LIVE PERFORMANCE REVIEWS
Atmosphere Owns Portland
Josh Brown
If it’s true that God loves ugly, as emcee Slug of Atmosphere preaches, than the devil must love the ugly’s beautiful music.
When it was announced that Atmosphere would be coming to Portland for a performance, I jumped at the chance to become a ticket holder. Not only would I be seeing one of my favorite hip-hop performers live for the first time, but it would also be my first concert post-21st-birthday. And I had assumed based on everything I knew about them that Atmosphere would be a great live performance, but I had no clue what kind of magnitude of an impact they could possibly make on Portland. Needless to say, I was due for an eye-opening, culture shock on the night of April 13th at the Roseland Theatre in downtown Portland.
Before the show started, I had no clue as to who else would be performing other than Atmosphere. I found out though, the hard way.
The first group was a trio that consisted of a drum player, the female vocalist and keyboard player, and a guy in a suit who twisted knobs on a mixer with one hand while being confused as to what to do with his other. This group sucked because of both by their stage presence and their sound. The only thing keeping them together was the drummer, I determined, who seemed too good to be stuck with them.
The second performer was a guy named P.O.S. and his boombox … or so he introduced. To describe him perfectly would be a very bad version of Immortal Technique who fell victim to the punk movement of the late 90’s. He message was that he was pissed off, seemingly about everything, from textbooks being expensive to him being fat. I could have cared less, and might have given some props for his rapping ability had he not tried to mix in punk screams throughout each rhyme. He mannerisms were horrible, as he looked almost desperate to entertain the crowd with ridiculous expressions and half-assed dancing. The best thing of his performance was when he walked off stage, plain and simple.
The third act, and final before Atmosphere, was a Northwest group by the name of Grayskul. They consisted of two emcees, a DJ, and a bass player. Interesting musical experiment, I thought, but turned out not too bad. I would compare them to Dilated Peoples, but that would only take away from Grayskul. One of the emcees was too annoying, the other wasn’t on the mic enough, and the DJ (DJ Wicked), was flat out awesome. Mixed with the bass player, they had one hell of a song. I suppose if I had heard of them before, knew a couple of their songs, I would have gotten a little more into them. But I will defiantly be keeping my ears out for them in the future.
Finally, Atmosphere began setting up. I was surprised by the stage, as I saw no turntables. Atmosphere is a duo formed by an emcee and a DJ, but for live shows, apparently a live band replaced the DJ. I could handle this, as I figured that a different sound to all the songs I already love would be an experience worth being apart of. The band finally came out, started playing a few notes while the lights dimmed. Slug would be joining them on the stage soon, and the crowd felt it. The moment before his appearance was inevitable, the guitarist stopped, looked into the crowd, as said, “What the fuck are you doing?” Slug then jumped on stage, and repeated the question. “What the fuck are you doing?”
By this time, the stage-dwellers were pumping their arms back and forth in rhythm with the beat. Slug then ordered everyone to “Put down their fuckin’ hands,” which they promptly did. He looked at a couple guys and said, “Why the fuck are you fighting? We’re trying to start a fuckin’ show here.” He then ordered the two idiots to put up their hands, which they did without hesitation, before he ordered one to move 20 feet to the other side of the crowd. “Just fuckin’ separate and leave each other alone so we can get on with this,” he demanded.
Within the moments, the show began; Slug in the middle of the stage surrounded by a live band consisting of a guitarist, a bass player, a drummer, and a guy on the keys. This combination made for an awesome sound, as Slug’s poetic lyrics flowed seamlessly with the rock and roll altered hip-hop beats. Soon, he got to the song “Like Today,” laying the first part of the song down perfectly in coalition with the fans’ reenactment of the lyrics. When he got to the line “Shoved a Q-Tip in my ear, well what do we have hear,” the crowd went bananas. “It appears as if a piece of me has got motivation,” he quipped with a smirk on his face, before thrusting the mic outwards to pick up the crowd reaction. “Aint nothin’ wrong with a little morning masturbation,” the crowd screamed out, finishing Slug’s lyric. The music then abruptly stopped, as Slug turned his back to the crowd. “No matter where I go,” he said calmly. “Everyone knows that fuckin’ part. It must be the greatest shit I’ve ever written or something,” he boasted.
Slug clearly controlled this audience. While the other performers had to work to the get the crowd into it, the crowd at the Roseland was Slug’s puppet. They did as he wished.
Out of nowhere, Slug began rapping “Give it to me baby, yeah, give it to me raw,” giving props to the late ODB. A surprising, but welcomed show of respect to a fallen hip-hop artist who will never be given the respect he always deserved.
After a while of playing a wide range of songs from all of their albums, Slug then asked if he could talk for a moment. He mentioned Sage Francis, prompting the crowd to explode in cheer. He then mentioned the Living Legends, Aesop Rock, Jean Gray and other underground artists. Slug then noted that most people haven’t heard of these people or heard their music, but they should. This was his family, and while he appreciated the support Atmosphere, he thought these others deserved the same attention. He referred to all those people who hadn’t heard of his family as being “uber-important” to him.
Then he addressed the underground/independent supporters, specifically the ones who were anti-commercial hip-hop. He then proceeded to give them all a big “FUCK YOU” for being so close-minded, and trying to define what hip-hop his. “Music is music,” he said. “Stop trying to fucking classify it when you have no right to do so.” He pointed out that you can not like commercial hip-hop, but you shouldn’t disrespect it. He finally made his point of the whole speech, when he said, “And if you’re still angry, go become a fuckin’ rapper and try to change it yourself. I did it, and so can you…” Atmosphere then went into their next song.
Another thing I noticed about the show was Slug’s unusual choice for beverage. Usually, performers have a plethora of water bottles on hand. Slug, staying true to everything he raps about, did things a little differently. Instead of water bottles, Slug had several bottles of V-8 on stage. “How odd, yet very interesting,” I thought to myself.
The show was only getting better. He preformed a couple of my favorite Atmosphere songs, “The Woman with the Tattooed Hands,” and “Don’t Ever Fucking Question That,” which sounded incredible live with the band. I was still so amazed by how many people knew all the lyrics. I figured most of the people there were there just to be there. It was a pleasant surprise though to see Slug and Atmosphere get so much support. “It’s about fucking time,” I thought to myself.
Towards the end of the show, he talked about the merchandise table. He said if you go back there, the “don’t buy Atmosphere shit.” He was firmly plugging all three groups who opened the show for him, telling us, the fans, to spend our couple extra bucks on one of their CD’s instead of Atmosphere stuff. “Fuck Atmosphere. They already blew up and sold out,” he shouted in customary Slug fashion.
On one of the last songs, he stopped in the middle and noticed a girl in the front row taking pictures of him with her camera phone. He looked at here and said, “What the fuck are you taking pictures of?” He then reached down and took her cell phone, looked at it, and flipped it closed. He tucked it in his pocket and walked away, before turning around and saying, “Go ahead and call me later. You know the number.” He gave it back, of course, but it was an awesome pick-up line regardless.
He finished the show with a freestyle rhyme about Portland, and preformed one last song, and that was it. But it was an awesome way to finish off an awesome show. He was so into the music, giving props as much as possible to the band members, especially the guy on the keys. You could tell he was a fan of music, and was truthful when preaching about “music is music.” It was refreshing to see a rapper have so much respect for other genres of music, and so much appreciation for the art of playing musical instruments.
Complimented with the live band, the amazing stage presence and the overall puppet-mastery of the crowd, Slug made the Atmosphere concert one to never forget.
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