Cypress Hill & Atmosphere take over San Diego

Good Vibes and happy times are amongst us! Ingredients include a full outdoor arena, a beautiful San Diego sunset, beer, nachos and smoothies on deck, with every seat in the house holding the perfect view; it was a recipe for for an incredible evening at San Diego State’s California Coast Open Air Theater on Saturday, August 14th. You might be seeing signs for pumpkin spice everything, but we are holding onto summer’s last rays of sunshine as long as possible! Some uncharacteristic clouds lit the sky orange, as DJ Z-Trip took the stage and put every ounce of nostalgic groove in both of his outstanding sets. Our two main chefs, Atmosphere and Cypress Hill, brought a truly fun and relaxed show for a real feel of normalcy, and also a probable contact high for how freely the dancing came. Yes, it’s good to be back people!

A real pioneer in the mixtape game, DJ Z-Trip is not somebody that you should be sleeping on. Opening the show by flashing his vinyl and reminding us of a good ol’ mixtape, Z-Trip performed a genre-bending mix that can be enjoyed regardless of your generation. In addition to opening the show, he also played a sweet set in between Cypress Hill and Atmosphere. His ear-catching mixes include an array of hits from artists like Daft Punk, The Smiths, DJ Kool, Linkin Park, Queen and Metallica.

The second that Atmosphere took the stage with “Puppets”, the tone was set for the night.

Anybody who wasn’t in their seat at this point was certainly running. The hip hop group consists of frontman rapper Slug (Sean Daley) and two deejays behind decks whom Slug calls “our favorite people in the entire world” (he wasn’t wrong though). Dripping with gratitude and animation, Slug delivered each and every line with the forces that wrote it, creating a vibe of peace and love to overcome the venue. Atmosphere graced us with favorites “Shoulda Known”, “The Loser Wins”, “Say Hey There” and “God Loves Ugly”.

After another hype sesh from DJ Z-Trip, Cypress Hill stormed the stage, starting off strong with “Real Estate”, off their 1991 debut A to the K. B-Real and Sen Dogg never missed a step, as their flow across the stage expanded into the audience, forming the connection of live music we all missed so much. Keeping the hits rollin’ strong like their blunts, the guys could be seen on stage salsa dancing, banging on conga drums and even inflating a giant blow-up skeleton smoking a joint, just before their hit “Roll It Up Light It Up Smoke It Up”. The early day hits came towards the end of the show, with “I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That”, “Illusions” and epically concluding the night with House of Pain’s “Jump Around”. Didn’t make the San Diego show? Don’t worry — this tour continues through August!

Photography by Franny Kovacs

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