HANDS IN THE ATMOSPHERE ATMOSPHERE/ Evidence/ Adam Crook/ Aero D Villa Friday, May 11, 2012

HANDS IN THE ATMOSPHERE

ATMOSPHERE/ Evidence/ Adam Crook/ Aero D
Villa
Friday, May 11, 2012

Friday night was a double blessing for hip hop fans, with live veterans Atmosphere and Evidence doing their first club gigs in Perth to promote their latest albums – The Family Sign and Cats & Dogs, respectively.
Aero D opened the night with an entertaining set that ended with the reflective track Today. Adam Crook was next up, inviting the crowd to wish ‘happy birthday’ to his DJ, Rob Shaker, before performing a number of songs from his recently released debut album, One Of A Kind. The dreadlocked rapper was an amiable stage presence with Push The Pen and upbeat set closer Sunday Sesh well received.
Evidence took the stage just before 10pm. Decked out in a plain black long sleeve shirt and a nondescript cap, the Los Angeles MC looked like he was on his way to the gym. This no-frills appearance extended to his performance, as he quickly won over the crowd with his energetic but seemingly effortless rapping. His set was largely drawn from his acclaimed Cats & Dogs record with early highlights including It Wasn’t Me and Red Carpet. His DJ Premier-produced single You had hands up throughout the venue, before Evidence’s set ended with Celeb Reality, an uplifting freestyle over Lil Wayne’s Let The Beat Build.
The set moved quickly from song to song, with Evidence largely keeping onstage banter to a minimum. There was one memorable exception, though – when he declared “I’m so glad I can say the word ‘cunt’ here. I can’t say that at home” before repeating it a few more times for good measure.
Far more talkative was Atmosphere front man Slug, who stepped onstage with a cheesy smile and childish wave to loud roars, joined by producer Ant on the turntables, Nate Collis on guitar and Erick Anderson on keys.
Slug peppered the interludes between songs with humorous observations and self deprecating asides. Whether commenting on the layout of Villa (“all of a sudden I thought I was in that Mad Max: [Beyond] Thunderdome shit”), his set list (“we’re not just here to perform our old shit; we’ve got to try and shove some of the new shit down your throats too”) or fans rapping along with him (“you might as well have Atmosphere karaoke night; it’s a lot cheaper”), he proved himself a master at building a rapport with his audience.
    It also helped that he is one of hip hop’s most passionate performers, and that the group’s set drew heavy on crowd favourites from throughout his career. His recent single, lycanthrope tale Became, was an odd choice for an opener, but he soon had punters onside with juke-joint-jazz influenced performance of Guns And Cigarettes.
A few lesser known tracks, such as Bird Sings Why The Caged I Know and Onemosphere were thrown in between the crowd favourites like Shoulda Known and Sunshine, and the band gave one of Atmosphere’s oldest and most popular songs, 1995’s God’s Bathroom Floor, a jazzy rework to appreciative claps from the crowd.
The set ended with some of his hardest hitting tracks – Trying To Find A Balance, the brooding Shrapnel and a distortion heavy take on Scapegoat – and two of his most touching - Little Man and Yesterdays – before a well received encore of Always Coming Back Home To You, Lovelife and My Notes.