J.K. Simmonds3 years ago, my first big gig with DMNDR was photographing Atmosphere. That seems so long ago, but in reality, it isn’t. What does seem like a long time, is listening to Atmosphere for the past 20 years. I was fortunate enough to photograph them about the same time last year as well, at the same venue, 3 years in a row, and I was still fucking stoked to see them AGAIN. But I cannot forget about deM atlaS either. I never heard of this guy until photographing him last year, and since have bought every album he has.
For the second time, and almost the exact day a year apart, I was in the press pit ready to photograph deM atlaS. He recently released his latest album “Bad Actress” and its just as good as his first album, if not better. But this album has some country twang/rock to it. Oh, if you didn’t know, deM atlaS is a rapper, and hes fucking amazing. Personally, when I think of Minneapolis, rap isn’t the first music genre to jump to mind, but sure as shit, he as good at it. His lyrics are poetic about his rough history, the tough shit he goes through, and the bright side of life. Never knew such sad topics could be so uplifting and inspiring. My favorite song, which is the ONLY rap song on my workout playlist (as its all metal) is Whatabout off his DWNR album. To me, its a song about “FUCK YOU” to a certain current government, and how he doesn’t give a shit and continues to kick ass. Most of his songs are patriotic, which I find very unique about him. Not many rappers can clearly and poetically call out the government in an intellectual way like he does. Honestly, I don’t know why he isn’t more famous. He is smooth af, and Im not the biggest rap fan.
This is another show where I wasn’t sure if I was more excited for the opener of the main act. But there I was for the third year in a row about to photograph Atmosphere. Even though I’ve already photographed Ant and Slug, I was still giddy to see them live again. I guess it’s because I’ve been listening to them for about 20 years, and they still kick ass. You can tell they’ve been around for some time by the age of the crowd, shit, just called myself out for being old, fml. That doesn’t mean there weren’t any young fans there, which actually caught me off guard. Promoting their latest album “Mi Vida Local” , they opened up strong and loud as shit as they do. But my favorite part of their show, is how Slug (singer), transitions from each song. He tells a small story, which just barely references to the next songs title, then all of a sudden the crowd knows and they lose their shit, like I did. He even said in between one song, that we were an old crowd and wanted to hear older shit, which we all agreed. Hitting the classics like “God Loves Ugly” and “Sunshine”. One other classic they did was “Fuck you Lucy”, which resonates with me at the moment gong through a break up, but with a different name.
Anyways, enough of me rambling about how awesome these guys are. If you haven’t heard of deM atlaS yet, I am sure you will. Go listen to him right now. And if you haven’t heard of Atmosphere, you’re just weird and should go listen right now, and I’m serious.
