NAPA, CALIFORNIA — The set started fifteen minutes late. BottleRock runs on a tightly controlled schedule, and by the time Sombr reached the end of his Sunday evening slot, the festival clock was closing in on the biggest songs of his young career. He refused to leave them unplayed.
That fight against the clock — reported by the San Francisco Chronicle as one of the most talked-about moments of the day — turned the end of the show into a suspenseful, chaotic sprint. And it fit him perfectly.
CelebnMusic247 was there — and Sombr absolutely delivered.
Sombr Came to BottleRock Ready to Make a Statement
BottleRock Napa Valley 2026 saved one of its biggest breakout moments for Day Three.
Sombr wasn’t performing in an easy position. He was scheduled on the Prudential Stage at 6:15 p.m. Sunday, May 24, immediately before the night’s massive Backstreet Boys headlining set. The Sunday Prudential lineup also included Kool & the Gang and Mt. Joy. That meant thousands of festivalgoers were already gathering around one of Bottlerock’s biggest stages.
Sombr didn’t seem intimidated. If anything, he fed off it.
The 20-year-old singer-songwriter, born Shane Michael Boose, hit the stage in bold red pants and a cropped black leather jacket, immediately commanding attention with the swagger of an artist whose career has exploded in a remarkably short amount of time. Other festival coverage similarly noted the enormous turnout, with SoundcheckSF describing Sombr’s audience as one of the largest daytime crowds at the Prudential Stage.
He reportedly arrived roughly 15 minutes behind schedule before launching directly into “Homewrecker,” and from there, the performance took off. His lanky frame seemed almost incapable of standing still. He paced, twisted, danced and worked the stage with a wired microphone, at times using the cord itself as part of his movements.
There was a sense of unpredictability surrounding the entire performance. You didn’t quite know what Sombr was going to do next. And that’s exactly what made him so entertaining.
The Crowd Knew EVERY Word
Perhaps the biggest indication of Sombr’s rapidly growing popularity wasn’t what happened onstage. It was what was happening in front of it.
Fans knew the songs. Not just the biggest hits. They were singing along throughout the performance, with “Undressed” and “I Wish I Knew How to Quit You” generating particularly enthusiastic responses according to other on-site coverage.
That’s an important distinction for an artist at Sombr’s stage of his career. There’s a difference between having a viral song and having fans. At BottleRock, Sombr appeared to have the latter.
A Setlist Packed With Fan Favorites — and One Big Surprise
Sombr opened with “Homewrecker” before moving through this setlist:
- “we never dated”
- “come closer”
- “perfume”
- “i wish i knew how to quit you”
- “undressed”
- “Potential”
- “crushing”
- “do i ever cross your mind”
Then came one of the more unexpected moments of the performance: Radiohead. Sombr performed a cover of “Fake Plastic Trees,” showing another side of his musical personality before finishing the show with two of his biggest crowd favorites: “back to friends” and “12 to 12.”
The Radiohead cover wasn’t a random choice. Sombr has incorporated “Fake Plastic Trees” into other 2026 performances, including his Coachella set in April. At BottleRock, it provided a welcome change of pace: the crowd got the high-energy Sombr they’d come to see, but the cover also highlighted the more vulnerable, emotionally exposed side of his voice. And that contrast is a big part of his appeal.
One interesting discrepancy: a fan recording lists “would’ve been you” as part of the planned set, while Setlist.fm notes that it appeared on the written setlist but ultimately wasn’t performed.
“Back to Friends” Created One of the Biggest Reactions
Then came the song many fans had been waiting for: “back to friends.”
Sombr introduced it at BottleRock as a song he wrote when he was around 18 or 19 and described it as the track that changed his life. You could understand why. “back to friends,” along with “Undressed,” helped accelerate Sombr’s rise from online discovery to genuine festival attraction — and when thousands of people are singing words back to an artist who is only 20 years old, you’re watching something special happen.
“If his rise continues at this pace, the next time Sombr comes to BottleRock… he may not be playing before the headliner.”
From Streaming Breakout to Festival Force
What makes Sombr’s BottleRock performance even more impressive is how quickly all of this has happened.
His 2025 debut album, I Barely Know Her, followed the breakthrough success of songs including “back to friends” and “Undressed,” helping transform him into one of pop and alternative music’s fastest-rising young performers. And by spring 2026, he wasn’t simply performing club shows. He was appearing at Coachella, where his April 18 set included “Homewrecker,” “Undressed,” “Potential,” “back to friends” and “12 to 12,” plus a performance of Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without a Face” featuring Billy Idol and Steve Stevens.
Then came BottleRock. And just one day after his Napa performance, Sombr appeared at the 2026 American Music Awards, where he performed “Homewrecker.” That’s quite a three-day stretch.
BottleRock Was the Perfect Setting
BottleRock has always been an unusual festival because it doesn’t force audiences into one musical lane. The 2026 festival ran May 22–24 at the Napa Valley Expo, featuring more than 75 artists across five stages alongside Napa Valley food, wine, cocktails and celebrity culinary appearances. Attendance was estimated at roughly 45,000 people per day during the sold-out weekend.
Sunday alone offered an enormous stylistic range. Kool & the Gang delivered their catalog of funk and disco classics. Ludacris brought hip-hop hits to the T-Mobile Stage. And the Backstreet Boys ultimately closed the festival with a nostalgia-heavy headlining performance.
Sombr represented something different: the next generation. And that made his performance stand out.
CelebnMusic247 Take: Sombr Was One of BottleRock’s Must-See Acts
BottleRock 2026 had legends. It had nostalgia. It had established superstars. But festivals are also about discovering who’s coming next — and Sombr looked like someone who’s ready for a much bigger stage.
What impressed us most wasn’t simply his voice or his catalog. It was his connection with the audience. He talked to them. He joked with them. He moved constantly. He gave them emotion. And when it looked like the clock might prevent him from finishing the way he wanted? He fought to give the crowd its payoff.
There’s still something raw about Sombr as a performer, and we’d argue that’s part of what makes him exciting right now. He doesn’t come across as though he’s been manufactured into a perfectly controlled pop star. He’s unpredictable. He’s emotional. He’s theatrical. And he’s clearly having fun discovering just how big these crowds are becoming.
BottleRock gave us Backstreet Boys, Foo Fighters, Lorde, Kool & the Gang and an entire weekend of established talent. But Sombr walked away with something arguably even more valuable: he made people feel like they were watching a future headliner before he officially became one.
Gigi
CelebnMusic247
Journalist
Tour Update (October 2026): Gigi wrote above that the next time Sombr comes to BottleRock, he may not be playing before the headliner — and that future has already arrived. His first arena headline run, the You Are The Reason Tour, opens October 24 in Sunrise, Florida, and rolls through Orlando (October 25), Nashville (October 28), Chicago (November 4, United Center), Detroit (November 7), Washington, DC (November 10), Toronto (November 16), Boston (November 18) and two nights at Madison Square Garden (November 23–24), with Jingle Ball stops in December. The tour goes worldwide in 2027 — Mexico City in January, Auckland in April, and a European arena leg in May and June that includes five nights at London’s O2. Tickets via Ticketmaster.
