Canadian indie-rock sweetheart Mac DeMarco has just finished up his South American tour, and played one of his first dates for the Salad Days tour to a sold out crowd at the Blacksheep Inn April 4.
His album was only officially released on April 1, but because the album leaked early, fans in attendance already knew all the words to every song. Over the past two years, DeMarco has achieved somewhat of a cult following.
“You know what it is? It’s that little red circle,” he said, referring to music website Pitchfork ratings.
But in reality, it seems his approachable personality and laid back lifestyle might be a greater cause for popularity.
Once the band started to play, it was a full-blown crowd effort for the biggest guy in the crowd to protect the monitors from toppling over.
Guitarist Peter Sagar delivered wavy guitar riffs, inundating the crowd with dreamy, laid back vibes on tunes like “Goodbye Weekend” and “Blue Boy.”
The crowd was full of sweaty fans, about 20 of them travelled to the Wakefield venue by piling into a U-Haul trailer—something that’s probably illegal, but showed their dedication.
The band mostly played tunes from Salad Days like “Brother” and a heartfelt song called “Let My Baby Stay.” The song is dedicated to his girlfriend, Kiera, who couldn’t live in New York without the proper documentation.
“And where would I be, feeling lonely, separated from my one and only,” he crooned before entering some smooth scatting.
The band was sure to play crowd favourites like “Freaking Out the Neighborhood” and “Ode to Viceroy”—a song about his cigarette brand of choice.
People in the audience were offering DeMarco the tobacco treats, which he accepted but didn’t smoke on stage. A year and a half ago in Toronto at a dive bar called the Silver Dollar, a ruthless crowd was throwing itself on stage and unplugging instruments while DeMarco chain smoked.
Fans were knocking over mic-stands at the Blacksheep, but most of the equipment stayed intact. Despite the band’s reputation for joke covers, the band only did one—15 seconds of Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water.”
They’ve amped up the technical aspects of their live show, focusing more on their own tunes and delivering them cleaner. There is no mistake that DeMarco and his band are still serious musicians.
Still, he’s not quite 24, and the touring lifestyle has “taken its toll,” as he sang in his synth heavy single “Passing Out the Pieces” about the less glamorous effects of fame.
“It’s like alcoholism, and doing drugs, and ruining your voice every night, and never sleeping. I probably look five or six years older than I’m supposed to look,” DeMarco smiles and shrugs in earnest. “But I love it, so I’m gonna do it.”
DeMarco’s guitar is another example of something he’s not ready to let go. It is a relic he keeps together using whatever he can find around the house.
“I bought it at a music store when I was like 15, but it was a piece of shit when I bought it, and now it’s an even bigger piece of shit but I really love it,” he said.
After the show, DeMarco stuck around to hang out with fans. He was wearing a white t-shirt he said he found. He sniffs the underarm part.
“It smells like farts,” DeMarco said with a laugh.
When DeMarco isn’t on tour, he said one of his preferred hobbies is pinball.
Surely no second to pinball games is Kiera.
He finished off the show with a song about “Ki-Ki,” crouching down and speak-singing the lyrics, ruffling one fan’s hair before launching himself into the crowd.
He somersaulted around the crowd, narrowly avoiding a ceiling fan. Parts of the song bordered on yodeling as DeMarco’s vocals trembled a drawn out “together.”
He closed off the set with a robust Neil Young cover, forcing the crowd to “kneel for Neil.” When a couple stragglers were still standing, bassist Pierce McGarry grinned and stuck a finger at them.
“Kneel!”
Fans left the Blacksheep Inn sweaty, happy, and laughing after a memorable evening with Mac DeMarco.
