Macklemore: he says you die twice, but what he doesn’t say is that the one time you can truly live is at his concert. The energy and hype of his Missoula stop on the 2023 “BEN” tour was unmatched; the setlist was amazing, and overall it had to be one of the best Missoula concerts of the 2023 concert season.
DJ Beeba performed a decent opener, and was able to effectively build hype for the show. He showed up in a t-shirt bearing the phrase “love yourself, know your worth.”
Then, just 15 minutes after the show was scheduled to start, the lights dimmed. A spotlight followed Ben Haggerty out onto the stage, and the concert opened with the feel-good anthem from 2022, called “CHANT”. After the song was finished, Macklemore greeted the crowd with a couple minute long comedy routine, which had the whole crowd laughing. Haggerty matched the crowd’s energy with ease, feeding off the cheers and laughs. He ended the routine by acknowledging the fact that we all had very comfy looking chairs behind us, but “this is still a hip hop show, so I don’t wanna see anyone sitting down!”
He rolled right into one of his most iconic songs, “Thrift Shop”, followed by a few songs of the new album, “BEN” and some well known classics. “Same Love”, Macklemore’s powerful 2012 song about marriage equality, had the entire Adam’s Center singing along and moved many to tears. “Heroes”, the old school style Hip-Hop track off the new album, had a particularly cool start, beginning at a much slower tempo than the actual song and slowly speeding up to a beat drop. Later, during “Dance Off”, he pulled two fans onto the stage for an energetic dance competition.
The highlight of the concert was the very last song of the encore. He had yet to play arguably his most well known and loved song, “Can’t Hold Us”, but when he did, he blew the roof off of the Adams Center. The energy and hype was insane, and all four thousand people all around the stadium were screaming the lyrics and jumping up and down. It was a rare feeling.
Small-town Missoula was lucky to be a stop on the long awaited “BEN” tour. Macklemore put on an amazing show, and him, his band, and dancers all had incredible stage presence. Hopefully Macklemore will remember us the next time he goes on tour.
