You know, I like this new goal of going to a new music festival every year. Especially when they usually have such great lineups to offer! Take, for instance, Shaky Knees. This Atlanta based festival has been going on for more than a decade and I can’t believe this is my first time going!
Apparently, this is the first year that the festival has taken place in Piedmont Park, having previously been in Centennial Olympic Park, and Central Park most recently. Personally, this space is perfect. It’s a decently large park, and while there were definitely crowds, the space felt well-suited to them. I also didn’t feel like I had to walk half of my life to get from one stage to the next (I undertstand Lollapalooza is it’s own special beast, but still). I also really like that this festival is more rock based than most I’ve come across over the years who aim for a more eclectic lineup. Not that I’m sneezing at those, but this definitely had more acts appealing to my preferences.
While I would have loved to attened all three days of this festival, other travel plans (and available PTO) means my friend and I only got to do Saturday. But whata lineup for Saturday! Since we flew in that morning, we started the day a little later, but made it plenty of time to catch a fun and funky set from Hey, Nothing before settling into my first planned set of the day from The Beaches. Gosh do they just sound so good. I’m still so floored that they aren’t bigger. Speaking of other female bands that absolutely crush, The Linda Lindas were there, too! I cannot get over how talented these young girls are. I was also happy to see a pretty big crowd in attendance.
I say that because they were scheduled to play at the exact same time as Highly Suspect, which is a CRIME. Since it’s been so long since I’ve seen Highly Suspect, I hoofed it back across the park to catch the second half of their set, and the likes of “Lydia,” “Seretonia,” and “My Name is Human.” I guess Johnny was a little sick, but they still sounded great! Here’s hoping a new album is coming soon so I can see them on a proper tour again! I didn’t realize The Smiths’ guitarist, Johnny Marr, was performing, but that was a pleasantly surprising set to listen to. TV on the Radio powered through their set while my energy was flagging a little bit.
But by the time The All-American Rejects took the stage, my friend and I were up and moving. I do think they had them at the wrong stage, because the crowd for them probably went at least a mile back! Our viewing wasn’t the best, but they played through all of the hits sounding perfect. And they had the most fun crowd interactions of the day. I hope these guys are back for good. After that we checked out a hit after hit set from Cage the Elephant, though I would love to hear “Broken Boy” again someday. The Black Keys likewise put on a hit-making set, though it did bleed in a little bit to My Chemical Romance’s headlining set.
Having seen the band before a couple of years ago, perhaps their appearance was just a little bit lost on me, but it was really fun to see how passionate the audience was to get to experience these guys maybe for the first time. This set in particular was going to exclusively feature The Black Parade album in its entirety. Now admittedly, I don’t know if I’ve ever listened to that entire album, so a lot of the set was just okay for me. Don’t get me wrong, they sounded great, and I loved the story that they had unfold on stage. Then with just twenty minutes to spare we got some other big hits from the band like “NaNaNa,” “I’m Not Okay,” and “Helena,” but I’m personally glad the first time I saw them was just a regular concert so I could experience all of their hits. Still, it was great to see them again.
All in all, despite the heat, this was a really fun festival in a new city and I’m really glad I got to attend! I sicnerely hope it’s not the last time, and I highly doubt that it will be. (But will forever be jealous of those that got to see Devo on Sunday).
