Sometimes on a musical journey, you have to take things back to the very beginning before you can venture forward. Macklemore took this to heart on The Ben Tour, stopping at a sold out second to last show at Arizona Financial Theatre this week.
The Seattle rapper and his band bounded onstage to “Chant” with an exuberant crowd. In the spirit of taking it back to the start, Macklemore donned his signature fur coat for a room-shaking performance of “Thrift Shop” before taking several moments to address his adoring audience. Stepping off a plane into Arizona heat can be jarring this late in the year but Macklemore said it best on the next song- there are “No Bad Days” when he visits Phoenix.
While the set kept things light hearted even in the heavier moments, Macklemore- never one for shying away from expressing himself- took another pause to sincerely and earnestly address the conflict between Israel and Palestine and used that to segue into his equality anthem, “Same Love”.
By this point, the party had barely begun so the crew took us “Downtown” on their mopeds right into the rest of the set. Macklemore’s latest music effort, Ben, was not center stage on its namesake tour, but he still gave us his favorite cuts including “Heroes”, “I Need” and the time capsule “1984”.
One thing about Macklemore is he loves to dance and he’ll do the absolute most to get everyone on their feet and moving right along with him. Raven Bowie made an appearance- all the way from the UK- on “And We Danced” before the best part of the show commenced. You can’t have a “Dance Off” without a proper battle and Macklemore picked two lucky contestants to join him onstage and throw down their best moves for a packed house.
A winner was crowned (unofficially of course) and had Macklemore and the gang feeling properly “Glorious”- the final, gospel-tinged number of the night. He wasn’t done with us yet, however, and the deafening cheers of the crowd brought everyone back onstage for “Good Old Days”, a lengthy introduction to the band and a sea of outstretched arms for “Can’t Hold Us”.
Macklemore said it himself in both his lyrics and his onstage speeches- he’s been in the game for a long time and the crowds get bigger but his love for his people and his craft stays exactly the same. There was genuine joy in that packed theater and the final bow capped off one of the best shows we’ve seen in recent memory.
Check out all the photos!
Story and photos by Olivia Khiel
