The posted starting time of the free “surprise” release show at Neumos for Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’s new album, This Unruly Mess I’ve Made, was 9pm on Friday. By 6pm, there was still a line of people braving the drizzle, hoping to score a ticket.
“500 tickets were already given out by 1pm today,” a compassionate security guard announced, for neither the first nor the last time of the evening.
When the doors opened it was clear that the majority of people who had been available to line up early enough to get had been high schoolers playing hooky and adults on a flexible work/class schedule.
Amazon Music was offering a free live stream of the event, but some people still camped out on 10th Ave just in case.
“I’m supposed to be studying at home,” confessed one of them, a 20-year-old woman who goes to Bellevue College. “It [doesn’t] matter if you have a ticket or not. If you’re here to support, that’s what really matters.”
For the rest of us, the live stream would have to do.
First things first: They did not perform “Spoons.”
Second things second: They did perform “White Privilege II.”
Frequently through his 90-plus minute performance, Macklemore went into VH1 Storytellers-mode, introducing songs with earnest anecdotes—“Growing Up” is about the birth of his daughter, Sloan, in the midst of the album’s recording process; “Kevin” is for his late best friend.
Before “White Privilege II,” he removed his in-ears to share his anxieties relating to the track’s development and impact, acknowledging that it was “Polarizing as fuck.” The poet and activist Nikkita Oliver, who collaborated on the song’s conception and recording, joined him on stage, delivering the lines, “I’m just trying to remind myself that my black life matters, too. Black lives matter— too.”
Before closing off the evening with “Downtown,” Macklemore offered another moment of sincerity, thanking his live band and team, then sharing the difficulty he’d had creating the follow up to his breakthrough album, The Heist. He said that Ryan Lewis had motivated him to “make music for the people that fuck with it, because we fuck with it.”
Set List:
“Light Tunnels”
“Brad Pitt’s Cousin” Feat. XP
“Buckshot”
“The Shades”
“Arrows”
“Same Love”
“Growing Up”
“Kevin”
“St. Ides”
“White Privilege II” Feat. Nikkita Oliver
“Need to Know”
“Let’s Eat” Ft. XP
“Thrift Shop” Feat. Wanz
“Can’t Hold Us”
“And We Danced”
“Dance Off”
“Downtown”
This Unruly Mess I’ve Made is available now.