MAC DEMARCO

May 21^{st |} The Garage, London

Crack harbours a real soft spot for Canadian slacker rock goon Mac DeMarco. In little over a year the gap-toothed multi-instrumentalist has managed to carve out a fond place in many people’s hearts with two fantastic Captured Tracks releases alongside a string of bizarre and hilarious videos. 

His songwriting melds tales of humdrum suburban life, girls and cigarettes to the sound of rough twanging guitar riffs that worm into your consciousness. With a reputation for raucous performances and stories of a certain ‘drumstick’ incident, the idea of seeing Mac live was intriguing to say the least.

Sean Nicolas Savage’s hilarious camp wailing and retro synth chords set an impeccable tone in opening up a light-hearted evening. He artfully elicited wry smiles and bemused looks from the faces of the largely uninitiated crowd. Introducing DeMarco, Savage couldn’t have put adoring fans’ feelings more succinctly when he said, “I love Mac because he doesn’t even try. Everyday he is just fantastic. He wakes up and … he’s fantastic!”

And it seems true enough. Mac is so engaging because he comes across as a relaxed and warm kind of guy, yet manages to mix this with the energetic antics of a goofball stage persona. Without a doubt his presence in the room was far more akin to the foolish dude in his videos than the earnest and forlorn voice that accompanies many of his tracks. It’s disappointing, in a way, because a great deal of the subtlety and emotiveness evident on his records is lost. But Mac and his band no doubt make up for it in the overall spectacle of the show.

Mac thought nothing of flinging out a series of favourites within the first half an hour, thrashing out songs on the same beat-up guitar he’s been playing since he was 16. The brilliant love song to his favourite brand of smokes Ode to Viceroy unsurprisingly evoked the biggest singalong moment of the evening. It wasn’t clear where he could go from there, but the 20-minute medley of covers in the midst of She’s Really All I Need proved quite the detour. Metallica’s Enter Sandman, Limp Bizkit’s Break Stuff and Du Hast by Rammstein rang out as members of the band took turns on the mic. Having got back on track, the loving lullaby Still Together brought a change of pace that signalled the end to a jovial set. Fittingly, however, the normally sleepy song couldn’t pass off without a stage invasion and Mac crowd surfing between choruses. It pretty much summed up DeMarco’s live show: you might not be able to predict what’s coming next, but you can rest assured it’ll be a blast.

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Words: Aaron Z Willson

Photos: Spike Morris