Posted on Monday 17 November 2008
The cold, blustery weekend came to the perfect end last evening, with Atmosphere and his crew closing the last chapter of the Paint the Nation Tour at the Vic Theatre. It wasn’t even summer when Slug and Ant last rocked the Metro, back in April upon When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold just dropped—and here it was, Chicago’s first snow fall and we were all back for some more. The sold-out show boasted a full house, thriving off one another’s energy to all of Atmosphere’s best back catalogue hits. I made the mistake of arriving at 8:25 or so, thinking that a 7:30 PM (at least as advertised on the Vic’s site) show could not have the headliner onstage so early—to find out Slug had already been rocking it out since 8:00. As a result, I had to camp out in the back, but to my luck, had a clear view of the stage, surrounded by fellow die-hard fans.
As soon as I walked in, I didn’t realize the Paint the Nation tour would be showcasing more classic numbers, since “Puppets” was the first track I heard. Right away, I noticed something was different from the last time I caught this duo, and it wasn’t just Slug’s haircut or missing ‘stache. It seemed like Mr. Daley wasn’t up on stage performing as this untouchable rap god; but rather, he was just having a super good time. Instead of me being so awestruck this time, I gathered the vibe that it was like he was just another one of us—hanging with a large group of his closest friends, up on stage to shoot the shit and belt out some beats—which is just what the crowd ate up. I’m not saying his performance wasn’t what it was last April, which by the way was PHENOMENAL, or any weaker/stronger, but Slug just managed to keep it so real it was natural. Like, I didn’t count down the days for the show of a lifetime, I just kind of KNEW, in the back of my head, that this would be raw.
In fact, I’ve seen Atmosphere four times now, and this is the first time Slug’s belted out nearly every one of my favorite older tracks. The super fan who stood by me, graciously allowing my Puma bag to pelt him in the arm as I swayed to the beat and scribbled my notes, is supposedly going to email me the exact track-by-track set list in exchange for my blurred out Kodak pics later on this evening—if this indeed is the case, I promise to tack on the set list in the comments section later on. At that point I can give you an exact play-by-play, but my knowledge of Atmosphere pre-God Loves Ugly/Lucy Ford is not what it should be so I can only mention my highlights of last night.
Click here to read our Top 5 highlights from the show (more…)
