Atmosphere at the Orpheum Theatre
When I closed my eyes and listened to Atmosphere’s Slug tear his way through “Trying To Find A Balance,” with DJ-producer Ant and a backing band in tow at the Orpheum Theatre on Wednesday, it took me to a better place. I journeyed to a world where Atmosphere posters weren’t fighting Dave Matthews Band and Radiohead for dormitory wall space, a utopia where some smug, mop-topped hobbyist wouldn’t lecture me about how Atmosphere represented “real hip-hop.” I could think about Slug as the impassioned and gimmick-less underdog he was (and for the most part still is) before 2005’s You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We’re Having came out. Then the spell was quickly broken by a girl in a vest fitted for a toddler, who was standing on the seat in front of me and repeatedly screaming, “Oh my God! Slug is so fucking hot!”
“You guys know you sold it out, right?” Slug asked the crowd, only to be answered with a brain-rattling roar.
Underdogs or not, it was pleasantly surprising to hear how well Atmosphere handled the live band configuration, never spiraling into rap-rock territory or overtly jammy nonsense. Guitarist-vocalist Nate Collis laid his bluesy riffing over the meandering organ sounds of keyboardist Erick Anderson, while Ant held down the backbeat with two turntables and a micropho—er, MacBook, of course. This formula worked particularly well for tunes like the nostalgically yearning “Yesterday,” which found Anderson playing an infectious piano line that sounds like it could’ve come from any number of late-’70s sitcoms. Meanwhile Slug’s reflective verses tugged ever-so-lightly at even our icy heartstrings, “Was that you? / Looked just like you / Strange things my imagination might do / take a breath, reflect on what we’ve been through / Or am I just going crazy because I miss you?”
Slug spat his way through a set that scaled well across the Atmosphere back catalog, with a bit of emphasis on 2008’s When Life Hands You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold. Arms went flailing during massive rap-alongs for “Like Today” from 2002’s Lucy Ford, and the surreal “God’s Bathroom Floor.” Just before Slug ripped through encore “The Best Day,” he had an interesting bit to say about any fans of his who might preach about what real hip-hop is or isn’t. “I’m a goddamned hippie, but when I hear Jay-Z say he’s a ‘pimp by blood, not by relation,’ I relate to that shit.” He continued, “I’m a goddamned hippie, but when I hear Chuck D on a Public Enemy record, I want to buy an AK-47 and shoot every white person in the vicinity.” This shit may never sink in for some of his fans, but we admire him for trying.
