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Atlanta's Shaky Knees Music Festival draws sold-out crowds to Piedmont Park
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LISTEN: Atlanta's Shaky Knees festival featured Public Enemy, Alabama Shakes, Blink-182, Lenny Kravitz, the Linda Lindas and more. Plus: an interview with Irish band Inhaler, who say Atlanta is a favorite tour stop. GPB's Kristi York Wooten talks with the quartet.
The Shaky Knees music festival felt right at home in Piedmont Park this year, after hopping around several Atlanta venues since promoter Tim Sweetwood founded the three-day event in 2013.
Swapping its fickle May weather for September sunshine also helped the annual festival ease into the slot previously held by Music Midtown, which last appeared in 2023.
This year's Shaky Knees Festival expected 40,000 people, sold all its tickets for Saturday and curated its usual lineup including alternative, ska and punk rock headliners like Deftones, My Chemical Romance and Blink-182 and American rock festival favorites Cage the Elephant, The Black Keys and Sublime.
A sizable number of women-led groups also graced the Shaky Knees bill (finally!) including Lucy Dacus, Alabama Shakes, 4 Non Blondes, Wet Leg, the Marias, the Linda Lindas and others.
Songs for Kids Foundation made a repeat Shaky Knees appearance to support its mentorship program for kids and young adults with disabilities.
Lenny Kravitz brought the biggest pop hits with him during a sunset performance on the Peachtree stage Friday evening.
Hop-hop fans enjoyed one of the all-time greats, Public Enemy, featuring Chuck D and Flava Flav, who hit the Ponce De Leon stage late Saturday.
Across the weekend, Britrock and new wave enthusiasts reveled in sets by Idles, Johnny Marr of The Smiths, Devo, Franz Ferdinand and Stereophonics.
Weird Al Yankovic marked his 2000th concert ever with a celebratory performance (and lots of costume changes) including a duet with Atlanta's Puddles the Clown (Mike Geier).
And the event ended with a massive fireworks display, as shown in the aerial shots above.
So what makes bands want to return to festivals year after year?
Inhaler, four 20-something rockers who have performed at festivals around the world for nearly a decade, just released their third album, Open Wide. The band has played Terminal West, the Buckhead Theatre, the Tabernacle, Music Midtown and now Shaky Knees. GPB asked them about their new music and to find out why they keep coming back to Atlanta.
Interview
Kristi York Wooten: You're on your third record now. What is your USP, your "unique selling proposition?" That's an advertising term. The third record is usually when people are starting to —
Elijah Hewson: Figure that out?
Kristi York Wooten: Figure it out, yes.
Elijah Hewson: I don't think we've figured it out. Yeah, I don't know.
Josh Jenkinson: I don't think we know. Hopefully on the fourth album we'll figure it out, but it is a good thing to think about, probably. I actually don't know; I can't think of a congruent line between all the albums.
Elijah Hewson: I think that kind of thing is easier to point out later on, maybe. I'm starting to see the first album [2021's It Won't Always Be Like This] a lot clearer these days than I could have at the time. You know we say, "You're too close to the elephant." Like, all you can see is the gray, you don't know what it is. So I think it's, yeah, we're not gonna be able to tell for a while. It will be handy to know if you have any ideas!
Kristi York Wooten: I'd be happy to pass one on to you, right? I wanted to ask, too, I know that you guys have moved a little bit in a different [musical] direction structurally with Open Wide. How is that fitting kind of being on tour with the new album? How's it going with playing? Have you adjusted anything when you're doing stuff on stage?
Robert Keating: Yeah, it's going good. I think there's always — we always get a new lease on life when we release new music. It kind of reminds us it's easy, when you tour a lot, to get into a headspace of forgetting why you do it, and kind of getting into this resilience that takes over your body to get through the shows. New music kind of revitalizes us, I think, and puts us on the straight and narrow and makes us work harder. So we felt that [today],and then seeing it go down well with the fans has just been the icing on the cake. It's been very lucky.
Kristi York Wooten: Tell me about Atlanta a little bit. I feel like maybe it's not just me, but this is one of your better markets?
Elijah Hewson: Oh, yeah. I think some of the [Atlanta] gigs we were just talking about have been some of our favorite American gigs — not, not even just that, I think of our gigs overall. Yeah, they've been some of our favorite shows ever. I don't know what it is about Atlanta, but I think it's sort of like the appreciation for music [here] is different to everywhere else in the States in a weird way. I dunno, just felt more alive, the gig, when we played it.
Ryan McMahon: Feels like people are really there to listen.
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