Atmosphere, Eyedea and Abilities & Blueprint

On February 7th, Atmosphere played a sold-out show at the Fillmore, the third time in the span of one year. Joining them were Eyedea and Abilities, and Blueprint, who earlier gave a teaser at Amoeba on Haight. As with every show, an unknown group took the stage as the opening act. Usually I make a note to myself to remember their name but this group sucked, so I didn't bother. One member of the duo stood in one spot the whole performance without even taking his mic off the stand. I admit their beats were okay but I was there to see a good show, and it just wasn't there.
Surprisingly, with no delay Eyedea and Abilities took to the stage to get the show started off right. Eyedea wasted no time in getting the crowd fired up by kicking off freestyles and bouncing ideas - no pun intended - off Abilities. Eyedea and Abilities alternated back and forth with Eyedea spitting two bars from the dome while Abilities tried to match the style and pitch by duplicating it on the turntables. I have attended many hip-hop shows and have never seen anything similar, so I was blown away. Next, they went into some older material such as "Big Shots" and "On This I Stand." In an effort to promote a new album to be released in March, Eyedea and Abilities also performed several new tracks such as "Now," "Paradise" and "One Twenty," a great live song. As they exited with cheers, Mr. Dibbs took the stage with a bandana covering his face.
I knew Slug of Atmosphere was on when I heard all the girls yell and the intro to "Trying to Find a Balance" come on. With a vast catalog, Slug had no trouble filling up at least an hour with "Like Today," "Mama Had a Baby and His Head Popped Off," "Fuck You Lucy" and "Shoes" while backed up by Blueprint on ad libs. Slug ripped through at least a dozen more tracks leaving the crowd in a frenzy while weed smoke filled the air. At one point, he grew visibly agitated when the record skipped through three consecutive songs. This called for Slug asking a girl to slap Mr. Dibbs since he left extra copies of the record back at the hotel. Slug also let Blueprint shine on "Final Frontier" and "Alchemy," his feature verse from an Aesop Rock song. It seemed the night was over as Eyedea and Abilities came back out to join Slug in a freestyle when Lyrics Born of the Bay Area's Quannum crew appeared on stage. Lyrics Born kicked a half-ass freestyle, but nonetheless, I left with a smile on my face, even as my feet throbbed with pain.
- Words and photo by Shariel Badal

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