From The Pit To The Crowd: Welcome To Rockville Band Performance Times Review

The band performance times for Welcome To Rockville were released today and attendees are carefully reviewing to see which bands should they see that weekend. Realistically, it’s very hard to see a band’s full performance with the exception of the headliners for that day. Normally band performance times have overlaps and the stages aren’t close to each other in Metropolitan Park. So who should you go see while you’re there? Of course, that will be based on your personal preference in music. Let’s look at the lineup times day by day.

Friday, May 3rd

The day kicks off with the River Stage hosting Cleopatrick. It follows up with Dirty Honey over at the Monster Energy Stage and should be feasible to catch both bands if you’re fast on your feet. Demob Happy is probably your first overlap at 1:25 PM with Dirty Honey still playing or just wrapping up depending how long their set lasts. Amigo The Devil, who is also performing at the official pre-party on Thursday night, is the first up at the Metropolitan Stage at 1:50 PM. In the 2 PM range with Hands Like Houses and Wilson I’ll lean to catching Hands Like Houses performance. Within the 3 PM range you have a truly tough choice between Black Pistol Fire and Hyro The Hero. Here I’ll go check out Hyro The Hero as I’ve been really impressed with his latest single. By 4 PM you should have enough time, if you’re fast enough to make the hike, to catch most of both Beartooth and Tom Morello. You will have a hike over to the River stage at 5 PM to catch Mark Lanegan Band but a closer run over to the Metropolitan Stage immediately after to catch Killswitch Engage t 5:35 PM (do not miss them if you haven’t seen them yet). Your 6 PM choices might have an overlap with Circa Survive at the River Stage at 6:10 PM and Flogging Molly at the Monster Energy Stage at 6:30 PM. I’ll go with Flogging Molly and recommend anyone else to do the same. The Celtic rock band is amazing live and knows how to keep the fans energized. By that point it’s a back and forth between Monster Energy Stage and Metropoliton Stage to close out the reset of the show. I’m looking forward to seeing Evanescence hit the stage since I missed them on their most recent tour.

Saturday, May 4th

Saturday starts us off a little later than Friday with Crobot kicking it off at the Metropolitan Stage. This is a must see performance with this grooving rock band I caught at Chicago Open Air 2017. Your first true overlap comes at the late 1 PM hour between Boston Manor and Dead Girls Academy. I’ll go with Boston Manor not having seen them yet. The 3 PM house has a tough decision between The Damned Things at 2:55 PM or Movements at 3 PM. For me, this is a truly tough decision as I think both bands are stellar. I’ll lean towards Movements but may change my mind day off the show. And you should be able to catch Tremonti at 3:30 PM no matter who you choose. The 4 PM hour makes me sad on the overlap between Wage War at 4:05 PM and Black Label Society at 4:10 PM. These are two bands who are both worth seeing and I’ve never had the chance to see either one. Most likely I’ll choose Black Label Society to see Mr. Zakk Wylde perform. The 5 PM decision between Zeal & Ardor at 5:25 PM at the River Stage and In This Moment at 5:35 PM at the Monster Energy Stage for me goes to Zeal & Ardor only because I’ve seen In This Moment multiple times last year. If you’ve never seen In This Moment, then I’d recommend seeing their amazing performance. From that point on you should be able to see the rest of the arists for the evening. I’m truly looking forward to seeing Judas Priest again after seeing their show in Jacksonville in 2018.

Sunday, May 5th

Sunday throws an overlap from the opening of the day. You have Hyde at the Monster Energy Stage and Shvpes at the River Stage both at 12 PM. I’ll lean towards Shvpes on this one. Your next overlap is at 1 PM between The Glorious Sons at the Monster Energy Stage and While She Sleeps at the River Stage. Another tough call and I’ll lean towards While She Sleeps. The 2 PM hour overlaps between Grandson at 2 PM and Yungblud at 2:05 PM. Two good bands and if I had to choose I’d go with Grandson. At 3 PM time frame you have Architects at the River Stage and Fever 333 at the Monster Energy Stage. No offense to Architects, but this is a no brainer with seeing Fever 333. Last year they performed on the River Stage and blew the crowd away, especially when vocalist Jason Aalon Butler literally climbed and performed from up there. I can only imagine what he’ll do on the bigger Monster Energy Stage. For the rest of the day you should be able to catch all the bands with maybe missing a few minutes of each set as you travel from stage to stage. I highly recommend seeing The Struts at 3:35 PM with their high energy performance. I’m concerned that Meshuggah is playing the River Stage because I believe there will be thousands of people crowded in that area to see them. And if you’ve never seen them yet, you must. I’m also looking forward to seeing Papa Roach at 5:40 PM at the Metropolitan Stage and Bring Me The Horizon at 6:40 PM at the Monster Energy Stage. Note that Sunday wraps up early with Tool going on at 8:35 PM.

In the end, you’ll definitely want to have a plan going into each day knowing what artists you intend to see perform. And if you never been to Welcome To Rockville before, I’ve included the map from the official Welcome To Rockville website so you get an idea of where each of the stages is in relation to the other. Note the distances between them are not close and wear comfortable walking shoes!