Mac Demarco – The Forum, Kentish Town, Tuesday 25 November 2014
Words by Sarah Plant
There’s a fair bit of hype surrounding Mac Demarco’s shows: drumsticks up his ass, nudity, lewd jokes. I heard also that a few nights ago he was arrested at his own gig in Santa Barbara for swinging from the ceiling beams – apparently the arresting officers hadn’t realised it was his gig! And when I turn up its clear from the electricity coming off the crowd that I’m not alone in expecting things to get a little squiffy this evening.
The hordes that came out in the rain to see Mac Demarco do his thing this evening were clearly chomping at the bit, fast-forwarding through the support band to get to the real reason they’d all come out that evening: MAC. He steps out onto the stage to shrieks from the crowd, donning his usual gap-toothed grin, wide legged pants and beanie hat. I hear the guy in front say, ‘I just came!’
The crowd’s excitement spills over when Mac opens with his title track, Salad Days, which to me seems a little safe, but the majority don’t seem to share this sentiment lapping up every last bit of it in a relentless sing-a-long.
Following successively with The Stars Keep On Calling My Name and Blue Boy, the crowd at this point are giving a lot more than they’re getting from Mac. There’s a lot of pent up energy, and the crowd are desperate to get a bit more back. Other than the odd nod to the crowd, ‘chillin’ or ‘thank you’, the Mac I was expecting seems to have left his goofball antics off-stage. However, it’s all very feel good. Mac is leading us along in his hazy daydream. The tone is very chilled, the lighting is simple and there’s no pretention in the band’s unfaltering delivery. Passing Out Pieces is very organic; the guitarist and bassist don’t have shoes on; there’s about 30 “friends” sat round tables on one side of the stage sipping on beers, and there’s an overwhelming sense that you’ve been invited round to Mac’s on a Sunday to sit in your pants, sip a beer and get loose.
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The jingle jangle of Mac’s guitar riffs, along with the sauntering pace of the drums in Ode to Viceroy have the crowd lulled into submission. They’re ready to take anything he’s got to give, but still he’s not giving off a lot. The crowd don’t seem to care, though. They give it all they’ve got; throwing shoes, flowers and packets of sweets on to the stage to get Mac’s attention. Weak banter aside, it can’t go without saying though that Mac’s falsetto range is surprisingly flawless and the translation of his recorded music to live music is superb.
It all gets a little skew-whiff right before Mac closes the set. He invites us to ‘feel it all together like a big family’ with Still Together. Mac launches himself into the crowd (to their delight), only to scramble back on stage minus a shoe – ‘the motherfuckers tried to take my motherfucking shoes’! One of his friends is slipping and sliding around the stage with Michael Jackson-esque dance moves. It’s turned into a bit of a free-for-all.
Now the encore is a real punch in the face. Mac and co return shirtless and ready to rock. If we’d been sauntering along until now, Mac really warps the pace with a cover of Metallica’s Enter Sandman sandwiched in between a rendition of the Top Gun Anthem. Revving it up and slowing it down, a baffled crowd are forced to just go along with Mac’s every whim.
It really felt as though Mac did what he felt out there tonight. Maybe we didn’t see drumsticks up his ass or a mid-performance arrest but it felt real, his feel-good jaunty spirit felt true and it will continue to infect my mood long after I get home. He may have simmered down a little since his last tour but we all walked out of there with a big Mac-like smile plastered all over our faces.
