Mac Demarco
8th January 2020
The Town Hall, Auckland, New Zealand.
Review by Ali Nicholls. Photography by Connor Crawford.
Bedroom indie-rock icon and hero of lazy Saturday afternoons Mac Demarco invites Auckland to celebrate life, love, and good times at the Town Hall, kicking off his international tour with a glowing start.
“Make yourselves at home, smile upon your neighbour, and have a good time.”
Mac Demarco’s opening sentiments in the inaugural show of his latest international tour at the town hall may sound humble but ask any burgeoning musician and they will tell you that either you take the crowd, or the crowd takes you. Luckily for the near sold out show that welcomed him to kiwi shores for the third time, Mac Demarco is the master of good vibes and this time around was no exception.
The tour comes off the back of the release of his fourth album, Here Comes the Cowboy which was met with mixed opinions. Since his initial release, the evolution of Mac’s sound has largely come in the production stages. He’s always been a hero to the cruisers, but his latest album was met with some critique. There’s an impending risk that his evermore laidback sound is holding him back, and critics marked that the sound seemed a bit tired and overworked. But through his live performance we see the music spanning Mac’s career come to life, rejuvenated by his playfully cheesy presence and charismatic band.
We’re introduced to Mac by the thundering sound of the Star Wars empire theme. Immediately we know the tone of the evening – above all, we’re here to shake off some of the seriousness of life and have a good time. Before any musical preamble, Mac introduces his band mates by first name; a gesture which seems like a natural follow-up to his ironic entrance number. The set opens with ‘On the Level’, and the crowd is already warmed up to sing along with him. The acoustic set up is really nicely balanced. He uses the town hall without pretence, grooving around its chamber acoustics with a nonchalance that allows his bedroom rock sound to settle right.
Immediately we see him sliding and leaping around the stage, twirling and flinging his microphone around his baggy t-shirt and sneans combo. ‘Salad Days’ lifts the crowd yet again, with the whole track being echoed back to the band. They’re in their element here, playing with the songs rather than simply rattling them out. And although they’re clearly not taking themselves too seriously, there is a serious respect in there for the sound. Mac Demarco has become an icon for a reason, and tonight the band is delivering not only the songs we’ve grown to love, but also the lifestyle and presence that blossoms from them.
We step away from the upbeat tracks and into Mac’s more romantic material for a while. Some Paul Simon-esque synths warm up the room, and intimacy blossoms from a hyperactive crowd. He brings people in and out of the subtle shifts of these emotions with ease. While it’s doesn’t necessarily seem meticulously done, it feels very natural thanks to his skilled showmanship. The major 7ths roll off the Roland Juno 60 keys with a perfectly refined bootleg synth sound.
Our first glimpse into the raucous calamity of a Mac set comes right after a samba-jazz inspired rendering of ‘My Old Man’ with a punching rendition of one of his newer numbers, ‘Choo Choo’. Beneath the king-of-chill exterior there are pops of energy that fly out throughout Mac’s performance. His sporadic outbursts of physical and vocal enthusiasm are just as crucial to his performance as his languidity. In fact, throughout the set they seem to feed each other. Regardless of whether he’s floating in his dreamy, soupy stoner tunes or screeching through his rock n rollers, he’s giving it his all.
‘Viceroy’ brings us back to the classics. This track lends one of the only hints of tonight that Mac is on the cusp of leaving his younger tracks behind. He’s able to play with it to some extent, but he knows his audience well and he knows that this track is sacred, so he’s got to play a version of it that’s reasonably true to the record. For that reason, it feels as though he’s less free within it, less energised. He’s still performing it beautifully, and the crowd is adoring it, but you can sense that he’s itching to play.
Mac dishes out a new number that ‘may be released, maybe not’ simply called ‘I Like Her’. There’s something about the simplicity of the track that perfectly encapsulates Mac’s entire attitude to his sound – it’s skilled, it’s thoughtful, but there are no frills. It’s emotional, it’s sensitive, but it’s not intense. He appreciates the simple things, and with song writing this evocative, there’s no need to dress it up.
‘Freaking Out the Neighbourhood’ goes off like a fire cracker, and three false finishes keep the crowd anticipating. The energy in the room is so excitable it could combust. But he’s a master of the crowd, and he hurls us into a boisterous jam of ‘Rock and Roll Night Club’. His satirical style is perfectly balanced with his welcoming aura. We’re in on the joke, and it’s always held with the utmost affection.
‘My Kind of Woman’ gives the crowd a chance to ease back into his relaxed vibe before he throws us off again, this time with a playfully anti-authoritarian deliverance guitar breakdown over rolling civil war drum triplets. Andy, his guitarist and synth man, comes in on guitar underneath Mac announcing: “Ladies and gentlemen, we are Weezer.” The jam starts to disintegrate into discordant chaos as the crowd’s laughter peels through the hall. The band brings it back to the height of the party with a second rip of ‘Freaking Out the Neighbourhood’.
‘Chamber of Reflection’ closes the main set, the entirety of which seems to have been delivered with the reckless passion of someone belting out karaoke in an empty bar at 3am on a Wednesday. It’s unruly and sometimes ungraceful, but completely authentic. The show closes and Mac says goodbye. Some of the crowd starts to filter out but the main body of the audience is having none of it, and calls of ‘one more song’ shake the walls of the town hall. Before long, the band is back, and they have one more trick up their sleeve.
Mac thanks the audience one more time and offers ‘Blue Boy’ to the crowd. There’s a collecting sigh of happiness. Mac gently counts the band in, but instead of the dulcet tones of another Mac classic, the atmosphere rips open with ‘Enter Sandman’. It’s the song the band’s been itching to play all night. You can tell that alongside the gentile, soft psych-rock character there’s a band of charged up youth-driven metal loving boys who just want to get up there and tear the stage to pieces. And the crowd is giving them everything they want, with the ground floor of the town hall turning into a sea of moshing heads with the first riff. They close the set, Mac says his farewells, and the crowd heads home carrying the same reckless love with them that Mac brought along for them.
We should expect good things from Mac Demarco in the future. This tour may well be the last of its kind for him, and a part of me hopes it is. His eagerness to let rip and follow a new direction is tangible. Whatever that looks like, he’s fostered an international family who will be there to find out. But for now, fans the world over can be assured that his live presence still has so much to offer.
Make sure you get a taste while you still can.
Were you there at The Auckland Town Hall for this Canadian Indie Rock genius? Or have you seen Mac Demarco perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
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