By Jason Genegabus

Jason Genegabus photos

I had a feeling it was going to get a little nuts at Pipeline Cafe on Saturday.

Maybe it was the MySpace bulletin from the BAMP Project crew that warned procrastinators just NINE tickets were left by Friday afternoon. Or maybe it was the feeling I got while doing some background research for my cover story in last week’s HiLife.

After more than a decade on the grind as independent artists, it seems that “If Life Gives You Lemons…” and the “Paint the Nation” tour are the final steps Atmosphere needs to take before reaching critical mass with mainstream listeners.

During their third visit to Hawaii last weekend, Slug and Ant gave longtime followers what they needed while gaining fans with a high energy set of both new and old material.

I got there pretty early, just to make sure I could find parking and get situated before the opening act.

Mission accomplished, but I was using a different camera than I normally do. And it didn’t help that there were a bunch of rookies in the photo pit that night.

Long story short: I didn’t get the best pictures of The Spacifics and Creed Chameleon.

Sorry.

At least I went from this:

To this:

In a relatively short amount of time.

After their set was finished, I ran into Spacifics drummer Kelii Wong, who told me Creed had thrown out copies of their new, self-titled EP into the crowd. I missed that opportunity, but got lucky a few minutes later when DJ Revise generously passed along his copy so I could share with all of you.

Here’s “Choke,” the first track off the three-song sampler that also features MCs Meiso and Risup:

 The Spacifics feat. Creed Chameleon - "Choke": Play Now

For details on where you can pick up a copy of “The Spacifics SIQ EP,” send an e-mail to the guys at SIQ Records.

If you’ve ever been to a concert at Pipeline, you know how hot it can get when it’s a sellout. The cool thing (pun intended) about the club nowadays is the addition of industrial-strength air conditioning ducts.

At the push of a button, giant plumes of cold air shoot out from the ceiling. It gets kind of loud for a second, but the noise is well worth it for the cool air that follows:

Not long after Creed and The Spacifics finished their set, Hot 93.9’s DJ Jimmy Taco was back to introduce Atmosphere to the crowd. By now, the room had filled nearly to capacity, with a lot of underage females screaming their heads off when Ant jumped behind the turntables.

When Slug emerged a few seconds later, those same ladies – along with pretty much everyone else in the club – went B-A-N-A-N-A-S:

Dude was moving way too fast for my camera. It was frustrating, but led to sort-of artsy shots that I’m not normally after.

I liked this one:

And like I said, the crowd seemed to really like Atmosphere:

If you want to see more from the concert, check out this video I posted on Vimeo (the YouTube version is available here). Just be aware that there might be some language that’s inappropriate for younger viewers.

Make sure to watch this footage of Slug and Creed freestyling towards the end of the night, too.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 24th, 2008 at 4:50 pm and is filed under Nightlife, Music, Video, Picture Blogs, Audio, Adventures in Clubland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.