Mac DeMarco shows Vancouver why he's suddenly famous

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      At the Vogue Theatre on Friday, April 24

      Just a few years ago, Mac DeMarco was toiling in anonymity in Vancouver’s underground, but times have changed for the 24-year-old songwriter. He now lives in New York, a from which he’s become something of a sensation, this evidenced by his selling out the Vogue weeks in advance.  

      When opening act Dinner (aka Danish singer Anders Rhedin) took the stage, the line outside was so long that it snaked around the block. Once ticket-holders finally got inside, they were treated to Rhedin performing lovably clumsy, aerobic-style dance routines while crooning along to pounding new wave backing tracks.

      After a short break, DeMarco—doing the first of back-to-back Vancouver shows—took the stage at 10 p.m. He was greeted by feverish screams from the barely-legal audience crammed onto the floor. The Stratocaster-wielding singer was dressed like a handyman in dark overalls and a grubby ball-cap, and he led his three backing players into a jaunty rendition of the title cut from last year’s Salad Days. Behind them, a cluster of friends loitered at the back of the stage at what DeMarco referred to as the “bistro table”.

      Meanwhile, the energized fans up front hollered along with every word, setting the tone for an evening in which DeMarco held the room in the palm of his hand. The slippery funk of “Cooking Up Something Good” got onlookers dancing, and some revellers crowd-surfed to the chunky jangle-pop grooves of “Let Her Go”. Others held their lit cigarettes aloft during DeMarco’s tribute to cancer sticks, “Ode to Viceroy”, although the feel-good atmosphere didn’t quite jibe with the poignancy of lines like, “Oh, honey I’ll smoke you till I’m dying.”

      These songs’ live arrangements were relatively similar to the album versions, although they sounded punchier without the warped tape that characterizes DeMarco’s recordings. The slinky verses of “I’m a Man”, for example, swelled to towering, harmonized choruses as the singer unleashed gravelly-voiced yells. 

      Large parts of the set were devoted to goofy interludes during which DeMarco’s collaborators took the spotlight. When the frontman paused to fiddle with his gear, bassist Pierce McGarry grabbed the mike and led the group in a bombastic, exaggerated cover of Coldplay’s “Yellow.” At another point, McGarry brought his mom on-stage to introduce her to the crowd; as the ensemble performed a pseudo-Irish jig, guitarist Andy White did his best Riverdance impression. Drummer Joe McMurray kept a low profile through all of this, holding down the rhythms without drawing extra attention to himself.

      The hour-and-a-half-long set wasn’t without its faults. A dull, repetitive take on Steely Dan’s “Reelin’ in the Years” was lost on most of the young audience members, and the band unwisely allowed a friend to improvise vocals over a slow, echoing dub jam. When the Canucks-loving faithful in the crowd started a deafening chant of “FUCK THE FLAMES,” McGarry rained on everyone’s parade by saying, “None of us care about hockey in the slightest.”

      Luckily, DeMarco had enough solid material to make up for these low points, and the set ended on a high with the keyboard-hazed “Chamber of Reflection” followed by the doting love serenade “Still Together”. During the latter number, the vocalist let his buddies improvise while he stage-dived and then spent several minutes crowd-surfing around the circumference of the theatre’s lower level. He eventually ended up back in front of the mike for one last “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”-cribbing chorus.

      That would have been enough to send the punters home satisfied, but the outfit obliged requests for an encore with a 12-minute version of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”. This got the throng moshing as the arrangement shifted from heavy metal to breakneck punk to sludge.

      In the midst of this jam, as DeMarco jumped up and down with his guitar, his overalls came loose and slid down to his ankles, leaving him standing in his boxers. At this, the frontman kicked off the garment and continued playing as if nothing had happened. It was brave, hilarious and completely charming. No wonder he’s so famous now.

      Comments

      6 Comments

      Alex Jane

      Apr 25, 2015 at 10:30pm

      Second show is at the Biltmore, and its 19+...

      grumpy old curmudgeon

      Apr 26, 2015 at 9:57am

      i dont get the appeal of this new fangled pop musics kids are listening to these days

      mike michaelson of the coalition of mics

      Apr 27, 2015 at 7:45am

      Why were they all grabbing this Mike fellow ?

      Vancouverism

      Apr 27, 2015 at 12:10pm

      Why do we always have to wait for the Americans to tell us that our artistes are hot shit before we actually regard them as hot shit. If DeMarco didn't have New York behind him, us Vancouverites wouldn't even give him our time of the day. Our hero becomes a Canadian hero..as soon as he gains foreign acceptance. I speak for the many talented Canadian musicians who walk among us everyday, making the best music but ignored by their fellow Canadians... Who willfully ignore local artistes until the Americans or the Brits tell them otherwise lol

      canadian artist

      Apr 29, 2015 at 8:19am

      canadians treat canadian artists like shit in every medium. the comment above is right.