Re:Set Concert Series Debuts in Atlanta

The Re:Set concert series debuted in Atlanta this weekend, bringing a fresh concept to the city and filling a summer gap between Shaky Knees in May, and Music Midtown in September. 

Re:Set, a newly conceived concert series by AEG Presents, is taking place over four weekends in June, where each weekend has three cities in the same region with each Re:SET headliner playing each city on consecutive days, on this first weekend it was Atlanta, New Orleans and Dallas. Not only that, each day is a curated lineup by the headliner bringing a little synergy to each day. Though technically this is a traveling concert series, our Atlanta weekend compares favorably to some favorite festivals, thus we will refer to it more as a fest; though Re:Set certainly has their own uniqueness. Like most festivals, you could buy a one day ticket, or three day pass.

Check out our photo galleries from Re:Set Atlanta – Friday – June 9th here

Check out our photo galleries from Re:Set Atlanta – Saturday – June 10th here

Check out our photo galleries from Re:Set Atlanta – Sunday – June 11th here

While it’s easy to draw comparisons to Shaky Knees, Atlanta’s own 10 year old festival that started as an indie fest – both are three-day events hosted in Central Park, and just a few weeks apart – the two festivals are decidedly different. The biggest difference, of course, was the limited scope of Re:Set. 

Perhaps the best way to compare the two festivals is to think of Re:Set a lot like a pop-up epilogue for Shaky Knees; a festival with four curated bands per day, Friday through Sunday, on a single stage at the baseball field where Shaky historically plants its Peachtree stage. 

Re:Set was easygoing, and accessible. The crowds at the entrance, exit and stage were never overwhelming, and the wait times for food and beer were never more than a minute. The vibe was friendly and chill, with a ton of crossover to Shaky attendees, but with undertones of the Afropunk crowd, making a perfect crowd that took in a great weekend of music. Pink Cowboy Hat guy was there, crowd surfing as he is known to do. Most of the Atlanta music scene writers, photographers, and media members you know, and love were also in attendance. We saw a dude in a Thelma and the Sleaze shirt that he no doubt scored at The Earl last year. All of which to say, for a national festival, it sure felt like hometown shit.

And a funny thing happened, by only having one stage that, unexpectedly, kind of worked well: it brought folks together. There was no leaving Stage A to get a better seat at Stage B. No head-to-head band faceoffs to navigate. No long hauls from the baseball field across to the Civic Center parking lot. 

In the simplicity was a chance for music appreciation. For conversations with neighbors. For sitting in a field and drinking a beer. When the music starts, check out this band, and enjoy what they bring to the table. Or not, and grab a bite to eat or maybe a t-shirt. That was the extent of the equation, and it honestly felt surprisingly nice. If Re:Set returns next year, we’ll certainly be back to cover the festival again. 

Here’s the rundown on everything we saw and heard at Re:Set 2023:

Friday: Fousheé | Toro y Moi | James Blake | Steve Lacy

One little thing that was sort of a funny decision: the festival was scheduled to end by about 9:45 each night, far earlier than the standard 11 p.m. cut off for outdoor music events in the city. This was no big deal on Saturday, and is expected on a Sunday, but specifically for Friday that meant Fousheé was playing while most people were finishing up with work and getting ready to head to the festival, and the crowd was not as filled in as you would hope at such an early time. 

If Re:Set returns next year, it would make good sense to end headliners at 11 p.m. and kick off shows a little later each day. For those who missed the festival kick off, the New Jersey singer songwriter did come back out and perform with Steve Lacy later in the evening,

Friday’s second set came from chill wave icon and Columbia, SC native Toro y Moi, who brought a kaleidoscopic celebration of groovy rhythms, dreamy melodies, and infectious energy. His set opened with “Mirage” and extended down through hits like “Ordinary Pleasure” and a cover of Flume’s track “The Difference”, before ending on a killer two song turn of “Freelance” and “Girls Like You”. The atmosphere was joyful, and the infectious beats and catchy hooks captivated the audience, who danced and grooved to the late afternoon set.

British singer, songwriter, and producer James Blake was up next, churning out his captivating blend of electronic, soul, and experimental music. Blake has carved a unique path in the music industry; his introspective lyrics, haunting vocals, and experimental production techniques to create charged compositions over sparse and atmospheric instrumentation. In short, James Blake doesn’t really sound like anyone except James Blake. His set was sonic and electronic, yet soulful and profound; at once intimate and expansive. 

You know when you go to a festival, and you start to get a vibe on which band people were here to see? Friday felt like a decent contingent of people were here to catch a niche James Blake set. It was no surprise then when he said “Ok fuck it. Atlanta is my favorite place to place, so we’re happy to be here.” 

Standout songs from his set included “Hummingbird (ft. Metro Boomin)”, a Bill Withers cover “Hope She’ll Be Happier” and “Retrograde“.

If 20 percent of the crowd was here for James Blake, lets reserve 5 percent for others and give the remaining 75 percent to Steve Lacy. People were here for Steve Lacy. They went wild chanting his name when Lacy momentarily peeked his head out during the stage transition before his set. 

Honestly, Re:Set really drove home the fact that Lacy’s fame has grown sneaky big. There is trending, popular musician famous, and then there is famous-famous; Taylor Swift famous. The Weeknd famous. Kanye famous. 

Lacy is creeping up on the latter. His Spotify numbers tell the tale. “Bad Habit” and “Dark Red” are both within shouting distance of 1B streams. When he came out, holy shit did people lose their minds. 

What happened next was 90 minutes of legit headlining. Guitar solos. Dancing. Screaming. Otherworldly vocals. Tyler the Creator, dancing in the photo pit. 

In the overheard words of one couple after the show, “That was all the vibes. A little spicy, a little spicy.” 

Saturday: Big Freedia | Idles | Jamie xx | LCD Soundsystem

New Orleans bounce rap favorite Big Freedia did not make it onstage in time for their Re:Set opener in Atlanta on Saturday afternoon. Shortly before gates opened, the Re:Set Instagram announced that Big Freedia would not perform due to severe dehydration. 

Which meant that Idles was the first of three bands up on Saturday. 

If you ever have the chance to see Idles live, absolutely do it. They are one of the most ferocious bands working today. An Idles live set has all the energy of a car crash, but one that they caused on purpose, and then staggered from the wreckage, bloody, shirtless, and defiant, smoking and cursing about the government.

Idles is unapologetic punk rock. It’s working class. It’s blistering, and of the highest order of certified rock and roll quality. And yet, for all its machismo, Idles is woke. They are the type of band to thank the thankless. To cheer for justice. To denounce toxic masculinity. To punch a fascist right in the mouth. They are Rage Against the Machine’s drunk cousin from the UK. 

Standout tracks from the live set included “Colossus“, “Mother“, “Never Fight a Man with a Perm” and of course, their famed closer “Rottweiler“. Idles are budding icons, baby. Get used to seeing them around.

The second set of Saturday was performed by British electronic music artist and DJ Jamie xx; a one man DJ set with dancefloor energy that sounded like it was plucked straight from a pool party at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. At once nostalgic and melancholy, Jamie xx’s set was built to entrance, mixing, and sampling a sonic tapestry that blurred the line between genres and seamlessly pumped 120 BPM of ambient dance rhythms into the ether.

The set was a blur, mashed together until it was gone. The feeling in the crowd was detached but grooving, as best summarized by a short conversation overheard after the set between a shirtless dude, and a Hawaiian shirt bro:

Dude one: “Did he play On Hold? I was waiting for it the whole time, but I was dancing and I’m on so many shrooms.”   

Bro two: “I don’t know man. I’m on acid.”

As the sun finally began to set on Saturday, the weekend’s big headliner LCD Soundsystem took the stage.

LCD Soundsystem ages like fine wine. Without producing a note, NY indie darling James Murphy’s music somehow gained timelessness during the bands hiatus years of 2011-17. Today, the band feel like longstanding mainstays of rock, who charted the course for the synthpop and dance punk indie rockers who borrow so heavily from them in 2023. 

The band’s identity is synonymous with infectious grooves, witty lyrics, and a distinctive post-punk sensibility marked by existentialism, modern living, and self-reflection. And somehow, for all the superlatives, it’s almost as if LCD Soundsystem crested over whatever imaginary plateau separates good bands from the timeless iconic ones rather quietly, didn’t they? But here we are. 

Their Re:Set headlining set was electrifying and euphoric, with boundless energy and bubbly synth hooks. Standout tracks included “Us v Them“, “You Wanted a Hit“, “new body rhumba“, “Dance Yrself Clean” and “All My Friends“. The perfect end to a strong Saturday at Re:Set Atlanta.

Sunday: Bartees Strange | Dijon | Clairo | boygenius

The third and final day of Re:Set in Atlanta got off to a weird start. Originally scheduled for a 4:15 start, Bartees Strange was moved up to 2:50 due to incoming weather and then got a late start from there. To make matters a bit stranger still, the musician wound up playing just three songs as a solo set without his band. Those three songs, played on guitar alone sounded great, we’re just still not sure what happened. We saw him and his band later, hanging out in the VIP section with Atlanta’s own Faye Webster, so who knows what happened, exactly.

The award for coolest set up of the weekend went to Dijon, who had tons of equipment onstage and aligned every member of the band at the front of the stage from side to side. Their set was a solid little mix of R&B, hip hop and indie pop with lush production and stripped-down instrumentation. Singer-songwriter Dijon Duenas is a rising star in the indie R&B scene.

If you wanted indie pop, you came to the right place on Sunday in Central Park. Clairo put on a rising star masterclass, singing, playing guitars and piano on songs from across her two album catalog. Lots of artists rack up Spotify and YouTube streams based on their vibe, or around a few tracks (Clairo’s top performing track is above 300M streams on Spotify alone). But Clairo seems to be translating that digital momentum into actual stardom. Her talented backing band showed they were ready to perform in a realm beyond standard indie pop fare, and there were a surprising number of Clairo stans hanging on every word in the crowd. 

After Clairo, the wheels fell off. 

With the sun still shining, and the headlining crowd waiting for boygenius, the stage crew started unplugging everything onstage, and covering all the equipment in preparation for inbound rain. It didn’t really look so bad at the time, and the radar looked ok to the untrained eye, but the festival must have a meteorologist on speed dial or something, because after they prepared the stage for rain, an announcement was made that everyone would need to evacuate the festival due to a potential thunderstorm. 

And then the bottom dropped out, and it rained like wild. People were hiding under trees, or just kind of standing in the rain outside the gate. When the rain slowed down, and eventually gave way to sunshine again, people started to line back up outside the gate. Movement inside the gates felt like things could be back on.

Eventually the announcement came that boygenius would perform at 9:00 p.m. If you’re keeping track at home, they had originally been scheduled as the 8:15 p.m. headliner, then they pushed the whole festival up a few hours leaving headliners to go on at 6:10, then with the rain, they were forced to delay a few hours and wound up later than ever at 9:00 p.m. Oh, and then boygenius actually ended starting before 9pm as some stragglers were running in to catch the set. Not that the moving target (or getting rained on) put a damper on the vibe. Props to security for handling the mini stampede that ensued when they did eventually reopen the gates.

In the end, boygenius put on a show! The all-female supergroup came out to Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back In Town” and a rain-soaked crowd ready to go wild. The band was ready, too. And from the word go, it was on. “$20” was an early set highlight.

It’s worth saying this about the band: all three members — Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus – each thrive in their own lane. Baker, the lead guitarist. Bridgers the big-name indie-folk headliner. Dacus the critically acclaimed musician who fills out the vibe and the sound without overplaying it. Yet, with boygenius, the sum is greater than its parts. All three are so well attuned to the energy of the others, always perfectly in sync with effortless harmonies hanging together in the air masterfully. 

And each boygenius song has its own flavor. Some are written by Phoebe, others by Julien and others still by Lucy, which brings a special “folk showcase kind” of experience to the live show. Whether they are rocking out, or singing in harmony, or performing slower and more ethereal songs, the crowd hung with the three artists every step of the way. Whatever it was, people were into it.

They ended their 18 song setlist with “Ketchum, ID”, the closer on their original EP from 2018, all acapella and acoustic, switching from Phoebe to Julien to Lucy, to harmonizing together. Perfect. They performed three more songs at the encore, “Please Stay”(from Lucy Dacus’ solo catalog), “Favor” (from Julien Baker’s solo catalog) and “Graceland Too” (from Phoebe Bridgers’ solo catalog) too. And then they walked off stage to a crowd that wanted more.

All in all, it was a great weekend that combatted weather and scheduling mishaps throughout, and not just in Atlanta but in Dallas in New Orleans too. But it’s hard to imagine anyone who would’ve attended all three days, and stuck it out through the end of boygenius, and left on anything but a high note.

We said it at the top, and we’ll echo it again: Re:Set felt a lot like the original days of Shaky Knees, with headliners at the height of their indie fame like Steve Lacy, or at the crest of their legacy like LCD, or at the first major swell of indie stardom like boygenius. It worked.

The hiccups were what they were, but you can see how a concept like Re:Set would work well in future years. There were plenty of people there for all three days, but not so many that it felt overcrowded. Though each day felt like it drew it’s own unique crowd. While there were plenty of differences between the artists on each day, at the same time each day was curated, and tailored, and matched those other acts that complimented. 

Final verdict: Re:Set was a win. Hope to see more of these in the future. 

All photos by Mike Gerry