Wale and Pusha T hit up Chicago yesterday to play a sold-out crowd at House of Blues as part of Wale’s Ambition tour.

But first, I had a chance to check out Wale as he hit up a Cricket Wireless store in Chatham Ridge for a meet and greet with fans thanks to Muve Music (disclosure: Cricket is a client).

Next up, I headed to House of Blues to check out the concert thanks to tickets from the good folks at TurnTable.fm. Not only did I get tickets to the sold out show, I got All Access Passes. And thanks to Daniela’s proactive inquiries into what that meant, we ended up heading upstairs to a box with great views of the stage.

The show kicked off with the lovely DJ Niena Drake partnering up with TurnTable.fm to do a live demo of the site. That was followed by a performance by Chicago’s own LEP Bogus Boys. Unfortunately, I missed both because I was at the Cricket / Wale meet & greet.

But I did catch Pusha T, who went on before Wale. I officially love him. His performance was so simple – no big production or posse onstage – just him doing his thing, and you could tell he was loving every moment & having fun. He performed a couple tracks I really liked — Cook it Down and Open Your Eyes — as well as verses from songs like So Appalled. Plus, he was rocking some nice sparkly sneakers (look for them in the videos). I want those. AND, after he was done performing, he ended up stopping by the box where we were at to say what’s up to the LEP Bogus Boys, who were also chilling there most of the night.

As we waited for Wale to come on, the DJ spun some old school hits (yes, that included “Poison”) and at one point asked the crowd, “If you’re here with your best friend, let me hear you.” Of course, I started to cheer, but then I turned around and saw that Daniela was not cheering. Ouch.

Anyways, Wale came on and performed a mix of his slower jams and his more upbeat tracks. I loved seeing him perform “Diary” and “Lotus Flower Bomb.” Unfortunately, Miguel did not make a surprise appearance, but I gotta say, Wale’s boy Tre could really sing. Wale ended the set with “That Way,” and the crowd went crazy as Jeremih came onstage for a surprise performance of the hit.