The National Lead A Glorious BottleRock Festival

As it has the last decade, summer festival season officially kicked off in style with Napa Valley’s beautiful BottleRock this past weekend. Over the Memorial Day weekend, 40,000 plus fans per day descended on Downtown Napa to see performances by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lizzo, Smashing Pumpkins, Duran Duran, Post Malone, Sheryl Crow, Danielle Ponder, Dogstar, Nile Rodgers & Chic, East Forest, Taj Mahal and more.

Being held in a city like Napa, famous for its wine and food (although for a foodie city Napa definitely needs to step up its vegan options in a major way — thankfully Don Giovanni Bistro and Tarla Mediterranean Grill answered the call with great meals and Wildseed in San Fran one of the best vegan meals ever had), food was a huge part of the festival.

BottleRock does an exceptional job, as good as any fest in America at this point, of creating a full vibe. Whether it was the culinary garden or the Williams Sonoma stage where top musicians, like Sammy Hagar, work with top chefs, like his longtime friend Jose Andres, or backstage in the artist area where they served everything from oysters and Mexican food to pizza and an overdose of candy, BottleRock is incredibly comfortable and easy, unlike some other festivals that feel like an endurance test. This is more of an adult festival.

That also shows up in the performances. This year saw several outstanding sets, with some of the absolute best coming from the showmanship of Lil Nas X; the otherworldly voice of the incredible Danielle Ponder, whose Saturday afternoon performance resonated through the streets of Downtown Napa; the crowd-pleasing hit-laden mix of Rodgers and Chic, and a superb trip down memory lane from Crow and her top-notch band. And of course, the Chili Peppers closing set Sunday night will go into lore like some of the great past BottleRock sets, most notably the late great Tom Petty, who remains the standard at the fest for me.

But the absolute pinnacle of the weekend had to be a mind-blowing set by The National, who, at this point, are one of the best live bands on the planet. More than 20 years into their career, the band have reached that Petty-like stage where they have so many great songs to draw upon. Thanks to the Taylor Swift love and their writing for others, The National have reached a new level of popularity. But for those of us who go back to seeing them at the Troubadour and The Echoplex back in the Aughts, we have always known they are among the best songwriters in rock.

That showed during their stunning performance Sunday. The list of highlights was insane — the beautiful vulnerability of the tender “I Need My Girl”; the rising horns of “Fake Empire”; the frenetic fury of “The Day I Die” and a stunning “Mr. November”; the inspired insanity of “Conversation 16,” where lead singer Matt Berninger looked straight into the camera as he screamed. “I was afraid I’d eat your brains,” and the majesty of “Mistaken For Strangers,” “England” and the closing “Terrible Love.”

As a live act, The National are at the peak of a Hall of Fame worthy career. This is a truly great band. One that has grown into being worthy successors to artists like R.E.M. and seeing them in a setting like this, one that is beautiful and lends itself to appreciating great music and not just being s**t-faced drunk or there to be cool, can create the type of legendary performance we saw Sunday. It’s what makes a great festival and a great band.