Mac DeMarco: man of many guises. At Primavera last year he was the serenading crooner, hoisting his childhood sweetheart Kiki on his shoulders while singing a loving ode. He’s been the wild rockstar mistaken for a fan and arrested for climbing ceiling beams mid set. There is also the Mac that teams up with Tyler, The Creator for goofy skits on Adult Swim and creates fictitious spoofs about Car Backers.
As we wait inside the jam-packed Concorde 2 we wonder… which Mac is it tonight?
Clad in dungarees, the twenty-four-year-old receives a hero’s welcome while setting up and lets out his trademark gap toothed smile before disappearing backstage. He’s no stranger to Brighton with one show at the Green Door Store ending with the singer being crowd surfed out of the venue and into his tour van. He knows how to cause a scene.
Joined onstage by guitarist, bassist and drummer he opens with a storming rendition of ‘Salad Days’, the first track from this year’s album of the same name. The crowd not only sing along to every word but shout the notes as well. The Canadian people’s champion implores the audience to move their feet before the band tear through ‘The Stars Keep On Calling My Name’ from ‘2’. Bathed in red lights it’s a romantic rendition and the couple next to us seize the moment for a passionate kiss. It’s steamy stuff inside the Concorde 2 tonight.
Things keep heating up as Mac and co tear through ‘Cooking Up Something Good’. The ‘2’ highlight has a real added ferocity live and the crowd are going ballistic. Between songs DeMarco and co are on jovial form, cracking relentless jokes at each other’s expense. He even takes time to play an ad-lib rendition of Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s ‘Taking Care Of Business’ to the crowd’s delight.
‘Freaking Out The Neighbourhood’ incites absolute mayhem as a fan manages to slip past security to get on stage before diving into the swaying tide of people below. Mac gives off a smile and then unleashes a spectacular guitar riff to close the song. DeMarco finishes with ‘Together’, lifted live from introspective balladry to soaring power pop. Mac’s voice hits all the high notes in spectacular fashion. Another stage invasion soon follows resulting in the male fan planting a kiss on Mac’s cheek. He seems to enjoy the anarchy and stands in the way of the bouncer to avoid any rough treatment.
Mac launches himself offstage and is surfed towards the ceiling rails which he negotiates barefoot, hanging like a spider monkey before dropping into the crowd. He’s back on stage for one more yodelling falsetto before slipping away to rapturous applause.
Mac DeMarco: romancer, rockstar and comedian. All accounted for tonight.
Concorde 2, Sunday 23rd November 2014
Words by Andy Baker
Photos by Ashley Laurence
