A pair of arena concerts were announced Monday morning, one with a pair of classic-rock balladeers and another with a hitmaking hip-hop duo:
1) Last seen in town at a sold-out State Fair grandstand concert in 2013, "Thrift Shop" chart toppers Macklemore & Ryan Lewis will play their first local arena show June 8 at Target Center. Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. via AXS.com and the arena box office for $34.50-$64.50. No opening acts have been named.
The Seattle rapper and his DJ partner crossed over into Top 40 territory in 2013 with their ode to grandma's clothes and another catchy single, "Can't Hold Us." They dropped their overdue follow-up album on Friday, "This Unruly Mess I've Made," which so far hasn't produced another big hit but at least doesn't feature anything as unbearable as those Dr. Pepper commercials or the recently dropped non-album single, "Spoons."
2) Def Leppard will perform locally for the third time in just over one year Oct. 5 at Xcel Energy Center as part of a 50-city tour with REO Speedwagon and Tesla. Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. via Ticketmaster and the X's box office for $27-$107. The British rockers played the St. Paul arena on the same date last year with Foreigner instead of REO, and they were also at the State Fair grandstand in August with Styx instead of Foreigner. Tesla opened both of those shows, too. We gave the resilient Def crew and the fun opening act favorable reviews off the grandstand gig.
