Atmosphere’s anthems of loss are audience’s gain

Atmosphere MC Sean Daley -- aka Slug -- gleefully tore himself to pieces onstage Wednesday at the Troubadour, delivering a physically charged and irrepressible hip-hop equivalent of emo punk that traded up gangsta crotch-grabbing for searing, psychologically twisted anthems about lost girlfriends and lost self-esteem.

“Sixty-five percent of you are out there going, ‘What, another girl song?’ ” Slug growled happily after a huge roar for a couple of songs from Atmosphere’s 2000 EP “Lucy Ford,” which is all about a bitter breakup.

These songs proved to be the night’s sing-along favorites -- even if they weren’t presented in their best-known form.

Instead of Atmosphere’s sometime DJ Mr. Dibbs, Slug was backed by a live four-piece band that moved expertly from metal crunch to acid-jazz electric piano filigree. But the MC stuck to the intense, spontaneous, charismatic rhyming that has earned him accolades in the alternative-rap movement far beyond his native Minneapolis.

Slug has the ability to sell vulnerability and embarrassing revelations as a kind of group empowerment, and the love-fest was aided by the fact that he’s touring with “Headshots: Se7en,” a new album of songs from 1997Swinging personal responsibility as a bond and a brickbat, he teased audience members, shouting at them, “I blame you!” -- all a buildup to “Scapegoat,” a litany of excuses for his own behavior proving that, in the world of underground hip-hop, onstage confessionals and even self-flagellation can be gripping entertainment.

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Atmosphere

Where: Glass House, 200 W. Second St., Pomona.

When: Friday 7 p.m.

Price: Sold out

Contact: (909) 865-3389