Shaky Knees Music Festival’s 10 Year Anniversary edition has come and gone, and what a 10 years it’s been as Tim Sweetwood brought one of the best Rock music (primarily) festivals around to the Atlanta area. The festival has certainly grown through the years as the headliners have continued to get bigger and bigger, yet one of the staples of Shaky Knees has always been new music discovery and some of the best indie acts in the game. The 2023 festival was no different, and had plenty of highlight moments throughout the three day weekend.
Getting to photograph Shaky Knees through the years has been a joy like no others. The amazing sets, the friends, the memories, it’s just everything about this festival has been consistently great. While the goal as a photographer is to hit as many acts as I can, that’s not always realistic, and decisions have to be made. There are always two stages on opposite sides of the fest going at the same time, so do you try to hit a little bit of both and grab some shots, or were those first couple of songs you hear so good that you just can’t leave that set? Well there were plenty of the latter throughout the weekend that made it hard to hop around.
Sure the headliners, The Killers, Muse, and The Lumineers were stellar and probably the best of the weekend to many, but that’s not what this space is for. Those acts have larger budgets, incredible stage setups and years of experience in entertaining large crowds. Let’s certainly give props to all three, I mean The Killers had the mass crowd singing and dancing, and Muse put on one heck of a set that was a spectacle to see. The Lumineers path from the main stage out into the crowd made for a highly intimate and memorable set also.
All three headliners lived up to their billing and maybe more, but who really stopped me in my tracks the rest of the weekend and stood out as Shaky Knees sets that I’ll remember for years? Below is this guy’s list, some were surprises, some not so much. And sadly my list won’t include sets I heard about throughout the weekend as stand outs that I wasn’t able to make like Cypress Hill, Phantogram (Big Boi came out for Big Grams), The Black Angels (hated to miss this one as they are always great live), and The Walkmen (at least I made it to their Late Night Show at Terminal West, which was phenomenal, but hearing from those the skipped the Lips for the The Walkmen’s set at SK, it was apparently fire).
Here’s my personal stand out sets from Shaky Knees 2023, the 10 Year Anniversary of Atlanta’s best festival:
BE YOUR OWN PET
For me, Be Your Own Pet’s set on the Criminal Records Stage is when Friday really kicked into high gear. Brief legends in the 90’s before reappearing recently, it was like no time had passed as the band’s energy never stopped led by front woman Jemina Pearl. It’s clear punk rock never left these folks and the crowd returned their appreciation with a mosh pit that never stopped.
KILLER MIKE
Energy, hype, and a fiery power, a Killer Mike show is a release of internal anger of the ways of today’s world. And Atlanta’s favorite son certainly didn’t disappoint proving to be a stellar last minute fill at Shaky Knees 2023.
PEACHES
Peaches, Peaches, Peaches. I’ve seen her before, so this set certainly wasn’t a shock. But at the same time, no matter if you’ve seen her show before, it’s still a shock, in the best way possible. I started on the other side of the fest and hightailed it over the Criminal Records Stage to catch the latter half of Peaches, and like always, it was worth it. The shock and awe only continues to grow through Peaches set and I got there just in time to see her crawl into the crowd and pose over and over, all while the crowd and backup dancers never stopped. It’s just one of those sets that you notice a big smile on your own face, and look around see the same from those surrounding you. Peaches set is just liberating all around in a way that only Peaches can do. Just wow.
YEAH YEAH YEAHS
Karen O soared around the stage as the indie rock legends with a shiny new album showed Shaky Knees that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are still one of the best in the business with an engulfing set.
RICKSHAW BILLIE’S BURGER PATROL
These Austin dudes go hard. While I wasn’t really too familiar with them before SK, this is one of those sets that was hard to leave and was certainly an early wake up set that kicked Saturday into gear real fast.
SUNFLOWER BEAN
With a number of buzzed about indie rock albums since the Brooklyn band’s start back in 2013, Sunflower Bean is able to easily jump from a more rock sound to more pop sounds giving them a versatile set that hit on all corners for the Shaky Knees crowd. These guys know how to put on a great show.
SHAME
If there is one set I had to pick as the best set of the 2023 Shaky Knees, it would have to go to Shame. Honestly I was surprised that there wasn’t a bigger crowd over on the Ponce stage for these UK gents. Over the past few years, SK has seen packed standout sets from alike bands such as Idles. Sure, Shame is a few years behind and hasn’t quite reached the heights of where Idles are these days, the seem to be following a similar ascent with a couple of stellar punk/post punk albums already. Either way, the crowd that was there knew what they were getting into, and Shame gave them all that and more. These kids go hard and don’t stop, which had the mosh pit right in front doing the same. And then frontman Charlie Steen did what he does, crawling into the crowd, standing up (and falling) on a bunch of fans tried to hold him up as he kept on signing and bringing the rage. Out of this world set no doubt.
FUTUREBIRDS
I don’t believe the Futurebirds know how to have a bad live set, no matter where you see them, they put it on and make sure the crowd is right there with them, singing along. Shaky Knees was no different.
BABE RAINBOW
These Aussies are listed as psychedelic rock, but whatever’s in your head when you hear that genre may not necessarily apply whether that may be say, early Tame Impala, or your thinking new Tame Impala. Sure there’s elements of whatever you think psych rock is, but ultimately all I know about Babe Rainbow’s set is that as you kept going further up the hill in the little forest from the Criminal Records stage, all I saw was people dancing and grooving throughout the set all the way to the back.
TENACIOUS D
What is there to say really? Tenacious D always puts on an outstanding rock opera concert. Jack and Kyle always makes sure the crowd will feel every note.
FUTURE ISLANDS
Day time, night time, big stage, small stage, Samuel T. Herring and Future Islands have been bringing the passion and energy for years. With music that speaks to you and makes you want to dance, and seeing a dude like Herring just releasing every bit of passion on stage, it’s impossible not to love every second of a Future Islands show.
FATHER JOHN MISTY
This one honestly started off a little slow for me. I’ve seen FJM many times, on many different stages over the years and have loved every second I’ve seen. And yeah, I know J. Tillman can be a weird dude, it’s one of the things I love, but he seemed almost a little lackadaisical, even for him, in a way. I don’t know that anything changed, but what I do know is that by the end of the FJM set, the back part of the lawn of the Ponce stage was one big dance party in every corner with the crowd boogeying on down to Father John Misty. And suddenly this was another memorable set from FJM like I’ve seen so many times over the years.
FIDLAR
Tim Sweetwood comes out to introduce Fidlar and shares some words and appreciation on the small Criminal Records Stage about this band, and the other artists in addition to the crowds that have helped make SK great over the years. And then Fidlar and the packed in crowd lifted off, literally. Band member flying around, jumping in the air, into the crowd who was moshing and crowd surfing from beginning to end. No stop, pure rock ‘n’ roll madness. Yes, please.
THE FLAMING LIPS
Could you really ask for anything more than The Flaming Lips playing their biggest album, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, with this stage setup of, yeah, pink robots at the 10 Year Anniversary of Shaky Knees Music Festival. Yes, yes, yes.
