Atlanta Gets Shaky: Shaky Beats 2018
The Shaky Beats sign at Shaky Beats Music Festival 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Shaky Beats Music Festival at Central Park in Atlanta, Georgia just concluded its third run and it’s hard to put into words the mayhem that occurred over the weekend of May 11th through May 13th of 2018. This year’s lineup was stacked from top to bottom with some of the best names in the EDM genre. Throughout the weekend, Atlanta gave welcome to G Jones, Ludacris, Borgore, Ookay (LIVE), and Kayzo. And that’s only naming a few!
Friday kicked the weekend off with a bang with G Jones on the Peachtree stage. G Jones brought the heavy bass to Atlanta and kicked off the weekend with some wicked wubs. G Jones payed homage to his buddy Bassnectar several times throughout his set by touching on hits like “Mind Tricks” and “Underground”. His set kicked off the weekend with heavy bass that brought the head bangers out bright and early that day. It was the perfect way to kick off the festival for this year.
One set on Friday that brought all of Atlanta out to Central Park to get down and boogie was Ludacris. His set was an absolute dance party from start to finish. Ludacris came on roughly ten to fifteen minutes late, but pushed past his set time by about twenty minutes. As he opened his set, he let everyone know that he was ready and willing to play his whole discography. He pretty much went through all his number one hits during his time on the Peachtree stage. The crowd got to boogie to “Number One Spot”, “Stand Up”, and “What’s Your Fantasy”. And that’s not even scratching the surface on his set. Speaking of scratching, Ludacris had support from DJ Infamous. DJ Infamous is a force to be reckoned with at Shaky Beats. He definitely know how to hype up a crowd and get everyone groovin’.
And of course, we can’t forget the closing act from Friday night. The masked Marshmello himself came out to Shaky Beats to throw down a face melting set. Marshmello helped kick off the very, first ever Shaky Beats. Seeing him progress from one of the smaller stages to the main stage in just two years is an indicator of how rapidly the Mellogang is growing. His fans, known as the Mellogang, came out to Shaky Beats in full force sporting their DIY Mello-heads. Marshmello’s set threw down some groovy tunes that payed his respects to other well-known DJ’s in the industry while sprinkling in some of his heavy hitters like “LoVe U” and “BLocKs”.
Even though Friday kicked things off full force, Saturday came in for the kill and showed Shaky Beats had no intentions of taking it easy after the first day. The day had a killer lineup featuring Ookay (LIVE), Borgore, Excision, San Holo, and Shiba San. The day got super groovy when Ookay (LIVE) took the stage and we had a guest appearance from Roochute Ron at Central Park. Roochute Ron and the Festival Squad came to boogie with their Roochute and they conquered the whole festival set by set. People were thrilled to see the Roochute make an appearance at Shaky Beats. It’s literally the feeling you would get when you would walk into gym class as a kid and the teacher would pull out the parachute and the little scooter boards. The feeling of utter excitement and wonder washes over you when you see Roochute Ron and his squad show up. Things got super funky under the chute as Ookay cranked out his live version of “Next 2 Me”. We hope you were able to catch our live stream of that moment on Instagram. Concert Hopper would like to thank Roochute Ron, The Festival Squad and Ookay (LIVE) for the super groovy hour of dancing we got to enjoy on Saturday at Shaky Beats.
To take things from groovy and funky tunes to heavy bass in your face, Borgore conquered the Peachtree Stage after Ookay (LIVE). Borgore came through with a killer set list featuring songs like “Daddy”, “CoCo Puffs”, and his infamous hit “Nympho”. His set had everyone rocking the rail and I am surprised the rail didn’t shatter. Borgore is a classically trained musician who plays Saxophone and Piano and who is also able to produce some of the most filthy dubstep drops in the industry. He is also lined up to be working with artists like Gucci Mane later this year. Concert Hopper had the pleasure of sitting down with Borgore after his face melting set and chatting with him about his new releases and what he could possibly have planned for the future. You can read more about the opportunity we had to sit down with him here.
Sunday brought some big names to Central Park such as; Ofenbach, Medasin, Troyboi, Kayzo and Seven Lions. One set that was absolute mayhem from start to finish was Kayzo. Kayzo brought the Piedmont stage to its knees with a set riddled with bangers. From dropping a tribute to the late and great Chester Bennington from Linkin Park to getting all the head bangers riled up with a remix of Papa Roach’s “Last Resort”, Kayzo is definitely a former punk kid gone EDM. Kayzo is the place to be if you’re into some punk rock remixed with face melting, thrashing drops. He wasn’t the only artist throwing down on the last day, but he was definitely one of the highlight artists of that day.
Shaky Beats 2018 was an amazing follow up to Shaky Knees the previous weekend. This festival has bloomed into a wonderful place for people in the South to connect through the EDM genre. The community is growing and this year the festival took place at Central Park instead of Centennial Park like previous years. We here at Concert Hopper have loved watching the Shaky festivals in Atlanta evolve into what they are today. We certainly hope that this festival stays at Central Park.
