Atmosphere Painted Seattle Gold Last Night, Kind Of
DJ Rare Groove spins for the crowd before Atmosphere's set.
Slug's tidy ponytail gleams, silhouetted against changing red, green and aqua lights. He moves his body like he's got something to clarify. "Oh, you know this one too?" he asks the deliriously excited crowd, and of course the answer is yes. In Seattle, Atmosphere's emcee Slug--dark, emotionally tortured, pensive Lothario Slug--is a god. We seem to prefer our rockstars on the brooding but safe side, thank you very much; the show was a Huge, Glittering Success, despite Seattlest's sense of something lacking from the actual music.
It's hard to pin down what, precisely, is the draw to Atmosphere's music. When all's said and done, Slug's live rap isn't exactly aggressive, though it's calculated. His smooth-cornered, growly lyrics work best for stirring headier emotions, rather than fire and blood. If you're not paying close attention to the words, most of Atmosphere's songs aren't that memorable (and they even had live guitar, keyboard and vocal accompaniment, which didn't add much). Yet Slug and producer Ant can sell out the Showbox SoDo, reap thousands of dollars in merchandise, and inspire rabid fandom. Is it a cult of personality?
Slug is entrancing, indeed. Before Abstract Rude's set, DJ Rare Groove (pictured above) and Slug himself hosted a truly fun-to-watch impromptu karaoke session with several fans, a couple of whom exhibited remarkable rapping prowess. One particularly enthused, attention-grabbing fangirl (not one of the talented amateurs) sidled up to Slug early in the game and refused to leave until the emcee bodily pushed her to the other side of the stage. He handled her lunacy with grace, though, even defending her against the crowd's boos. ("She's funny." Whatever. She's crazy.)
Ab Rude is laidback, reggae-inspired, and happy; he easily rhymes "enthusiasm" with "orgasm", advising us to "never argue with a woman, 'cuz she's always right." We had forgotten that we saw him open for Brother Ali earlier this year until he broke into an upbeat rendition of "Mike, Aaron, and Eddie"--one of only a few songs that stuck out in a sea of wordy celebrations of the marijuana plant and other such Cali feel-good fare.
All in all, though we'll never be as excited about Slug & Co as some of our friends and neighbors obviously are, we heard a couple great beats and felt the thrill of the Enormous Concert experience last night. The karaoke was a brilliant touch, the psycho fangirl brought significant spice, and there was a lovely minute or two of beautiful singing from Mankwe Ndosi (accompanying vocalist); otherwise, it wasn't a terribly inspiring show for us. Were you there? What did you think?
