On Wednesday night, I attended my first Macklemore & Ryan Lewis concert. The duo performed at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan for the first of their American Express Membership Experiences Concert Series. Here's what I learned at the show:
1. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' backing band have the sweetest life.
2. Macklemore can successfully name the five boroughs of New York.
3. Macklemore lived in Brooklyn for a summer when he was 17 years old. During this time, he would often romp about the city in weird costumes and would call himself Professor Macklemore. This is how Ben Haggerty became Macklemore.
4.. Not only does Wanz wear a suit better than any being in history -- seriously, that dude must have been born in a suit -- but also the dude knows how to get down! You're my spirit animal, Wanz.
5. Fireworks set off in buildings will always convince you for a few seconds that you are dead.
6. No matter how intimate the show, there will always be that girl on her boyfriend's shoulders when they are already standing in the second row.
7. There's something funny about Macklemore performing the song "Wing$" -- a song that is essentially a message against materialism -- and then, at its end, throwing his very own salmon Jordans into the crowd, resulting in a frenzied fight over the shoes.
8. "And We Danced" might sound like it was made by that Swedish musician Günther, but there wasn't one person in the crowd who wasn't trying to have a really, really good time.
9. I would suggest that everyone goes to see Macklemore & Ryan Lewis live at least once. It was an incredibly fun show with some great messages added in. While he is not strictly a hip-hop artist, as far as hip-hop shows go, you won't find many that are quite as dynamic.
Before You Go
