Welcome to Piedmont Park, Shaky Knees! Relocating from the Old Fourth Ward’s Central Park, Atlanta’s music festival, it can now be said, has found a gracious amount of stage for their four stages and an upsized crowd. Moving from May to September, the festival’s weather remained perfect, but the estimated crowd of 40,000 managed to stir up even more dust on the park’s green grass than they had at their prior location.
Overall, the distance between stages is a little greater, but the festival now features three stages with side video displays (previously just one) and those same stages can accommodate even larger crowds fairly handily. The park also has more elevated positions where those who don’t want to walk – or bake under the sun – can find a distant but commanding view of the stages and shelter between the trees.
Overall, SK delivered again on a variety of restaurants, sponsored spots for getaways, “facilities,” water refill stations and ample merch. Otherwise, there is no denying that VIP tickets offer premium benefits, but during most of the day, VIP areas are barely occupied, causing some awkwardness for bands centered on a stage but playing to the audience on one side. Still, except for the late evening shows, there was plenty of space for fans to watch, crowd surf, chill on a blanket or dance the days away.
Let’s start the festival and the day with a band ready to rock. That would be Inhaler, an Irish band fronted by Elijah Hewson, gifted with a knack for playing guitar, song-craft and singing. No doubt tired of an asterisk by his name for being Bono’s son, the band stands alone, a different thing than his dad’s band, but carrying forward strong anthemic lyrics and catchy songs.
Twenty-seven years following the death of Sublime’s original vocalist, Bradley Nowell, his son Jakob has been fronting his dad’s old band the last several years arriving in Atlanta for Shaky. With a laid back California surfer attitude, they played through their hits and got the crowd moving and even skanking. Notable songs that got the crowd going were “Date Rape,” “What I Got,” and their biggest hit “Santeria.” Dad would be proud, as Jakob sounds all but identical and continued the legacy of delivering a crowd pleasing performance.
Spoon. If there’s a formula, it’s snap, crackle, pop, but Britt Daniel has done it for so long and in so many ways that ear worms abound in the setlist. Covering several songs from Gimme Fiction and many other standout albums, it’s a reminder that a Spoon playlist ought to be a thing sought out regularly, whether commuting or waiting on a meat to marinate. Their Indie-pop brilliance just keeps you moving. Great set by Daniels and the band!
The sad part of festivals such as SK is that every hour is a playoff round. Depending on your tastes, sometimes that is easy. In this hour, IDLES competed with Spoon, a band I’d seen more recently. This is IDLES third appearance at SK, and the band has grown in popularity and style since their first appearance in 2019. ACR’s intrepid contributor, Brian, was firm on his choice for the hour and reported in:
IDLES crashed the Piedmont stage, opening with “War.” Pounding drums, loud guitars, screaming and airborne beer cans set the vibe immediately. The punk band didn’t resist creating breaks to encourage the crowd to chant “Free Palestine!” as well as incorporating that call into his lyrics. During “I’m Scum,” Joe encouraged the crowd to squat to the ground and jump up by reciting the lyric “get low,” and Atlantans did just that. The band continued to play songs from across their catalog, and “Never Fight a Man With a Perm” and “Danny Nedelko” stood out as crowd favorites.
Lenny Kravitz, a legend of 90’s rock, took over the Ponce stage by kicking the show off with fireworks and launching into “Bring it On.” Sticking with the 90’s theme, the stage displays used monochrome filters and classic pyrotechnics to enahance the show. Loaded with rock riffs, soul and singalong classics, Kravitz played plenty of fan favorites, including his cover of Guess Who’s “American Woman” and playing his biggest hits “Fly Away” and “Are You Gonna Go My Way” to close the set for an Atlanta crowd that had made it through work or traffic to finally fill the park.
L.A.’s rising sensation, The Marías, brought a completely different vibe to SK both in style and staging. Led by Maria Zardoy, the band bring indie-pop, latin and lounge together and is gathering fan and critical acclaim since their first album was released in 2021. Give them a listen – everyone else is, maybe starting with “No One Noticed” or “Nobody New.” Future SK headliner? They’re on a trajectory.
Deftones was Friday’s headliner, evidenced by a legion of fans wearing their T-shirts. Deftones has recently experienced a surge in popularity as their songs have ripped through TikTok and found new generations of listeners, recently charting old songs, but a band of 37 years brings plenty of fans that have carried through since their heydey.
Their moody Nu Metal alternated between chugging riffs on songs like “My Own Summer (Shove It)” and melodic singing on songs like “Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)” off their 1997 album Around the Fur. Singer Chino Moreno hit some high notes on “Digital Bath.” The band closed with “Cherry Waves” which gained notoriety on TikTok and an old chugging song called “7 Words” from their first album.
Vocalist Chino Morena remains a super active frontman, constantly moving across the stage to engage fans. His voice doesn’t sound the same as it did those years ago, but it could be argued that the he and the current version of the band have gotten better with age.
After the show, MARTA platforms were packed at the Midtown station. Piedmont Park has little parking in the area, and while ride-share works for some, many depend on MARTA. Be patient and prepared as MARTA once again demonstrates that major downtown events warrant reduced service.
