On a hot summer evening typical of early August in Kansas City, Atmosphere and Slightly Stoopid took the stage at CrossroadsKC at Grinders. The positive aura of the First Friday crowd in the Crossroads arts district carried over into the audience at Grinders for this stop on the “Kicking Up Dust” tour.
Atmosphere took the stage opening with “Puppets” off 2008’s When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold. Emcee Slug flowed through the set playing older songs like “Party for the Fight to Write” and “The Woman with the Tattooed Hands” to newer tracks on an upcoming album to be released this year. He ended the night with ever popular “Trying to Find the Balance” prompting the crowd to yell about sticking their hands down the fronts of their pants in unison. Priceless.
During the set, front-man Slug called out a dude in the front who was acting like a jackass to those around him. This prompted the certain audience member to ask if he could get on stage, to which Slug replied “I’ve spent 15 years and $250 billion to get here, so no, you can’t get on stage.” The stage was adorned with LED lighting that would have caused epileptic seizures to the soberest of fans, of which there luckily were none. An impressive moment during the night was when Slug referred to the fans as being from both Kansas and Missouri, clearly someone has been brushing upon his atlas – most bands say ‘what’s up Kansas!’ when in town, which is a big no-no in the KCMO. (The MO stands for Missouri if you’re having trouble following along.)
In what one can only imagine is a scene that would have the late Bradley Nowell smiling down from above, a new generation of pot-smoking kids inked to the bone stirred about ready for headliner Slightly Stoopid to take the stage.
The smell of skunk and clove cigarettes hung in the humid air, which provided the perfect backdrop for the reggae and ska-inspired tunes from the band. At one point the band covered Operation Ivy’s “Hoboken.” Members wore various basketball and football jerseys, including a Chiefs jersey worn by saxophonist Karl Denson – KC represent! There were the elements one would expect from a Slightly Stoopid outdoor show including a fair amount of hula-hoops and glow sticks, as well as a lot of slow dancing.
All in all this show was the perfect beginning to the last weeks of summer here in Kansas City.
