Live Review: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

There are two theories, or rather one theory in two parts, on the reason the average age at Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' gig at Chevron Festival Gardens was higher than a lawn bowls team. Firstly, some of these old dudes are, like, hipper than you think daddy-o, and, secondly, folk bought tickets as part of a 'let's pick things we haven't heard of and go enjoy the festival' jamboree. Who could have known that twixt purchase and performance our thin white duke would take triple j's Hottest 100 Song of 2012 and garner a piss-taking amount of YouTube views? This made for a lot of miserable Gen Ys on the way past the sold-out box office, but that's the (flea) market kids. First in, thriftiest dressed.

Indeed, thrift versus extravagance was the theme of the evening. With only one full album between them, there was a necessary economy to a set that was longer than their entire back catalogue. Macklemore's monologues between each track were by turns candid, charming and a little overlong. Owuor Arunga wrung a silly amount of enjoyment from his singular splash cymbal and little trumpet, and having brought Wanz all the way from Seattle, there was no way Thrift Shop was getting played just once.

If the over-arching theme was frugality, the performances themselves were anything but. Viewed from a micro perspective, Macklemore, Lewis, Arunga, Wanz and Ray Dalton left nothing in the dressing room, with each burst of music a whirling catharsis over bass and horns. Ten Thousand Hours set the pace, the audience getting just rewards for holding on to their golden tickets. Album tracks and singles, including My Oh My, Can't Hold Us and Wings complemented rather than contended, with only the long intros to Other Side and Same Love inviting restlessness from the Sunday night crowd. Macklemore and Lewis deliver their anti-homophobia in a radio-friendly package, and the familiar hook was a reminder that next time they're here the tickets won't be $40. On the strength of this first-class performance, a re-rate is well overdue.

Before Macklemore bounced onstage in his drainpipes and fringe shirt, local nine-piece UPNUP “kept it moving like lemonade soda stands” with good-time rhymes and octave-hopping brass. Back in the day, they would have been labelled “conscious”, with their jazzy licks, bass and keys. Think Digable Planets. Think scat (the good kind). There were stumbles over some slippery call and response shananigans, but it's par for the course, and pas de probleme for a confident group that are just getting started.