I've been crushing on the new Macklemore & Ryan Lewis album, The Heist, these past couple weeks. I'm smitten with his brand of conscious, intelligent rap. He's an amazing lyricist, and props to Ryan Lewis for upping an already great production game. This Cleveland show (originally scheduled for the Grog Shop!) was one of the last shows to sell out on his entirely sold-out tour, and thankfully so (giving us time to get tix). Pretty impressive for an independent artist.
As expected, the audience was young and white. Macklemore even raps about this on his 2009 Language of My World album (which is also great). We were easily two of maybe 10 people in the sold out show who were over 25. Most were drunk, loud and the girls were scantily clad. I have never seen so many mini skirts in one place. Is there a classification for a skirt shorter than a mini skirt - because that's what these would be. As amazing of a crowd watching experience as this was, this night was really about Macklemore.
In grand rap fashion, Macklemore took the stage and instantly engaged the fanatic, sold-out crowd. I thought I would never see a crowd as excited as Matt & Kim's, but this kept pace. He ran through his hits, dropping Thrift Shop early. Macklemore pointed out that at every show, at least one person comes wearing a fur coat, so he just has them pass it up to the front and performs in it. After the song, he even talked about giving these dead animals a second life - as they're being crowd surfed back to their owner. Here are some clips, including Thrift Shop.
I was particularly intrigued as to how he would approach his second single off The Heist, Same Love, a song about marriage equality for gays & lesbians. With this kind of audience, I wouldn't have expected the reception they received (maybe that's my older mentality not being current). Macklemore even gave the song a long intro, giving props to his home state of Washington for passing it. The whole experience gave me chills. Check it out.
I was thrilled with this show. I'm already ready for what's next from these guys.
I would say micro-mini, but even that doesn't really describe it well enough. FANTASTIC show!
ReplyDeleteWhy were the girls wearing mini-skirts? It's a double standard which women exploit. I don't see men in short shorts. Tell women to buzz off with their double standards. They are appealing to homophobic and sexist men.
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