There was a time when attending a concert scheduled to commence at 1:30am would be de rigueur for me.  That time has come and gone.  Keeping that in mind, I love a great show; and when I heard that Surrender Nightclub at Encore was celebrating its 3rd Anniversary with a live performance by Macklemore X Ryan Lewis – well, the Seattle-born music-lover in me knew it was something I just couldn’t miss.

As such, I laid-out a sleep-schedule that commenced on Monday, incorporating a series of ever later naps, so that by the time Wednesday night rolled-around, I was up-and-at-‘em (well, as much as a bejewelled, middle-aged fellow can be).

Boy, am I glad I did.

I’m not sure what the naysayers are clucking about, but the duo along with trumpeter Owuor Arunga, dancing divas The Macklettes, with assists from guest vocalists Wanz (“Thrift Shop”) and Ray Dalton (“Can’t Hold Us”), turned it out!

The roughly 4,000 revelers at Surrender went nuts – not just for the group’s two biggest hits, but for the tongue-in-cheek epic “And We Danced” (where they tell tales of their mission “to resurrect the recession-riddled dance floors of America…”) that found Macklemore (née Ben Hargetty) in ‘80s Brit-rocker drag, crowd-surfing in an inflatable raft.

Later, up in Bungalow 5, I was given an audience with the "cold-ass honky" who’s the biggest hip to hop outta the Pacific Northwest, since Sir Mix-a-Lot sang his infectious ditty about derrieres.

You’ve gotta believe that they really feel that which they preach; because they’re just having the time.  As Wanz intones in "Thrift Shop" - it was "fucking awesome!"

Macklemore X Ryan Lewis
Surrender 3rd Anniversary
Click HERE for info

Get into it!