “Slick Rick.” Guitarists Jacob Breeze and Nate Punty traded tight riffs, while bassist Mike Fenton held down the low end.

Helping feed the energy was utility man Jose-Luna Gonzalez, who jumped on electric instruments, jumped off of various stage pieces and played about as hardcore a tambourine as you’ll find at a rock show.

The band played material from its forthcoming album, including “Herberts on Holiday” and a track that will feature vocals by Sharon Van Etten.

Beach Bunny

The Chicago trio of singer-guitarist Lili Trifilio, drummer Jon Alvarado and guitarist Anthony Vaccaro was more than deserving of its growing crowd early in the day. Performing as a quintet, with Trifilio rocking a sparkly purple Stratocaster and singing in a voice that melded velvety and gravelly tones, Beach Bunny blasted through about 20 songs during an hourlong set. Opening with an exuberant “Cloud 9,” the band showed numerous influences like dance rock on “Mr. Predictable,” crunchy alt-rock on “Big Pink Bubble,” pop-punk on “Violence” and melodic grunge on “Ms. California.”

Attendees’ favorite line on the latter was clearly, “Everything’s better in California,” which got a loud cheer.

“Does Napa Valley like to mosh at all? Can we open up a pit, please?” Trifilio asked. And sure enough, 20 people quickly joined in, dancing counterclockwise in a circle during “Oxygen.”

Propulsive tune “Tunnel Vision” was another highlight thanks to its infectious guitar riff. So was the punky “Vertigo” and “Blame Game,” which offered several moments that got attendees revved up enough to clap or wave their arms in unison. Beach Bunny saved its most popular tune, “Prom Queen,” for the end.

Follow writer Mike DeWald at BlueSky. Follow publisher Daniel J. Willis at BlueSky. Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Bluesky. Follow photographer Steve Carlson at Instagram. Follow photographer Sean Liming at Instagram.