Photos: In its first year at Piedmont Park, Shaky Knees finds sturdy ground for grooving

If anyone doubted Shaky Knees’s move from Central Park to Piedmont Park this year, three days of jam-packed, sold-out revelry this weekend should have thoroughly set them at ease. Organizers of the iconic music festival, now in its 12th year, made the savvy choice to snatch up the locale, and the September weekend, vacated by Music Midtown, which announced its hiatus last year. This moved Shaky Knees from nearby Central Park, its location for the last seven years, as well as shifting the festival from its traditional dates in May.

Photograph by Perry Julien

Photograph by Perry Julien

Photograph by Perry Julien

The switcheroo proved to be no problem for the thousands of fans who descended on the park over three days, two of which sold out. Festival organizers and Piedmont Park staff ensured a smooth and safe experience, with ample hydration stations and bathrooms, while the park’s gently rolling hills provided great views of the stages even for those far back from the crowds.

Photograph by Perry Julien

Photograph by Perry Julien

Photograph by Perry Julien

Day one highlights included Inhaler—headlined by Elijah Hewson, son of famed Irish rocker Bono—who brought a high energy rock sensibility supported by Hewson’s powerful vocals. Another highly-anticipated performance was Sublime, the ska-punk band synonymous with nineties-era Southern California, which is on tour this year after a long hiatus, having regrouped into a separate band following the death of beloved lead singer Bradley Nowell in 1996. The revived Sublime is led instead by Nowell’s son Jakob, who proved a solid and heartwarming replacement for his late father, thanking the crowd for its decades of support before launching into such hits as “Garden Grove” and “What I Got.” Closing out the night’s lineup was Deftones, which delivered a howling, high-octane performance to a packed crowd.

On Saturday, audiences braved high temperatures and a plethora of dust to enjoy shows by the Linda Lindas, TV on the Radio, and Public Enemy. Johnny Marr, formerly of the English rock band The Smiths, delivered a memorable set punctuated by some of the group’s hits, including “This Charming Man” and “There is a Light That Never Goes Out,” which turned into a whole crowd singalong at the set’s end. Marr joined The Black Keys for a turn during their show, where guitarist Dan Auerbach, drummer Patrick Carney, and an electric backup band turned out a slick, shred-heavy romp on the Piedmont Stage. Cage the Elephant served up one of the highest-energy performances of the weekend, riveting spectators in an hour-long set held aloft by Matt Schultz’s pure powerhouse vovals.

Photograph by Perry Julien

Photograph by Perry Julien

Photograph by Perry Julien

Photograph by Perry Julien

Photograph by Perry Julien

Photograph by Perry Julien

But no one commanded Saturday more than My Chemical Romance, the emo-punk band that catapulted to fame in the early aughts and is currently on a 20-year anniversary tour of its 2006 album Welcome to the Black Parade. Caked in dramatic makeup and emulating a cultish dictator, lead singer Gerard Way delivered an over-the-top dystopian opera of a performance, with band members dressed in the imperial-style military jackets they wore for the original album. Hordes of fans, ranging from older devotees from MCR’s early years to a new generation of fishnet and eyeliner-clad concertgoers, sang along to “Welcome to the Black Parade.”

On Sunday, Day Three attendees were treated to memorable performances by Lucy Dacus, Alabama Shakes, Franz Ferdinand, and The Stews. 4 Non Blondes, the 90’s rock band led by Linda Perry, whose song “What’s Up” became an iconic anthem of the decade, made Shaky Knees one of the stops on its unexpected reunion tour; Perry delighted fans by opening with a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll” and later sent the entire audience into hysterics during a rousing singalong version of their classic hit. Crowds also thronged to see DEVO, the eccentric and beloved New Wave band, who delivered an enthusiastic set complete with costume changes. During the performance of their hit “Whip It,” DEVO tossed out dozens of red plastic hats, copies of the ones worn in the song’s iconic music video; perhaps this year’s best Shaky Knees souvenir, fans wore them proudly for the rest of the night. Weird Al Yankovic drew huge crowds for a rollicking medley of his parody music, his entire band dressed in costume for satirical hits like “Amish Paradise” and “White and Nerdy.” As night fell, Vampire Weekend, whose new album Only God Was Above Us was one of critics favorites of 2024, delivered a gorgeous set with songs both old and new, punctuated by an electrifying solos from violinist Isabel Hagen.

Photograph by Perry Julien

Photograph by Perry Julien

Photograph by Perry Julien

Photograph by Perry Julien

Photograph by Perry Julien

Photograph by Perry Julien

Closing out the weekend was pop-punk heroes Blink-182, another icon of the 1990s that drew original fans and new acolytes for a thrashing, strobe-filled finale. Drummer Travis Barker, guitarist-vocalist Tom DeLonge, and bassist-vocalist Mark Hoppus took a crowd of thousands on an enthusiastic romp through 25 years of music, sounding fresh and genuinely thrilled to be playing together even as they joked onstage about the optics of middle-aged men pulling punk antics onstage. “I felt my hip clicking,” Hoppus quipped after one jumpy-happy number. But as fireworks erupted overhead and spectators screamed along for the finale performance of “Damnit,” the energy onstage and off felt absolutely timeless.

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