Over the last few years, the Shaky Knees Music Festival in Atlanta, Georgia has quietly become one of the nation’s best rock festivals. This year there are four stages and more than 36 hours of music over three days, with indie rock ranging from hard rock to new wave to folk and everything in between. Day one at Central Park in Atlanta took place on May 4th and proved solid all around.
Newcomer Liz Brasher kicked off the day from the Ponce de Leon stage, enthralling a small, late-arriving crowd with her soulful rock sound. Playing a variety of songs from her Outcast EP, Brasher’s strong, soulful voice added a layer of depth to her rock songs. Brasher sounds a bit like if Amy Winehouse had played hard rock, laying down catchy riffs while belting out goosebump-raising vocals. Several of her songs had strong R&B rhythms, especially the grooving Gospel track “Elijah Rock,” for which Brasher set down her guitar and picked up a tambourine. With her strong vocals and equally strong guitar chops, Brasher delivered a soul-searing set with a hard rock attitude.
Alt rockers Welles took to the Piedmont stage, playing a handful of heavy rockers off of Seventeen. Led by guitarist and vocalist Jeh Sea Wells, the band tore through heavy power chord-laden songs showing off a strong grunge influence. Wells headbanged around the stage while rocking out and singing in his grainy voice. Welles played a fast-paced and heavy set, slowing down only once for their album’s title track, a mid-tempo power ballad that nonetheless ended with a cacophony of distortion. Throwbacks to a bygone alternative era, Welles showed the power of raw, intense alt rock.
Following Welles on the Piedmont stage, Rival Sons, arguably the heaviest band at Shaky Knees, crushed an hour-long set of heavy, blues-based riff rock. Jay Buchanan, strutting around the stage barefoot, spent most of the performance at a full-throated scream, belting out vocals to match the gusto of Scott Holiday’s jackhammer riffs. “Good luck, baby, getting on without me,” Buchanan sang in “Good Luck” over Holiday’s thick guitar licks. Though the performance was surprisingly lacking “Pressure and Time,” one of the band’s best-known songs, they ended on a high note with a powerful rendition of “Open My Eyes.” The band powered through the set-closing song, Holiday’s soaring slide guitar solo stealing the show from Buchanan’s growl.
Next on the Ponce de Leon stage was Waxahatchee, one of the most melodic bands at this rock festival. Led by singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield, Waxahatchee delivered a set of melodic, jangling pop rock. Crutchfield’s smoky voice carried the atmospheric songs, from the brooding ballad “Sparks Fly” to harder fare. Though they had many slow, soothing songs in the set, Waxahatchee rocked out at times as well, such as the dynamic “Never Been Wrong,” which had Crutchfield shouting “everyone will hear me complain/ everyone will pity my pain” over loud, distorted guitars.
Australian singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett treated the Peachtree stage to a set of raw, passionate rock. A unique blend of rock, blues, and folksy twang, Barnett aggressively ripped through the harder songs, thrashing and flailing while picking out the riffs on her guitar and shouting into the microphone. Whether with the hook-laden “Nameless, Faceless,” the hard rocking “Pedestrian at Best,” or the alt-country stomp of “Elevator Operator,” Barnett assaulted the stage with fury. After slowing it down for ballads like “Depreston,” with Barnett taking a break from her rapid-fire singing and screaming, she ended the set with a blistering version of “Nobody Cares If You Don’t Go to the Party.”
Indie rockers Franz Ferdinand were responsible for without a doubt the most fun performance of the night. Opening with the slow-burning “Always Ascending,” the band then quickly jumped into the uptempo earwig “Dark of the Matinee.” Frontman Alex Kapranos owned the stage, oozing charisma as he stalked, danced, and high-kicked, all while shredding through some impressive lead guitar licks. By the time the band got into “No You Girls,” they had turned portions of the lawn into a dancefloor, with fans, jumping, dancing, and singing virtually every line of Franz Ferdinand’s songs. Peppering in a few tracks from current Skrillex collaboration Always Ascending, the set was dominated by the best songs from the band’s most popular albums. Closing the set with the infectious stomp of “Take Me Out,” the dance grooves of “Ulysses,” and finally the frenetic “This Fire,” the band delivered the kind of energetic performance for which it is known. As Franz Ferdinand had the crowd singing “this fire is out of control/ gonna burn this city, burn this city,” one couldn’t help but wonder if the Scottish band was aware that Atlanta actually had been burned down before.
Fleet Foxes closed down the Piedmont Stage for the night, treating the crowd to a densely layered tapestry of indie folk with a bit of rock. Rich harmonies were prominently featured in the set, with Robin Pecknold’s lead vocals intertwining with backing vocals from several other band members. Songs like “White Winter Hymnal” and “Mykonos” showed the band’s ear for layered vocal harmonies and melody.
Closing out a day of fantastic music, Jack White turned in a powerhouse performance that featured songs from each of his bands. Opening with “Over and Over and Over,” the heaviest song off of Boarding House Reach, he quickly transitioned to the White Stripes hit “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground.” Throughout the set, White wildly prowled the stage, abusing his guitars to the point that twice he needed a mid-song guitar change. His voice a snarl, White spit out his vocals while unleashing an onslaught of distortion and bluesy garage rock riffs. Unexpected deep cuts like The Dead Weather’s “Cut Like a Buffalo” and the solo “Everything You’ve Ever Learned, which featured White on drums, were a highlight, as was the sing-along twangy stomper “Hotel Yorba.”
For the encore, White delivered on the Raconteur’s bouncy hit “Steady As She Goes.” Two songs later, White and the band were joined onstage by Lillie Mae, who had played earlier in the day. With Mae playing the fiddle and harmonizing with White, the band laid down the country crooner “What’s Done Is Done” and the folksy duet “Love Interruption.” White and company then ended the set with three powerful renditions of White Stripes songs, “The Hardest Button to Button,” “I’m Slowly Turning Into You,” and finally “Seven Nation Army.” For the latter, the crowd chanted along with the iconic riff as White and the band closed the night with a fiery, virtuoso performance.
