Funny thing about the MC/DJ duo that serves as a foundation for most rap music: The genre really comes to life when performed with live instruments.
Atmosphere, the Minneapolis “emo rap” group partially responsible for launching this country’s vibrant underground hip-hop scene, is on a small-venue tour without DJ Dibbs. According to Rhyme Sayers, the indie label Atmosphere’s Slug helped start, the group wants to tweak its live presence before launching a large-venue tour later this year to support its next CD.
Judging from the sold-out April 20 show at the Gothic, where teams of gleeful, barely legal fans were bleary-eyed and tripping over their feet before 10 p.m., Atmosphere can only get more popular by enhancing its sound with live instruments. Slug’s raspy, personal delivery is impossible to ignore. Pair that with the group’s consistent releases, hard-core touring and savvy Internet presence, and the result is one of the most electric hip-hop acts around.
– Elana Ashanti Jefferson
John Doe
The opening Dusty 45s laid down the fiery gauntlet when lead singer Billy Joe Huels literally set his trumpet on fire April 23 at the Lion’s Lair. But indefatigable rocker John Doe was pretty hot himself. Doe, his voice and muse as fresh as ever, played some X classics (“Poor Little Girl, “White Girl”) but he mostly delighted the packed crowd with surprising covers along with his fresh-faced Tucson touring band, The Nick Luca Trio (recommended by mutual pal Neko Case). They included the classic “Money (That’s What I Want),” the “Midnight Cowboy” theme song “Everybody’s Talkin”‘ and Dylan’s “She Belongs to Me.”
Other high points were “Back Room” from 2002, which Doe said was inspired by the back room of the Lion’s Lair, and “Ready,” the rockingest tune off his new CD, “Forever Hasn’t Happened Yet.”
The Dusty 45s may have produced the best musical moment of the night with their rendition of Cole Porter’s “I Love Paris,” with Screaming Trees drummer Mark Pickerel. But the highlight, as a friend said of Doe, was simply that “he just looked happy.” And so then was everyone else.
– John Moore
U2, night 2
The songs were basically the same as the first night, and the vibe was exactly the same, but there was something different about the second night of U2’s Vertigo 2005 tour at the Pepsi Center on April 22.
The first night, which kicked off with the lackluster “Love and Peace or Else,” started a bit slow. The second night started on a better note with “City of Blinding Lights,” the best track off the newish disc, and steamed forward with “Beautiful Day,” “Vertigo” and “Elevation” – a curious choice, given that “Vertigo” is obviously the poor and lazy man’s “Elevation.”
The set list varied by three songs – with the second night getting “Gloria,” “Bad” and “Original of the Species” all to itself – and the show started differently, save for the recorded lead-in courtesy of The Arcade Fire. But the shows were powerful displays of what an epic band can do touring material that is far from its best.
-Ricardo Baca
See www.denverpost.com/music for a full review of night No. 1.
