E-40 performs at BottleRock Napa Valley at the Napa Valley Expo on May 26, 2018. Chloe Catajan/STAFF.

As you read this, assuming you’re reading this on Saturday, I’m at BottleRock Napa. I know. I keep swearing off festival coverage on account of my increasingly useless corporeal form falling apart faster than a Russian tank trying to go over a speed bump, but I’m at it again.

Obviously, I’m going to take the easy way out and do a column of BottleRock acts, but since Friday is already behind us I can’t include Metallica. To remedy this tragedy, feel free to watch this video of their first-ever live performance of “Fixxxer” from their first 40th anniversary show. Ahhh, that’s the stuff. Still gives me chills six months later.

With that out of the way, here are some acts I like who will be playing Bottlerock today or tomorrow. If you’re there check them out.

Mount Westmore — “Big Subwoofer”

Mount Westmore is a sort of underground rap group. So far, they’ve only released three singles. But they’re generating a lot of buzz. It’s made up of two rappers from Oakland, Too Short and E-40; and two rappers from the Los Angeles area, Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube. You probably haven’t heard of them.

The good news is these four absolute legends have the last spot on Saturday’s schedule. The bad news is their set is on the second-largest stage, with the big stage going to Twenty One Pilots. This is—let’s be real for a second—absurd. For one thing, 21 is far too many pilots, and it shows. Second, their music isn’t very good.

Anyway, tonight I’m seeing those four rappers. At the same time. Don’t be too jealous.

Tom Morello and grandson — “Hold the Line”

Grandson is the one at the festival, not Tom Morello, but this was my first exposure to him and also one of my top songs of 2021, so I used this as the video. If you don’t like it, get your own column.

I realize I’m a little behind the times if I just discovered him because of Tom Morello. After all, our very own Mike DeWald had covered one of his shows in 2019 as well as interviewed him for his podcast and interviewed him again recently ahead of his Sunday set. But in my defense, new music that’s not Fantastic Negrito (whose set was yesterday) or Ghost is not generally my jam.

Anyway, he’s good! You should listen to his stuff. After all, he’s Tom-Morello-approved.

Moonalice — “Time Has Come Today”

Yes, Moonalice was basically founded as a vanity project by a billionaire venture capital investor after his previous band with other rich tech guys broke up. Let’s face it, that can be a bit of a turn-off. Astoundingly, though, they’re good! [Gokhman note: This is the kind of oversimplification that leads to wrong assumptions. I’ll start with one correction: The frontman of this band is now Lester Chambers of the Chambers Brothers, which is why you’re listening to that song above].

I mean, honestly, it’s not that astounding. It’s a bunch of excellent musicians from the ’60s and ’70s playing throwback music from that era—that’s bound to be pretty great. Yeah, their frontman is a rich guy, but the rest of their chops hold up.

Unfortunately, I won’t be seeing them because they’re scheduled against Mount Westmore. Though admittedly if Dr. Dre makes an appearance, they will also include a billionaire.

Bahamas — “Don’t You Want Me”

I saw Bahamas at Outside Lands in 2018 and he was pretty great. His voice is amazing and compelling, and his largely chill-out set is a great contrast to usual festival fare. I highly recommend checking him out.

That said, probably listen to his stuff first. His OSL set was pretty funny in that a bunch of people showed up expecting something light and tropical and got his baritone, so they wandered away a song or two in. Then, as the set went on, a totally different group of people showed up and seemed to really dig it. The name does not exactly give an accurate idea of what you’re going to get.

Metallica — “No Remorse”

I included a Metallica song after all.

To everyone who saw Metallica’s set last night, I obviously don’t know how it went because I’m writing this days ago, but please be aware that I hate you. I hate you so much. I hope you enjoyed it of course, and I hope you gave the band the audience they so richly deserve, but also I hate you.

Just wanted to let you know. You jerks.

Follow editor Daniel J. Willis and tweet column ideas to him at Twitter.com/BayAreaData.