1

So Pearl Jam has left the stage and I’m standing by the soundboard talking to Dave Graham, one of the three majordomos of Bottlerock, and these two guys approach us, shake our hands and then all three start speaking Spanish. I was stunned that Dave was fluent, I was catching an occasional word from my high school days, but mostly I was beatifically assessing the departing multitudes.

But this white-haired guy, he asks me where I’m from, I say L.A. and then ask him where he’s located. He says Washington, D.C., which is very odd for someone in the rock and roll business. Oh, did I mention that next weekend the Bottlerock guys are doing a Latin festival? I thought these two were their partners. Makes sense, right? But D.C. did not. So that was the end of the conversation. Well, I asked him why he lived in D.C. and he gave me a stare that I decided I was best not responding to.

After five minutes went by, we’re waiting for Pearl Jam to clear out backstage, we started walking towards the Latitude 38 pavilion right outside the grounds of the festival, this is the backstage for the fans of the promoter.

So we’re walking down the fenced-in gauntlet towards the stage and this white-haired guy wants to talk about me. Like maybe he knows who I am? This is hard for me to believe, but I just play along.

And then he says he’s opening two new restaurants in L.A. and I’ve got to come. And that’s when I realize this white-haired guy is JOSÉ ANDRÉS!

And now I’m embarrassed, I don’t want to look like a total schlemiel, so I tell José I ate at his restaurant in the Hotel Nikko, and how great it was, and it was! And now José starts telling me the history, how the dining spot is now closed, but we’ve still got a while before we reach the exit, and he’s right by me, and once again, I’m trying not to look like a complete imbecile, am I the only person who doesn’t recognize this guy? So I ask José about Gaza.

Whereupon he stops, puts his arm around my shoulder, and tells me he lost seven people there. I KNOW!

And then he starts talking about writing for “Haaretz.” About doing an editorial for them. And I’m not quite following, thinking this guy is asking me to write an editorial? I mean does he really know who I am? But then it’s clear that he’s talking about an editorial HE wrote for “Haaretz.” And that I should read it.

Meanwhile, he doesn’t take his arm from my shoulder.

But I am Gaza-fluent. And this guy was there. José told me how he flew to Israel right after October 7th, and how horrible the attack was. But now he was concerned with Israel’s response.

And now we’re in a full-blown discussion. Which lasts until we get to the Latitude 38 compound. And we stand outside talking until they implore us to come inside, where we stand by the pizza station and José starts scarfing slices, which kind of amazes me, because this guy isn’t overweight in the least.

And people are coming up to get José’s attention but he’s not taking his eyes off me. And I’m completely confused, why is José so interested in talking to ME?

I figure he’s going to drop off any minute now, to just hang in until then. But an hour goes by. I’m kind of pinching myself. José Andrés wants to spend all this time with ME?

And José’s main position is the war needs to stop. Hamas has to give back the hostages, and then Israel needs to invest in Gaza. José says only a long term solution will work. And it strikes me that he is on the right track more than Biden or Tom Friedman, who keep on insisting on a two-state solution that has been rejected time and again by the Palestinians.

But José thinks that Saudi Arabia and Jordan can broker peace, that it’s in their interest.

But will Hamas ever give up the hostages?

We both agree they won’t, but Andrés thinks Hamas can’t be eradicated by the Israelis anyway. As far as the polls showing Gazan support for Hamas… José tells me the numbers are wrong, Gazans are afraid to come out against Hamas for fear of retaliation.

And all of José’s ideas are good. But I tell him we need a leader, someone to step in and broker peace. José starts talking about the U.N., but that body’s neutrality has left the station.

And eventually I shift gears to Ukraine, where José has been too, and then it strikes me, when it comes to these conflicts, especially Gaza, no one has as high a profile as he does other than Biden and Netanyahu. I tell José his status, his power, which he doesn’t believe, probably because he’s in the eye of the hurricane.

And he says the protests on campus are a small minority.

But I say they have made Biden blink.

And finally, it’s too much. I’m just some schlepper and José Andrés is spending all this time with ME?

So I make statement about setting him free to talk to other people, and eventually we break up the confab.

Until half an hour later, when just before he leaves, José comes over to where I’m sitting, puts his hand on my back, looks me straight in the eye, and testifies as to our bond and tells me to be sure to spread the word on what he thinks.

WHEW!

2

Which made up for my experience in the Latitude 38 compound just before Pearl Jam hit the stage.

I got a Diet Coke from the bartender, there’s only a fifty foot walk between me and the exit, to freedom, and who do I see blocking my way?

Pete Yorn. And his brother Rick. And Ross Zapin. And they want to talk about how I dissed Pete earlier in the day.

And now I’m mortified. Pete was cool, yet his brother and Ross were not. They kept needling me, pushing me. And then they force me to say what the problem was, why I dissed Pete.

I told them he was doing a rock show on a big stage when his act was more intimate. I’m just trying to navigate, trying to escape.

But that’s not enough. “Did I see the whole show?” They want to go deep.

And now I’m saying that if I only write positive things I’ll lose my credibility, and it made no sense to step on the undercard acts that weren’t going anywhere anyway.

But it still wasn’t enough. Once again, I must stress that Pete himself was cool. We were having a discussion creator to creator, artist to artist, but his bodyguards…

And now I can’t see any way out of this. So I wind up and I tell them that this was my opinion… And I can see in their eyes this is not resonating, believing I was doubling-down, but then I said that I wasn’t necessarily right, which seemed to satisfy them, bring on some smiles, but WHEW!

3

I got there in time to see Holly Humberstone. I was kind of shocked how young she was. Video online is one thing, real life is another. But she was playing the guitar and it was all really good. Her band was together. There were no airs. I was wondering if she was a one hit wonder, but she is not, at least in my eyes.

As for My Morning Jacket… I finally get it. You’ve got to see them live. They’re incredibly tight and powerful.

Now in the old days, and I’m talking about back to 1968, when FM underground rock began, it was all about having that one track that crossed over, to AM, the mainstream, that lifted the boat of the act, that broadened their career, that made them legendary. As big as the Allman Brothers were after “Fillmore East,” and they were really big, it wasn’t until two years later and “Ramblin’ Man” that they became ubiquitous.

And Cream was a cult band until “Sunshine of Your Love” crossed over.

But there’s no crossing over for rock bands today, even if you write a track that might have crossed over in the past. Oftentimes an act could only do it once, but once was enough.

So I haven’t heard a crossover song from My Morning Jacket, if one even exists, but it doesn’t matter. This band is earning its living on the road. And one show and you’re a fan.

As for T-Pain… That was kind of astounding. Are that many people interested in Mr. Auto-Tune?

I mean it’s just him and a deejay. But he lights up the crowd IMMEDIATELY! They’re waving their hands in the air, they’re really into it, as if a whole band on stage was in overdrive, but there wasn’t, just the deejay and T-Pain.

As for Pearl Jam…

It’s a Gen-X thing, and I’m a boomer. They had the audience in the palm of their hand. But can I be a heretic and ask where all the memorable songs are? And can I say that Eddie Vedder bugs me?

But having said that, Mike McCready is amazing, the element that pushes Pearl Jam over the top. I can see why Mother Love Bone never made it, he was not in it. As for Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard…they are rock solid. And Matt Cameron too.

I guess that article in “Rolling Stone”… No one remembers this stuff anymore, like the exposé on Jerry Lee Lewis, he was anything but a hero. And when Pearl Jam blew up Eddie Vedder wouldn’t do an interview so the magazine decided to do the story without him. And it was a complete contradiction of the crap he’d been spewing. He was not some isolated loner, but the most popular guy in his high school. Wow, let me dig the hole a little deeper…the MOUSTACHE? He’s a man, he’s entitled, but it doesn’t ring true on his baby face.

As for the duet with Bradley Cooper… The guy’s a movie star, what has that got to do with Pearl Jam? Considered to be the most credible act of the weekend, everybody was buzzing, they couldn’t wait to see them, they were jamming to them, but I…

Left in the middle to go see Tower of Power.

Now let me tell you this… If Tower of Power had been on the main stage heads would have blown off, they’re just that powerful, just that good. And new frontman Jordan John is akin to Arnel in Journey. But John’s voice is even better, and he can play too!

And when that five man brass section starts to play… You remember from “Waiting For Columbus,” THE TOWER OF POWER HORNS! Ah, now that was a number, Little Feat’s “Spanish Moon.” Tower of Power is funky in a way that Pearl Jam is not.

Not that I don’t respect Pearl Jam. But when I sauntered over to the Prudential Stage to see Tower of Power, I fell into the groove immediately. With a small scrum of others.

And then I went over to the Verizon stage to see Kali Uchis. I didn’t get it at all. Big production, very twenty first century, dancers, a set, the whole thing. I guess for me the music is enough when done right, but I stayed for a few numbers and I never got it.

So I went back to Tower of Power and I timed it perfectly, they started introducing the one number I needed to hear, “What Is Hip?”

“So ya wanna dump out yo’ trick bag

Ease on in a hip thang

But you ain’t exactly sure what is hip

So you started to let your hair grow

Spent big bucks on your wardrobe

Somehow, ya know there’s much more to the trip”

When everybody grew their hair out in college, I cut mine off. When everbody bought a leisure suit, I did not. Hip is on the inside, never forget it.

“You became a part of a new breed

Been smokin’ only the best weed

Hangin’ out with the so called ‘Hippie set’

Seen in all the right places

Seen with just the right faces

You should be satisfied, but it ain’t quite right”

Now more than ever, in the days of Instagram. Where you’ve been, who you’ve hung with, once again, it’s all about the exterior, and it seems the rich are the worst offenders.

“You went an’ found you a guru

In an effort to find you a new you

And maybe even raise your conscious level

While you’re striving to find the right road

There’s one thing you should know

‘What’s hip today, might become passé”

Ain’t that the truth. Are you a follower or a leader? We need more of the latter.

And R&B is forever.

But then I cut out to catch the end of Pearl Jam, who are legendary for inserting covers in their encores. But I missed the one song I needed to hear, “Last Kiss.”

But you can’t do it all. The sooner you learn that the better. Life is about surprises.

Until then…

Pearl Jam ended with “Rockin’ in the Free World.”

All these years later and Neil Young is still the oracle.

Looks like we’re never going to get back to the garden. What Neil and Stephen and Joni and the rest were doing… That was more than entertainment, that was the pulse of life and the culture. And those songs live on, but unless you were there you’ve got no idea of their power. If you wanted to know which way the wind blew, you listened to a record. Can you imagine listening to Ariana Grande? Or Justin Timberlake? Both of whom are hit-dependent, there are a limited number of hard core fans, their recent projects tanked, no matter what the hype.

And hip-hop used to be the sound of the streets. Now it’s all about a trumped up rap war. Kind of a cartoon, don’t you think?

But our music used to be dead serious. Oh, there was humor and attitude, but that brings us back to the question of the day…

WHAT IS HIP?

P.S. It’s Grace BOWERS, not POWERS!

“You in the moonlight

With your sleepy eyes

Could you ever love a man like me”

This was the highlight of the day. Stevie Nicks started talking about needing someone to sing “Leather and Lace” with her, and then said her vocal coach Steve Real was in attendance.

“I need you to love me

I need you today

Give me to your leather

Take from me my lace”

And now it’s Don Henley’s turn. You remember the original from the second side of “Bella Donna,” released just four days before MTV launched, right?

Well, many in attendance came of age long after MTV stopped showing videos.

And this is a NorCal crowd, which is different from a SoCal crowd. In SoCal image is everything, how you look is most important. So everybody does their best to diet down and look good. But in the rest of the world it is not this way. In the rest of the world the people are normal, and what’s on the inside counts more than the exterior. Like in Northern California.

And the east coast. But California is a different mentality. California is about freedom. You’re three hours behind New York, everybody’s up and at ’em before you’ve even had your coffee. So you let go and focus on your surroundings as opposed to the hustle and bustle of America.

Sure, Silicon Valley is in California. But that was founded by nerds. The nerd uniform is t-shirts and jeans. It’s about undermining society as opposed to accepting it. Which California has done from time immemorial. Whether it be the movies or the San Francisco Sound of the late sixties, with the Airplane, the Dead and so many more. You can feel it in the air.

Actually, I saw an Instagram Reel wherein the San Diego resident went to South Carolina for work and was asked by a college graduate about the $25 hamburgers, and how she coped with all the trans kids on her son’s baseball team. Live outside the Golden State and you’re led to believe it’s a hellhole. But it’s not, and that’s our little secret.

So Bottlerock is held in Napa, the epicenter of California wine country. But I don’t drink. Well, I used to drink, but that’s a long story. Which is all to say I’m not Napa-fluent. But I got on the JSX flight in Burbank and landed in Concord and it was like getting a vibe transplant. Southern California is mountains and desert, it’s brown. But up here there are rolling hills of gold, which is I guess where they got the state’s moniker from. It’s a different feel. Hell, we’ve got everything in California, from the mountains to the lakes and… Sure, we might have a lot of regulation, but wouldn’t you rather be safe than rich? And traffic sucks, but it sucks in your town now too. While everybody was banking their profits infrastructure has lain dormant. And you can get an abortion here too. Hate all you want, but not only is there no place I’d rather live, if MAGA wins, I’m safe, how about you?

Whew! That was a rant. But it’s all to say Bottlerock ain’t Coachella, a fest for young Angelenos to show their wares, and it’s not the Governors Ball, where you might get rained out. However, it ain’t hot here. Memorial Day weekend usually is not. In SoCal the hottest months are August and September. It dips down into the fifties before the last act leaves the stage. But they’ve got lockers for the extra clothing you bring for warmth. You see Bottlerock is uber-CIVILIZED!

Your conception of a festival? Wherein people push and shove and you’re worn out at the end of the day, that ain’t Bottlerock. You won’t leave hating humanity. There’s room to move around. Although I did get into a scrum trying to go from the Culinary Stage to VIP. I thought this was a harbinger of things to come. Because it was now late in the afternoon, maybe it just took this long for people to arrive. But no, it turned out that everybody needed to get a peek at Cameron Diaz. Musicians may have more gravitas, but the hoi polloi rarely get to see a movie star up close and personal. Well, kinda close anyway, you could see her on the big screen.

And the Culinary Stage is one of the best features of Bottlerock. I watched chef Aaron May cook Beef Wellington with Patrick Hallahan of My Morning Jacket while the USC Marching Band came out and played their signature song, the Fleetwood Mac hit, “Tusk.”

And although Bottlerock is all about VIP, unlike with many festivals if you’re not, if you don’t want to pony up extra, you don’t feel left out. But you’d better bring cash…er, load up your wristband…because the food offerings are delectable. Nearly as exciting as the music.

As for the music, I got there early, I wanted to see 17 year old guitar phenom Grace Powers. There weren’t many in attendance before one, but if you were there you could have closed your eyes and thought it was the late sixties. Yes, the blues rock/extended solos of yore. Making me think how it’s no longer about recordings, it’s how good you are on the road, that’s where you prove your mettle. You tour and tour and hopefully build a fan base. Whereas the hit parade is a different game, you might fly up the Spotify chart but when it comes to selling tickets…few may want to buy.

I then walked over to see this guy Boywithuke on the Verizon stage, the second biggest. The music coming through the speakers was really good, but there was only one guy on stage. And he was wearing a mask a la Deadmau5 and Marshmello. And that’s when I decided to Shazam the tunes. And they came right up. And this doesn’t happen if the music is live.

And there were deejays and rappers, which is all to say every nook and cranny of music was covered. Then again, this was the undercard. You need stars to draw the customers in.

One was Bebe Rexha. Who came out with two backup dancers and delivered until…I realized a lot of her show was on hard drive. Didn’t seem to bug the audience, but can’t say I was satisfied, I moved on to see Miike Snow.

Or maybe it was All Time Low.

But my experience for both was the same. In that over time I got into it. I mean All Time Low is an act from the Warped Tour, two decades ago. And the lead singer kept referencing this. And my stomach turned when the other axeman started dropping f-bombs and… I had to laugh. You’re pushing forty and still acting like an adolescent. But despite the dated vocals, even the new tunes resonated. Which I didn’t expect.

Miike Snow I expected to like more from the beginning. But it took them a while to find their groove. Swedish electronic music blended with regular rock…it’s a worldwide business these days.

Not everybody was memorable. Pete Yorn… Can I say that he was never quite good enough, not distinctive enough in songwriting or vocals to be beloved by many? I know people hate when I diss their favorites, but most of the time at festivals only a few acts are your favorites, otherwise you’re grazing, and if someone doesn’t resonate soon, you move on.

Speaking of which I’d have to say the musical highlight was St. Vincent, who I’d only seen once before, at the Hollywood Bowl as part of a multi-act show. I can’t say I’m familiar with her material, but I stayed and listened to every note. I got it. As for the performance…she was slinking and posing and it worked, but all this is to say that’s usually more of an indoor performance. St. Vincent has a seventies sensibility. And I’ll admit I’m sick of reading about her, but I was more than pleasantly surprised by her performance.

You see hype doesn’t matter at a festival. When you play indoors it’s to fans only. Outdoors…you have to prove it. Most people are not there to see you, can you win them over? If so, you’re on your way. But it’s a long, hard road. There’s magic, you can be adored by people, but you can also starve. And when you’re not on stage you’re traveling with the same people and not getting enough sleep and it becomes a grind very quickly.

Yes, there are two music businesses. Live and recordings. It used to be that everything trickled down from recordings, that’s no longer true. Used to be we all knew the same hits, that too is untrue. But I did see women mouthing the lyrics to St. Vincent’s songs.

So what you do at Bottlerock is circulate. And there are only 40,000 people, which sounds like a lot, but it isn’t. And if you’ve got some kind of VIP credential, you circle back there as home base, for the elbow room, for the better bathrooms. And if you’re lucky enough to have platinum…

I have a hard time with people waiting on me. I have a hard time with servants. And in the platinum lounge there are servers passing delicacies and I can see the economic disparity between them and the consumers.

Then again, we live in a capitalistic democracy. You get to choose how to spend your money. Not everybody who is living it up is truly rich, this may be their one extravagance, and your server could be a college student about to set the world on fire. But still… It’s hard for me to feel special.

But in platinum there’s endless delicacies. From shrimp to shu mai, which I found to be the highlight of the day.

And there’s a cornucopia of snacks to take on your travels. Is it the trail mix that just caused one of my teeth to fall out? I don’t know if I can afford getting old. I invested thousands less than a year ago saving that tooth, now I’m going to have to add that to the bill for an implant? I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t upset, but I’m trying to not get depressed, it’s just not worth it, this is the nature of life, good things happen and then bad. And then the reverse. But it’s not always so easy to hold your head up, as Argent sang.

So the two big headliners last night were Megan Thee Stallion and Ms. Nicks. I really would have liked to have seen Megan, but given the choice I had to go for royalty.

That’s right, they’re minting almost no new royalty. Or should I say it used to be different. Or should I say everybody in attendance could sing “Rhiannon,” the young as well as the old.

And I’m watching Stevie perform and I can’t stop thinking about the days gone by. The sixties were a revolution, the seventies were a victory lap. But music ruled the world. Music does not rule the world these days. Furthermore, we don’t have universal hits, despite what the industry and media want you to believe. If you were alive in ’75, you knew “Rhiannon.” And ultimately every lick of “Rumours” thereafter. We don’t have that equivalent today. Period.

And Lindsey Buckingham may have squeezed himself out, but Fleetwood Mac is no more anyway. Because Stevie doesn’t need the rest to sell tickets and Christine is gone. Actually, that was a moment of gravitas. The pictures of Christine on the big screen as Stevie sang. I felt the loss. The records remain, but the person is gone. It’s done, finito. But when you saw the pictures from the seventies, of Christine in the plane, laughing, you remembered when rock truly was royalty, and it was all about living outside the system and having fun, making money all the while. The corporation was the enemy, you existed in your own plane (literally and figuratively). And there were no billionaires, you didn’t need more money, you were as rich as anybody in America, whereas today’s players are all chasing that corporate cash.

And it took a bit for Stevie’s act to come together. Maybe it was the fact that she started while it was still light, which is anathema to rock and roll.

She shocked me by starting with “Rock and Roll,” the Zeppelin track on the flip side of the single of “Black Dog” in the jukebox at Tony’s Pizza in Middlebury, Vermont. Not only did Led Zeppelin never get any respect, they were kept at arm’s length by the rest of the business. Nicks singing “Rock and Roll” showed how deeply Zeppelin truly penetrated, it’s hard to believe three members of the group are still alive.

And speaking of dead, Nicks paid tribute to Tom Petty and you felt the loss. Now that he’s gone Petty’s shadow looms large, he made it seem simple, but no one else could do straight ahead rock in his era as well as he did. And unlike so many of the legends, Petty never sold out, he was a true believer.

But it was “Leather and Lace” that made me swoon.

You know, the moment when Don Henley comes in, and then the two duet. The initial hit was “Edge of Seventeen,” which I never loved, yet it was phenomenal last night. But nothing could be as good as “Leather and Lace.”

How do we set the scene. This was at the dawn of the eighties. The boomers had not yet sold out. They still had their old values, where what was inside mattered most, you wore your jeans each and every day. People were falling in love, they were pairing up.

“But I carry this feeling

When you walked into my house

That you wouldn’t be walking out the door

Still I carry this feeling

When you walked into my house

That you won’t be walking out the door”

Sure, Stevie Nicks is a great songwriter, but her voice is distinctive.

And so is Don Henley’s. You know it immediately.

But Henley wasn’t in attendance last night. This guy Steve Real was. Standing next to Stevie, waiting his turn. And when he stepped up to the mic with is pure voice, not expected from this beefy guy, the audience audibly swooned, as did I. I just got goosebumps writing that.

So it’s the same as it ever was. I’m standing there, wondering if the good times are gone, wondering if everything is just a dash for cash, and then there’s this pure musical moment that transcends the rest of life, that is life itself.

“Lovers forever, face to face

My city, your mountains

Stay with me, stay

I need you to love me

I need you today

Give to me your leather

Take from me my lace”

Tune in Saturday May 25th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz

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