Macklemore & Lewis, Neon Trees help open Microsoft store

Macklemore & Lewis, Neon Trees help open Microsoft store

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

By Gary Chun / gchun@staradvertiser.com

A funny thing happened in the planning of a concert to celebrate the grand opening of a Microsoft store at Ala Moana Center: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis — big time.

Because of the phenomenal success the Seattle hip-hop duo has had since its breakout song “Thrift Shop,” the concert, originally set for the shopping center’s parking garage, has been moved to an outdoor amphitheater at Kakaako Waterfront Park.

As many as 5,400 fans can pick up free tickets to be distributed two at a time from the Microsoft store.

Sharing a bill with Utah-based dance-rock band Neon Trees, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis are scheduled to open the show at 6 p.m. Thursday.

HERE’S HOW ticket distribution will break down:

>> Free tickets will be distributed beginning at 11 a.m. Thursday, when Hawaii’s first Microsoft store opens.

>> The first 200 people in line will get two tickets, one for admission to the concert, the other to the concert as well as a post-concert meet-and-greet with Neon Trees, which includes an autographed photo.

>> The next 2,500 people will get two concert-only tickets. So about 5,400 could fill out the amphitheater.

>> Because of expected high demand, Ala Moana Center and Microsoft will allow overnight waiting in line, starting at 10 p.m. Wednesday. The line will form outside the new store, in the garage area on the mauka side of Mall Level 2. No tents or sleeping bags will be allowed.

The Kakaako concert, a promotion for Microsoft that is part of a nationwide series of shows attached to store openings, was announced in April. Other concerts include multiple appearances by Weezer, and a show last month by Lupe Fiasco and Gym Class Heroes in Miami.

IN THE MONTHS since the Honolulu show was announced, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis have continued to soar.

The duo’s latest single, “Can’t Hold Us,” hit the top of the Billboard Top 100 chart on May 8.

According to Billboard, the duo is one of only two acts to place at least one song in the chart’s top 10 each week this year. The other act? Bruno Mars, who did it with “Locked Out of Heaven” and “When I Was Your Man.”

“Thrift Shop” won Billboard Music Awards’ Top Rap Song award last month, and has gone quintuple-platinum, with more than 5 million copies sold.

The duo’s independent 2012 album, which includes “Thrift Shop” and “The Heist,” has already sold more than 500,000 copies and is predicted to reach platinum status in sales by the end of 2013.

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis debuted in Hawaii on New Year’s Eve at the Republik. In the midst of a world tour, the duo has more than 230 shows scheduled in 2013, including several summer festivals.

Neon Trees, the headlining act, has­ been popular in its own right since the release of its hit track “Animal,” which reached the top of the Alternative Rock chart and reached No. 13 on the Top 100. The song got the Billboard Music Award Top Alternative Song nod in 2011.

The band’s newer song, “Everybody Talks,” was widely heard in a Buick commercial campaign in 2012.

Neon Trees