Miller turns his back to them and picks up a white- and gold-plated Gretsch guitar. ![]() Many in the crowd take the opportunity to check the phone photos they’ve snapped. Just when all that energy plateaus, Clockwork pulls the plug on the music. He signs four Blue Slide Park caps and chucks them into the audience. He jokes with the crowd, then thanks them for being the only reason for his success. Tearing through mixtape hits like 2010’s “Nikes on My Feet” and 2011’s “Knock Knock” he keeps the crowd’s arms up and bouncing to Clockwork’s rhythms as he zigzags the stage, pausing to collapse dramatically, out of breath. ![]() Miller then conducts an orchestra: not onstage, but off. Miller recites a few sporadic lines with the recording before exploding onto the stage with all the energy of his 19 years - crew at his heels. DJ Clockwork, who enters first, begins spinning Miller’s song “Donald Trump.” But shrieks drown out the tune’s intro as teenagers in the front row whip out iPhones, ready to record the entire 90-minute set. Miller leads a prayer that thanks God and asks that they “perform to the best of our abilities tonight.” Miller and his Most Dope crew are standing in a huddle offstage, arms around each other’s shoulders. The stage is dressed to resemble Pittsburgh’s Blue Slide Park - complete with park bench, lamp posts and a DJ station disguised as an ice cream cart - since the name of the recreation area also doubles as the title for Miller’s upcoming album. The official Denver landmark has a capacity of 1,700, and for 20 minutes, the sellout crowd, most in Miller T-shirts - one of them says OY VEY HOLY COW OH MY GOD WOW - has been creating various chants, each demanding the rapper’s presence. Nine-and-a-half hours later, Mac Miller is about to take the stage at the AEG Live-operated Ogden Theatre. ![]() At one in the afternoon, kids were already lining up around the block in Denver’s trendy Capitol Hill neighborhood.
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