Photos by me

The most exciting moment at the Allen Stone concert Saturday night was when Capitol Hill rapper Macklemore came out for a surprise guest appearance. At that point late in the night, the two twentysomethings seemed to form a new constellation in the local soul/hip-hop universe.

Seattle's fast-rising blue-eyed soul singer Stone met the popular Irish-American rapper on stage for the first time, connecting through preacher-man R&B and hip-hop — performing an original song savvy watchers of local music might have seen coming.

"I was searching for God in the wrong cathedral," Macklemore rapped, referring to a bar.

It was a rough equivalent to the big local rap team-up of 2011 — Afrocentric/sci-fi acts Shabazz Palaces and THEESatisfaction performing each others' music at the Moore.

Macklemore and Stone debuted their duet of sobriety and Christianity at the sold-out first night of Stone's two-concert weekend at the Neptune Theatre, Stone sitting at the piano doing his Stevie Wonder impersonation, Macklemore bounding up and down the stage, sending 800 college students and their parents into a frenzy. Older people asked younger ones, "Who is that guy?"

Church in rock clubs is big in Seattle right now. Following the church-y weekend, the Neptune has rented its room to Mars Hill church this week, whose Pastor Mark Driscoll will discuss pornography in an event "targeted to a collegiate crowd."

Our thriving neo-folk scene has had a distinct youth group energy in recent years, and Stone and Macklemore connect to that style and feeling, trading the rural for the urban in their sensibilities, and the old for the new in general. Macklemore raps over indie-folk tracks more often than traditional hip-hop. Stone promotes same-sex relationships in his lyrics.

He lightened the serious mood of the concert by playing "dorky" with his Napoleon Dynamite-style dress and announcing that he would "funk the crap out of this place." But there was nothing dorky about the cathartic high note he nailed on his signature song "Unaware" for the finale.

His backing septet was smooth throughout the concert and the Seattle Rock Orchestra was a nice addition. Standout tracks besides "Unaware" and the Macklemore one were classic covers of Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me" and Bob Marley's "Is This Love," powerfully performed but suggesting a lack of original songwriting. They made Stone an obvious candidate for winning "American Idol" or "X Factor" while underpinning that he could use a few more signature songs like "Unaware." Maybe that's what the Macklemore song will become.

Macklemore (obscuring Allen Stone, seated)