From The Pit To The Crowd: Welcome To Rockville Day 3 – Metropolitan Park – Jacksonville FL – May 5, 2019

Photo by Talon Kane Photography

After a beautiful day on Saturday, May 4th, fans were hoping for a repeat performance. Welcome To Rockville Day 3 instead started off with a delayed opening due to severe weather that was supposed to hit the Metropolitan Park in Jacksonville, FL. Gates were pushed back to open at 12 PM and fans were asked to stay in their cars. Another announcement came due to the severe weather the doors would not open at 12 PM and to stay in your vehicles. Around 12 PM the weather wreaked havoc over Metropolitan Park. Lightning, downpouring rain, and heavy winds forced the festival staff to seek shelter and threatened the festival day to continue. The storm passed sometime after 1 PM but the gates were still kept closed due to some clean up that needed to occur before fans could be let into the park and due to lightning still in the area. Danny Wimmer Presents worked with Mayor Lenny Curry to extend the noise ordinance curfew so the majority of the artists could still perform that day. The doors were tentatively scheduled to re-open at 3:30 PM and a new setlist time would be announced. Unfortunately, a few of the opening acts were canceled but the show would go on!

Grandson kicked the day off over at the River Stage while Yungblud played at the Monster Energy stage. Reignwolf kicked off right after Grandson on the Metropolitan Stage and from the talk of the crowd were a huge hit with the fans. Architects followed after Reignwolf over at the River Stage, but I decided to head over to the Monster Energy stage to see one of my favorites Fever 333. The band last year played on the River Stage to a smaller crowd and provided an insane performance with vocalist Jason Aalon Butler climbing the rafters of the stage and singing from up there. Now, they were performing in front of a massive crowd at the Monster Stage and did not disappoint. Between guitarist Stephen Harrison spinning and shredding up the stage and drummer Aric Improta doing jumps off his drum seat while playing like a man possessed, you would think it couldn’t get crazier. Until Jason decided to get up on top of one of the amps and leap from it onto the stage using the rain covers he pulled up as a slip and slide. The fans definitely got a performance from them that afternoon.

Running over to the Metropolitan Stage was another favorite of mine The Struts. The UK band always puts on an entertaining set and gets the crowd rocking. Vocalist Luke Spiller was once again dancing and grooving all over the stage. The fans were dancing along with them and enjoying their music. They are definitely a must see band. Moving back over to the Monster Energy Stage was the ska punk band The Interrupters. Having never seen them before, I wasn’t sure what to expect. What I ended up finding was a band with great energy, an awesome sound, and working in unison. They got the crowd engaged by clapping and dancing to their music.

But then it was back to the metal on the River Stage where the Swedish metal band Meshuggah was performing. The field was jammed packed with fans waiting for them to come on and the majority of media was there as well along with tons of security. Fans were crowd surfing even before they got on the stage. Once they did hit the stage the fans had horns in the air, moshing in the crowd, and banging their heads crazily. These were the wildest fans this weekend and Meshuggah was loving it. They had some small technical issues early into their set but got them resolved quickly allowing them to blast the fans with their complex guitar riffs and guttural vocals. Meshuggah was a fan favorite on Sunday.

Papa Roach was ripping up a storm, better than the weather on Sunday, on the Metropolitan Stage with their music and lighting. Always a fan favorite their rock had the crowd moving hard. Right after their set, the British rockers Bring Me The Horizon was performing on the Monster Energy Stage. Their production set up was massive with a huge staircase leading up to a high platform, tons of fog, dancers, and pyrotechnics. The band wearing all white jumpsuits except for vocalist Oliver Sykes who was wearing red. Oliver urged the crowd to jump with them on the second song where they fired off the pyrotechnics. It was a very impressive performance.

Incubus closed out the Metropolitan Stage with energy and passion as I’ve never seen them before. The band was at full speed from song one and you could see how much they appreciated the fans support. This was the best performance I’ve seen from them at a Danny Wimmer Presents festival. Brandon Boyd (vocalist) was all smiles as he performed and we even got a jump from bassist Ben Kenney. At the end of the night, Tool closed out the Monster Energy Stage to a massive crowd performing some of their well-known songs. They even treated the fans to two new songs “Invincible” and “Descending” that are expected to be on the new album. It was the first new music from the band in 13 years.

Though Day 3 was far from perfect thanks to the severe weather, Danny Wimmer Presents, the Metropolitan Park staff, and the city of Jacksonville, FL did a great job saving the day in making it into something memorable instead of having fans turned away and scrapping the day.