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April 19, 2005
GRAYSKUL/ATMOSPHERE 4/13
ICE GORILLA:
"I've never seen this many fourteen year old girls in my life." It's the first thought that popped into my mind as I stumbled up the stairs of the Roseland Theatre last Wednesday night for the Atmosphere (Slug, Mr. Dibbs, and Ant) show. They were everywhere. Canoodling in corners with their pre-pubescent, mesh hat sporting boyfriends. Skulking around the edges, sneaking cigarettes they probably stole from their parents. Just fucking everywhere.
It did nothing to ease the apprehensive bubble that had been flip-flopping around my stomach for the majority of the day. This had the potential of being a damn good show. Slug is always, at least, a talented emcee. He has an uncanny knack for bouncing from songs about depression and drug-induced suicide to poignant political roasts to self-depracatingly autobiographical tracks with nary a flinch. Cuddle that right alongside his boundless energy and ridiculous cadence and you have the makings of a rap virtuoso.
Somewhere in the back of my head though I sensed a bad moon rising. In recent months, due to the breakout popularity of his recent Seven's Travel, he's become, to a certain degree, MTV fodder, a reliable alternative to the more mainstream qualities of say, Eminem. And I'm happy for the guy, it is always nice to see a deserving underground artist reach some level of popularity. But what does it mean for his live show? Is he going to suddenly pander to the masses and just crank out shit for an hour, drop a single for his encore, and then disappear? That's what worried me - I just didn't know.
The opening act, Grayskul (JFK and Onry Ozzborne with Rob Castro on bass guitar) really got me nervous. Picture Linkin Park but with a pony-tailed Asian guy growlin' and howlin' on EVERY song. Instead of head-nodding and fist pumping I felt like head banging and throwing elbows into my neighbor's lower back. Three or four songs into their overly long set I felt like popping some Vicodin to kill the ache that was quickly building in my head. These guys were trying too hard. They so wanted to be the Black Sabbath of hip-hop it came off as laughable, and laugh I did.
When Grayskul had finally pounded out their last rock-rap mash-up and skittered off to perform dark rituals and bite the heads of sheep, I was left with fifteen minutes to digest what had come before and make a final prediction on the fate of this show. My pre-show checklist: squadron of Abercrombied pre-teens? Check. Painful goth-rap opener? Check. Inability to ease pain with alcohol because of long lines of fratboys and douchebags? Chiggity-chiggity-check.
This show was going to suck harder than a back-alley colonoscopy.
If I have ever been as wrong about anything in my life I cannot recall it. Slug stepped onstage backed by a full band (including the most rockingest keyboardist of all time) at around eleven 'o' clock and proceeded to pound the living shit out of the audience for the next two hours. He stalked around stage like a lion hunting prey. Every song I'd ever heard from Slug or Atmosphere was processed through the presence of a live band and each was a musical masterpiece. Boom-bap became jazz, jazz became hip-hop power ballads, everything was tweaked and altered to make it beautifully fresh. Husticious turned to me and whispered, "I feel like my mouth is hanging open." It was just that fucking good.
And you know what? The fourteen year olds that so chagrined me at first added a whole new aspect to the show. To my shocked surprise these weren't just MTV-fed single-horders, these were seemingly die-hard fans who could rap along to every word of every song. Slug didn't need "When I say this, you say this" he could just stop rapping and the crowd would fill in the missing words. It was a spectacle worth fifteen dollars in itself.
Come twelve-thirty I was exhausted. Husticious and I, both weaving on our feets, wandered downstairs to the less crowded bar and watched the remaining parts of the show from semi-uncomfortable seats. Slug had drained us. His inexhaustable reserves of energy had sapped me dry and he was still going. Prowling across the stage, screaming lyrics at the top of his lungs. It seemed he could go on until the ends of eternity.
When the lights finally came on and the surly white-haired women gruffly told us to leave, I couldn't have been happier. I had set my expectations so low and been so amazingly blown away.
I tell you this: next time Atmosphere comes to town, buy a ticket early because that shit will sell out before you can blink. And if it does sell out, trade a kidney, turn over the deed to your house, hell, give away one of your children, just see the show.
DRINKS CONSUMED: One four dollar Budweiser that Husticious bitched about for twenty minutes.
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HUSTICIOUS:
As I am wont to do when it comes to hiphop shows, I entered Atmosphere's show based entirely on the recommendation of Ice Gorilla, who knows his rappers. I do not. However, I had heard many reports of Slug of Atmosphere's legendary lyrical prowess, which was more than enough to get my ass through the door. Also, the tickets were free, which is always a bonus.
After enduring the terrible goth-rap of openers Greyskul (replete with strobe light, a steam machine and a ponytailed Asian man howling at the moon like a coyote) I was ready for something cool, and Atmosphere delivered beyond anything I could have expected, even if I was familiar with his music. Slug's live presence is other-worldly; he gestures and articulates with terrific speed and precision, and paces around the stage like a caged animal. The energy trying to get out of him is a palpable thing--you can see it in his eyes and in the cords on his neck. He could be absolutely terrifying, but behind the power is this vulnerability that--sorry to be so cheesy--reaches all the way into your heart. The first thing Slug did when he arrived on stage was yell at two kids in the crowd who were fighting. He hadn't busted a single rhyme and already I could sense he was a good person. He went on to rhyme about women who had betrayed him, and to wax poetic about trying to stay true to his roots having achieved MTV-style popularity. At one point he told us all not to buy his records at the merch table because he was doing just fine--instead buy Greyskul's stuff and other local acts' stuff that are still struggling just to make a living at their art. It was amazing, and he was delivering this message without a trace of irony to a concert hall full of frat idiots and teenyboppers. They all cheered with gusto. In addition to entertaining me immensely, Slug lifted my spirits--here is an artist who is mesmerizing, powerful, masculine, fiercely intelligent, and by some miracle, kindhearted. I want him to get more popular. I want him to get bigger than Jay-Z. I want this because I can see it actually happening--Slug has the talent and charisma to do it, and once he's there he has the integrity and kindness to use his position for good, and not for evil.
Posted by H & IG at April 19, 2005 10:43 PM
Comments
hey guys, my name is Tristan, I rap under the name Amen Raw in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I agree with what you guys describe about an atmosphere show, I too visited an atmosphere concert not too long ago. Also packed with frat boys and ridiculous looking little girls in head-to-toe Hot Topic attire, pleather, dull spikes, fishnet stockings and all. I saw the line full of a mixture of punks and gangsters and I thought, well, this is going to be fun (yeah, right!). But then mys siter Nicole yelled for me and my friend Joe and I saw she was standing there smoking a cigarette around the corner, so I followed her and turned the corner to see her standing there shooting the shit with Slug himself. Well, joe had never seen what Slug looked like before, so we walked up and Nicole introduced him as Sean. We spoke for a moment and then he had to go inside. We entered the packed little Mexican Night Club called Club Alegria, where a hip hop show means mediocre Reggaeton or Mariachi for some damn reason, and I looked around the typical decorations of cheap pink and white balloons tied to posts and hand rails set the mood of a 13 year olds birthday. I half expected to bump my head into a pinata somewhere. DJ Rare Groove was opening for the show, spinning simple mix sets. Everything from Classic early nineties Snoop Doggy Dogg (thats right, I said Doggy) to Eyedea and Abilities. It was an all around impressive range of hip hop classics and shining examples of new school hip hop. Some of his records were warped and his needles sucked, but he seemed more mad than the crowd. Everybody finally shuffled their way into the cramped little fiesta cantina and Rare Groove left the stage and a scrawny white guy came out and took control of the tables. This duke called himself Turbo Nemesis. And his roommate/hetro-lifemate came out. None other than P.O.S. the leading MC in the Punk Hip Hop movement, reshly signed to rhymesayers within the last couple years, his charisma lit up the stage and the crowd went wild with his mixture of Soul, Punk, Metal, and Hip Hop. It was electrifying. He even thumb wrestled a kid while singing "P.O.S. is ruining my life" and challenged the whole crowd to thumb wars at the merch table. Now the crowd was jumping and breaking and popping and locking their asses off. It was astounding, when the lights went out I exited the hot little wooden box to smoke a cigarette and bumped into some local Santa Fe heads, all of which were wishing for Atmosphere to play the song off their new album (You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having) called "That Night" which was about our friend Marrissa that was raped and killed at an Atmosphere concert in Albuquerque at the Sunshine Theatre. We spoke on that for a moment and we heard the music crank again and this time it was BluePrint that took the stage. His set was the worst of the night but thats nt saying much, he mixed hip hop with 80's rock such as Queen and Metallica. Awesome mixing by DJ Rare Groove sitting behind him, once again in control of the Technics. My least favorite set of the night but thats not saying much. After BluePrint was finished it was time for an intermission and they set up for the live band that accompanied slug. (Yes the keyboardist was a straight up fucking PIMP! gotta love the afro pick with the Black Fist for a handle. Classy. Then they opened up with LoveLife and it was on from there. I muscled my up through the ocean of fans and stood on a bench against the wall next to a speaker leaing on the stage. One of the annoying little balloons got popped and with his dry humor Slug yelled somehting about "poppoing my balloon" and an ignorant gangster yelled at him an called him a pussy, soon there after he was knocked onto his ass by a little blond girl named jenny who stood about 5 feet five inches. I loved it. After the show wound down they called slug back for an encore and he asked what they wanted to hear and got the reply "Trying To Find a Balance" which he absolutely despises, which I thought a wee bit odd. So he did that and "The Woman With The Tattooed Hands" which is one of my all time favorites. All in all the concert was absolutely amazing. I sound like a groupie but the only concert that outshines that one was a Tool concert, but thats a different story. Thanks for reading guys, peace.
AMEN
Posted by: Amen Raw at May 14, 2006 8:29 PM
hey guys, cant talk long but will go in depth later, im originally from scotland, but i am living in wales now. I am going to Nottingham to see atmosphere and brother ali on the 10th of july, and i cant wait. His lyrics are awe inspiring, and have been an inspiration to some aspects in my life.
will be in touch about how the uk tour goes.
Posted by: Chrisy Kane at July 4, 2006 6:07 AM
haha. don't go to those guys' show then idiot. i don't like atmosphere's stuff, but they do put on a good show. sounds like you went into it thinking the worst. and as far as 14 girls liking hip hop.... have you checked out your radio rap homies fan base? haha.. college kids and young girls. props to slug. stop going to concerts...
i do like to read how "you" felt though. lol...
Posted by: dumbass at July 14, 2006 9:04 PM
