Live Review: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Thundamentals, XP

You would never have thought it was the middle of winter on a Thursday in Perth as Macklemore & Ryan Lewis finished their Australian tour. What a night.

Kicking off early was long-time friend of Macklemore's, XPerience (or XP). All the way from Seattle, XP served to hype the crowd and get them excited — and hype he did. His song Not Today, a homage to the negative humans out there, was produced by Ryan Lewis and it was a standout.

If Aussie hip hop could be summed up in a band it would be Thundamentals. Bringing the energy and enthusiasm to their set, their track Late Night got damn dirty on the D-floor, and their cover of Matt Corby's Brother brought out the phone torches for the night — the first of many. And who doesn't love singing about Noodle Soup?

The crowd were well and truly ready for the stars of the night. As soon as Macklemore & Ryan Lewis took to the stage, the level of nuts going on in the arena amplified and didn't die down for the whole set. Macklemore and his squad tore it up, starting with leading track off his new album, Light Tunnels. Most of the set was fittingly taken from the new album This Unruly Mess I've Made, though Same Love had the phone torches out as everyone nodded and screamed and swayed and screamed some more.

As the night wore on the crowd were taken on an emotional journey, driven there by Macklemore's heartfelt lyrics and ability to call bullshit on just about everything happening in the world right now. The great thing about every single track played was that it was so much better in a live setting. So. Much. Better.

After handing out cookies to the audience (managing to throw a couple up to the first tier too) and taking a selfie on a random's phone while crowdsurfing, the group came back for two encores: the first seeing Raven Bowie making his long-awaited appearance for And We Danced. And finally, Downtown closed the shown — with Eric Nally himself emerging for this song.

Not many put on a show like these guys, and damn they do it in style.