Pop Break Live: Atmosphere and Iration at The Stone Pony Summer Stage – Friday August 5, 2022
Words + Photos by: Kimberly Wessels
The Sunshine & Summer Nights Tour with Atmosphere & Iration rocked out the Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park, New Jersey on Friday August 5 with openers, The Grouch with DJ Fresh and Passafire.
Due to inclement weather and the delays it caused, Passafire’s set was cut from this stop. The show started off inside with a small crowd for The Grouch with DJ Fresh’s set. We had waited for the weather to pass, gotten rained on, and everyone was ready to party.
Thunder rumbled defiantly overhead and a few flashes of lightning flickered off in the distance as fans waited, hoping the show would go on. In true irie fashion, despite a minor rain delay, the show forged on. Atmosphere took the stage complete in rain gear to really get the party started. What was most impressive about the hip hop duo from Minneapolis, Minnesota was their stage presence.
Rapper Slug (Sean Daley) commanded the stage like he owned it, which in that moment, he absolutely did. Both the DJ/producer Ant (Anthony Davis) and Slug looked like they were having the time of of their lives on stage, which isn’t that far fetched, considering how rallied up the Pony crowd was. They performed some classics such as “God Loves Ugly“, where the entire crowd was chanting the lyrics and relating to the song. Not a single person in the crowd was not chanting “God Loves Ugly” back at the band.
Atmosphere Setlist via setlist.fm:
Where the Road Forks
Puppets
The Loser Wins
Shoulda Known
Fuck You Lucy
Pour Me Another
GodLovesUgly
Sunshine
Kanye West
Yesterday
The Best Day
God’s Bathroom Floor
Lovelife
Scapegoat
Freestyle
Trying To Find A Balance
It was a perfect end to this rainy evening when the good vibes only band, Iration, took to the stage. The clouds had parted, the rain was seemingly pushed out to sea, the crowd was feeling the vibes and reggae was pumping out to where the ocean kissed the sand in Asbury Park.
I’ve seen Iration quite a few times now, and they just get better and better with every passing year. The celebrated five-piece – Micah Pueschel [Lead Vocals / Guitar], Adam Taylor [Bass], Joe Dickens [Drums], Cayson Peterson [Keyboard / Synth] and Micah Brown [Guitar / Vocals] – have perfected their distinct hybrid style of reggae, rock and pop and have incorporated every aspect of that in their performance.
Iration’s set was full of dancing, extravagant staging, impressive soloing from every single member and hyped up vibes in the crowd. They ended their set with a Katastro song, “The Way I Feel,” in honor of Katastro’s lead singer Andy Chavez, who passed away earlier this year and was a friend to Iration. Pueschel described this tribute to the crowd as “their way of feeling like Andy is here with us and to honor him” and they will continue to finish their set with this song for the rest of this tour.
