With a grin from ear to ear, baring the famous DeMarco teeth, army patterned dungarees with a cartoon top poking through and his shiny Gibson guitar – Mac Demarco bounced onto the Concorde 2 stage to greet the uncontrollably excited audience and gleefully announced ‘this song’s called Salad Days’ and so the night began.
 
Salad days is Demarco’s third album which was the one that brought him to fame and secured him as a household name in every ‘hipsters’ house. Mac Demarco (real name ‘Vernor Winfield McBriare Smith IV’ !) began his music career more as a joke than a serious venture which makes me wonder whether this is partly the reason why he’s done so well. It was clear to anyone who saw him at the Concorde 2, or indeed any of his gigs – that he thoroughly enjoys every moment and certainly doesn’t take himself too seriously! Demarco even still looked somewhat bemused at how famous he’s become –  but this all adds to the charm as he most certainly shouldn’t feel bemused, as both his music and live shows exude brilliance and originality yet all with a hint of cheeky-ness. After each song there was always a joke or even a jibe at another band member which unfortunately flew over most of the audiences heads as the pure excitement and jostling (mixed with regular crowd surfing) clearly distracted their minds. Demarco himself is famous for crowd surfing in his gigs and it was clear that most of the audience previously knew this and decided to get ahead of the game by beginning the surfing spree much to Demarco’s amusement.
 
Pitch shift is a big element of Demarco’s musical writing, especially on his most recent album ‘Salad Days’ and, unfortunately for me, the post-production pitch shift and other effects weren’t as well realised live on stage as they could have been, however, with Demarco’s cheeky disposition and the whole bands big charisma on stage was so great that the minute details didn’t seem to matter.
 
You wouldn’t normally expect moshing at a ‘blue wave/slacker rock’ genre style gig, however due to Demarco’s history of live ‘raunchfests’ with performances previously including nudity and ‘lewd acts’, the audience was ready for a mad party. When Demarco was once asked why he engages in such behaviour onstage that doesn’t really relate to his musical style (self described by Mac as ‘jizz-jazz’), Demarco said “If we’re getting all loose and goofy, the crowd usually lightens up and starts having a funkier time!” which was certainly true of this gig!
 
Demarco’s encore was certainly one of mixed opinions. When he came back on stage he performed a 10minute rendition of the Top Gun anthem varying in speed which left the audience not knowing whether this was the coolest thing to happen to them all year, or the most boring thing. Either way, Demarco was met with a huge round of applause at the end and concluded what was altogether a brilliant show!
 
This gig sold out pretty-damn quickly and as Mac might have said ‘you snooze you loose man!’ so next time be a little quicker grabbing those tickets because anything could happen at the next one!