Cal Poly-born band Honeyboys is set to play Napa Valley’s BottleRock festival this May. The group is the first San Luis Obispo-based band to perform at the festival.
The band is among good company, with headliners Lil Nas X and Red Hot Chili Peppers performing on the final day of the 3-day festival.
Last May, Honeyboys played San Luis Obispo’s Shabang Live Music & Arts Festival, and now, a year later they have booked yet another sought-after spot on a festival lineup.
The band’s frontman, Ari Eisenburg, expressed that getting such competitive spots is all about networking any chance that you can get yourself around those also in the industry.
“This last BottleRock, I actually ended up working for [the festival], and so I had a connection with the talent buyer there,” Eisenburg said. “I worked on his team and I escorted artists from their tents to their performances.”
Eisenburg grew up in Napa, and the Honeyboys played a show there last year, where Eisenburg invited BottleRock’s talent buyer. The rest is history.
With this being the boys’ largest stage yet, the conversations have already started around how to work with that much stage as a performer and what they can do as a band to stick out.
The boys have been having some fun planning and experimenting with aesthetic ideas for the show — including some humorous elements. One idea is beekeeper outfits.
“All walking out on stage in those and then playing the first couple of songs in those and then stripping into different outfits,” Eisenburg said.
Drummer Matt Sato and bassist Nathan Stanley didn’t seem as convinced that full beekeeper ensembles will be a reality, but they were all smiles at the prospect of putting on an elaborate show. From dumping honey on themselves to playing with different props, Sato gave some insights into what playing on a bigger stage for the first time means logistically for them as a unit.
“One thing that goes along with playing on a bigger stage is that we are farther away from each other,” Sato said. “Hopefully we’ll have monitors where we can hear each other, but we are used to playing in close proximity.”
The Honeyboys planned to take spring break to fully develop the setlist and work on their stage presence.
It’s clear that the band’s main priority right now is the rehearsal for this brand-new experience they are preparing to conquer.
For updates on upcoming performances, check out @honeyboysmusic on Instagram.
