Jacksonville, FL was the kickoff to concert festivals this year, featuring some of the biggest acts in rock, including hometown favorites Limp Bizkit, Shinedown and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
With perfect weather for this event, it kicked off on Saturday with a new band from England, Young Guns. They closed out their set with the hit, Single Bones.
Other bands included Pop Evil, All That Remains, Hell or Highwater, Whitechapel, Stars in Stereo, and Asking Alexandria, whose lead singer is also an avid photographer; he joined us in the pits to shoot. The highlights from the day came from several bands that included Halestorm who are coming off their Grammy award and giving a powerhouse performance.
This was followed up by Papa Roach - a group whose energy is infectious and who got the crowd amped up throughout the whole set. Singer, Jacoby walked on the crowd’s hands before crowd surfing back.
Bullet for My Valentine, who is on tour, now with Halestorm, brought the second stage down with their hard-hitting music that heads banging. Three Days Grace had the crowd singing along and new singer, Matt keeps growing in the role that former singer Adam Gontier left.
Over on the third stage, Otherwise was bringing in the fans for a killer set by this new band. It was a shame the third and fourth stage were so far away from the main stage, leaving fans in doubt as to which stage to go to.
The Patrick Brothers performed their new hit, Vegas Girl and the anthem, Soldiers. With the sun setting on the main stage, Stone Sour came on to huge roar. Front man, Corey Taylor has a way of commanding the stage as they opened with Gone Sovereign and Absolute Zero. As they ended the set, they played a cover of Black Sabbath’s, Children of the Grave which was flawless. They closed out with 30/30-150 which left the crowd exhausted from the moshing.
Limp Bizkit closed out the second stage, playing in their hometown for the first time in many years. The crowd was pumped as the opening notes to Show Me What You Got played. Wes Borland came out covered in black paint and wearing a LED mask that made just his face stand out. Fred Durst, sporting a full beard prowled the stage as he spit
out verses along with a cockiness that never crossed the line. At one point Durst jumped into the crowd as he flowed to Livin’ It Up. The whole crowd lit up when they did a cover of Rage Against the Machine, Killing in the Name. They ended the set with Take a Look Around and Faith. Be sure to check them out on tour as they are playing smaller venues and playing in-your-face rock/rap.
Iconic Alternative rock band, Alice in Chains closed out Day 1 with a new album, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, to be released at the end of May. After a full day of sun and music, the fans were ready to vibe to Jerry Cantrell’s recognizable guitar playing. Singer, Will DuVall sounded great singing the new songs and classic AIC hits. Playing hits like Them Bones to open and Man in the Box and Would to close the show ended a great day of music. You can check out Alice in Chains at this year’s Uproar fest.
Review & Photos by Peter Lizano
