Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Why Shaky Knees? Why Big Ears? Why Here? Why Now?


As you probably guessed - because we just about said as much - we didn't make it out last night to see The Orb at Terminal West, but we will make it out tonight, even though it's an absolutely rotten, rain-soaked, traffic-bound bummer of an evening, to see Thor & Friends and Wye Oak at The Earl.

As expected, the lineup for Atlanta's 2019 Shaky Knees Festival was announced today.  This will be the festival's sixth year of existence, and over the years, we've managed to attend every day of every year of the festival.  We're close to claiming every hour of every day of every year of the festival, but if we're being honest here, we did sleep in late a few of those days and got there late, and we were discouraged by the big crowds for the so-so headliners a few times and left early.  But by and large, our attendance has been near perfect.

To repeat what we said yesterday, when we left the last day of the festival last year, that is, when we finally dragged our sorry, old-man butt home after three-days on our feet watching a seemingly endless parade of bands, we had a suspicion it might have been our last Shaky Knees.  We might not go in 2019, we thought, unless the lineup was an absolute killer.

The lineup came out today, and to be honest it's pretty darn good - it's certainly better (in our opinion) than Coachella and it's arguably the best festival lineup announced yet this year, but despite all that it's still not looking good for us getting back out into the crowd again.  Let's break down that lineup:

Tame Impala. Good band.  Great band, in fact a killer band, and absolutely qualified to be a headliner.  But. . .  they headlined Shaky Knees just a couple years ago (been there, done that) and although what they do is great, they're not likely to do anything new or different this time around.  In fact, most of the audience will probably be perfectly satisfied if they played the exact same set as their last appearance here. But anyway, we typically don't go to festivals for the headliners (although a bad headliner can keep us from going) and at this point in their career, Tame Impala fall into the "neutral" territory - not an attractant, but not a repellant, either.

Beck. Another eminently qualified headliner.  We've never seen Beck perform, but that says something right there - he's been around for well over 20 years now, we've probably had scores of opportunities to see him, and yet we were never motivated enough to actually get up and go.  Another "neutral"  - not a repellant, not an attractant. Part of the draw of a festival is the chance to scratch a couple names of our bucket list, but at this point, we've apparently grown pretty comfortable with Beck being in the bucket. 

Cage the Elephant.  We don't like them.  There, we've said it.  We saw them headline at Music Midtown a few years back, and couldn't even last through their entire set.  I know they have fans, loyal fans too, but they're not for us and as a headliner, they serve as a repellent.  Unless, of course, they're on Sunday night, which would give us a good alibi for heading home early to get a jump start on Monday morning.  .  .


Incubus.  Yeah, right (sarcasm).  It's still 2001.  Pass.

Tears for Fears.  Yeah, right (sarcasm),  It's still 1991.  Pass.  . .  Okay, if we're still being honest, several of their songs are among our guilty pleasures and sound great on soundtracks, but live at a festival?  We don't think so, and can only imagine the number of boomers crowding the stage for their set.  

Gary Clark, Jr.  Nice guy.  Saw him at the inaugural Shaky Knees in 2013.  Been there, done that.  Pass.

Interpol.  Nice guys.  Good band  Have they done anything lately?  Don't get us wrong, we don't dislike them, but they're not enough to make us overcome our reluctance to attend this year's festival. Pass.

Foals.  Nice guys,  Good band.  Saw them at an awesome show at The Goat Farm a few years ago. Been there, done that.  Pass.

Father John Misty.  Love him.  Listen to him all the time.  But for some reason, we passed on seeing him when he played The Tabernacle last summer here in Atlanta.  This is part of what we'll be regretting if we don't go to Shaky Knees next year.

Tash Sultana.  Literally, who?

Grouplove.  Meh.  They have their moments and they have their fans, but we're pretty assured we won't have pangs of regret missing them if we don't go. Pass.

Phosphorescent.  Put on a terrific show at Center Stage a few years ago, played Shaky Knees two years back (we think two, or was it three?).  They can be a little too laid back for a festival setting, though.  Pass.

The Struts.  Literally, who?

Tyler Childers.  See above.

By now, we're down to the fifth line of the poster.  This is usually around where our interests really kick in - those obscure, left-of-center bands we've come to know and love.  Dashboard Confessionals and Liz Phair certainly fit that bill, in very different ways, but we don't feel our hearts breaking if we pass.

Sharon Van Etten - Our favorite, our indie sweetheart.  We love Sharon and are extremely psyched over the couple of songs we've heard so far from her new record, her first after a few years' hiatus. If we do wind up going to Shaky Knees, Van Etten will be a large part of the reason.  If we don't, she will be what we most regret missing.

Deerhunter and Oh Sees - See?  It is a good lineup after all.  But both of these bands tour a lot and play Atlanta frequently.  We've seen them both several times.  Do we need to stand for three days under the Georgia sun to see them again?  That's not a rhetorical question.  That is literally what we're mulling over in our minds.  Along with Ms. Van Etten, they're reasons for going.

The Dandy Warhols and Honne - Meh, and then literally who?  

After that, we can start cherry-picking through the remaining lineup.  Sure, Atlanta's Black Lips always put on a great show, but they play here all. the. time. (including a previous year's Shaky Knees) and we're not going to either night of their two-night stand next weekend at The Earl.  Japanese Breakfast, Mark Lanegan and Soccer Mommy would all be interesting, they're exactly those middle-of-the-poster kinds of bands we love, but after that, it's The Joy Formidable (Shaky Knees 2013), Foxing, and The Nude Party, and that's about it.  After Low Cut Connie, the rest of the bands on the poster are all literally who's.

So anyway, all that sounds pretty negative, but you still might be surprised and find we're there anyway for the seventh straight year (we do love our traditions here at WDW).  You only live once - you might as well hear as much live music as you can.  

If we do go, it will be to see Father John Misty and Sharon Van Etten, but there's a variant of Murphy's Law that says if you go to a festival for only two bands, they will both be performing at the exact same time. That being the case, we'll restate it and say that if we do go, it will be for Father John and Van Etten, as well as Deerhunter, Oh Sees, Japanese Breakfast, Mark Lanegan, Soccer Mommy, Foxing, and if time permits, The Joy Formidable and Liz Phair.  The crowds will keep us away from Tame Impala, but that's still not a bad lineup, and possibly even stronger than the last Shaky Knees.

But anyway, all that took us a lot longer to write down than for you to read, and we have to go and get ready for tonight's show at The Earl.  Sorry if we offended anyone with our blunt assessments of the bands, and hope we didn't discourage anyone else thinking about attending this year's festival from going.  For the record, we're still very pro-Shaky Knees and we hope that it keeps on keeping on, but we may be finally recognizing that we're now too old and our musical taste too idiosyncratic to really enjoy the festival as we did in years past.   

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