Upon releasing his album “BEN,” Macklemore announced a tour as well. On Oct. 1, Macklemore performed at the Armory in downtown Minneapolis.
The experience started off with a pretty relaxed audience. The expansive floor space filled up almost completely but there was not a noticeable feeling of anticipation in the crowd as there is before many concerts. The demographic of Macklemore’s fans were mostly adults over 30, but there was also a large mix of other ages as well. Going into a show with this demographic, I was not expecting a “crazy” crowd during the show.
The show opened with DJ Beeba, a Seattle native DJ whom Macklemore has known for many years. The songs Beeba played were supposed to be songs that everyone could sing along and get excited to — Beeba’s self proclaimed goal being to hype up the crowd. Unfortunately that only half worked. The song’s played were very similar to Macklemore’s music and the crowd was not familiar with all of the lyrics. The combination of these factors made Beeba’s “hype-up” a bit of a dud. The crowd got a little excited but mostly everyone was just waiting for the main performance.
Macklemore took the stage by storm. The energy he brought was immediately captivating and exciting. He came out with “Chant,” a popular song from his new album “BEN.” His energy was very good, his dancers and band nearly matching it. He then talked to the crowd as most artists do and thanked everyone for being there. As the show went on he continued to have good energy and stage presence, getting the crowd excited for every song in queue and then giving his all in the performance. He went through a few outfit changes, starting out with a Minnesota Twins jersey.
He definitely made the crowd feel special, repeating multiple times how the city of Minneapolis had a special place in his heart. To some extent it seemed different than the reassurance most artists give at their shows about the crowd being special. It seemed to me that there really was something different and special about Minneapolis to him and it got the crowd even more excited.
He did a nice job getting the crowd involved in the show as well. He talked to the audience throughout the entire show. At one point later in the show he brought two random contestants up on stage for a preplanned dance-off. Everyone there was in anticipation of the dancing. The first contestant, a retired teacher, killed it on stage and the crowd got super loud. The second contestant, a young girl named Willow ate the floor right off the bat, falling on the first move. She then got up and finished her portion. Macklemore turned this into an inspiring moment, saying “Willow represented all of us,” and that although “she fell down, she also got back up.” He turned a slightly awkward and embarrassing moment into an “inspirational” moment which also sparked the crowd.
His setlist — which has stayed almost constant for the entire tour thus far — is a good mix of the new songs and old classics. The majority of the song’s were his old songs that everyone there knew and loved. “WING$,” “Thrift Shop” and “Glorious” were some personal favorites from the performance. Presumably because of the age of the audience there wasn’t a huge amount of dancing for most of the concert, but during a few songs, and especially the last song “Can’t Hold Us,” the crowd went crazy.
The stage presence, crowd interaction, talent and effort of Macklemore were very impressive and went together to make a very fun and exciting night at the Armory.
Macklemore’s “BEN” Tour: ★★★★☆
