ATMOSPHERE/ BROTHER ALI/ KIDZ IN THE HALL – LIVE: Bristol Thekla – 22 June 2008

Yeah. I know. I've seen better pictures too. Apparently the photo gimp took this on his phone as his camera 'got stolen on holiday.' Always an excuse.

ATMOSPHERE/ BROTHER ALI/ KIDZ IN THE HALL – LIVE: Bristol Thekla – 22 June 2008
All in all it was a most satisfactory evening, although had I designed events myself there were a few kinks I might have ironed out. The first of these was the MC in the car park who handed me his CD, began rapping at me without so much as a by-your-leave and then unsuccessfully demanded “Two quid.” Secondly, there was initially some doubt as to whether I was on the guest list though asking the girl on the door, “Am I on the guest list?” cleared this up. Furthermore, since I was indeed ‘on the guest list’, it seemed only right to check-in my hoodie despite the fact that Kidz In The Hall were already half way through their set. Which brings me neatly to the third issue. While house prices may have dropped, cloakroom charges can be added to the list of shit which now costs more – like fifty per cent more – though admittedly it has been a quid to put your coat in since Atmosphere’s career began.

Although I missed bomb track The Blackout (if they played it) I can confirm that the rest of Kidz In The Hall’s current and back catalogue sounds a lot better live than it does on record and that the Kidz (who may well end up eclipsing Atmosphere in terms of both hip-hop fame and sales) combo of Double O banging away on his little drum pad and Naledge leaping around makes a more than capable warm up act.

Since I had been labouring under the illusion that Brother Ali was the next support act (rather than the role he seemed to be filling which was equal billing with Slug as frontman for Atmosphere) I missed the start of Atmosphere’s set which may or may not have been Trying To Find A Balance from 2003’s Seven’s Travels. I couldn’t help reflecting that DJ/Producer Ant looks like a cross between keyboardist Ron Mael from seventies weirdos Sparks and Antonio Banderas in Desperado and by the end of the evening I was wondering if Ant and Banderas had ever been seen in the same room together. Add this to the fact that he was sharing the stage with the famously albino Ali and you wonder if Slug was feeling a bit too normal. Never mind, it’ll probably give him something to write an angsty track about. Having said that, Atmosphere’s reflective emo leanings were largely left in their flight cases tonight – this evening was all about moving the crowd and move they did. I noticed more than a few band obsessives who seemed to be mouthing the lyrics to every song – though as Slug later pointed out – some of them must have been seven or eight years old when the band first started recording. It also says something about how prolific the band is that I own three of their albums and I only recognised about half the tracks they played. At one point it occurs to Slug that maybe they “Better play something off the new album real quick,” and, on cue, Ant triggers the acoustic chords of one of If Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold’s highlights - Puppets. And he knows exactly what he’s doing when he observes in a lazy drawl, “If you’ve heard this before, y’all know what’s coming next right?” When the breakbeat kicks in it’s less smart went crazy than crazy went crazier. Clearly not a band to allow a crowd to rest, the sphincter-loosening bass synth of Shoulda Known rocks up next and by the time it’s finished, such is the mood that Slug can comfortably announce, “…Atmosphere. Bigger than Jesus. Bigger than syphilis,” to cheers. He pauses, “Y’all heard what I said right? Bigger than syphilis. How many of you have actually had syphilis.” Predictably a couple of hands remain up to general hilarity. “See. I’m already bigger than syphilis.” This type of humour and interplay pretty much encapsulated the mood all night. Slug makes it look easy but maintaining that kind of relationship across a mammoth two hour set is not. It helps that Brother Ali is just so palpably full of love for the crowd as he points out individuals in the crowd complimenting them on one thing or another and he and Slug reflect that it’s their first time in Bristol and first gig on a boat and ponder how Ali was working the crowd up so much he was trying to ‘flip the muthfucker over.”

At this point nature called and I find that the love has spread into the normally conversation free zone of the men’s toilets. Here I find nothing less than a scarecrow-featured MC rapping at a grinning group of males who would normally not even share eye contact. Then, while I’m pissing, I realise he’s rapping about himself, rapping about those men, about the man who just entered the toilet and even about me pissing – Mr Switch I think his name was – a freestyle legend – you heard it here first!

When I return encore one is Your Glasshouse, encore two, Strictly Leakage’s Crewed Up and then Slug’s telling us it’s been an “Epic show. You’re beautiful. We didn’t know what to expect!”. It might be a bad summer so far but there were no sad clowns tonight.
LINKS:
Atmosphere - Myspace
Rhymesayers
www.paintitgold.com
monkeyboxing.com