Live Review: Mac DeMarco - The Coronet, London 18/11/2017
After the release of This Old Dog, you would expect to see Mac DeMarco’s set to be a fairly promotional show, sandwiched together with the occasional track from the ever popular Salad Days, however, this is Mac DeMarco we are talking about. His performance was truly fascinating live and left The Coronet that night much like the audience- happy and vigour.
This eccentric performance perfectly matched Mac’s energy and confidence as he happily waltzed onto stage before proceeding to shake the venues walls. Launching immediately into crowd pleasers ‘On the Level’ and ‘Salad Days’, it was clear this would be a successful night. With much involvement with the crowd, Mac joked and mocked the sprightly swarm of fans who started to throw packets of crips, sandwiches and chicken nuggets on stage.
Dropping that rocky reverb vibe, ‘This Old Dog’ heavily favours synths and acoustic instruments which provided a break for the aggressive crowd moshing during ‘Salad Days’ and ‘The Stars Keep On Calling My Name’. The behaviour of the audience created the atmosphere as DeMarco’s latest records seemed unbelievable to mosh to, although ‘Ode To Viceroy’ swept across all members of the audience with ease. The younger generation took charge, with a cluster of crowd surfers and shoulder sitters.
As the long, energetic set progressed, DeMarco proceeded to incorporate all favourites onto the setlist including ‘My Kind Of Woman’ into the mix. At this point everyone got their phones out and created a beautiful site with lights flashing, gently juxtaposing the former rowdy response, followed by hearty rendition ‘Chamber of Reflection’.
Just when you thought the band had done, covers of other familiar songs were cleverly mingled within the set. After this glorious wind down, there was undoubtably time for DeMarco and crew to get up to some mischievous antics which they are all too well-known for. As Mac grins and laughs into the mic, he pulls out a Santa hat and groovy sunglasses, “Happy Christmas” he yells. Only setting the crowd off more, everyone screams the lyrics with joy to ‘The Way It Is’ (Bruce Hornsby cover) and ‘There She Goes’ (The La’s cover). Teasingly, this was prolonged to extended interludes, practically making us beg for more. With a pair of vans hung round his neck, Mac jumped towards the crowd and took from a fan a vinyl. Simply sitting on the front mic, he sat and started to draw then signed it. At this point he was topless, swigging from a bottle and marching round stage delirious. ‘Under the Bridge’ (Red Hot Chili Peppers cover) was the last of the cover renditions, ending with a lengthy crowd surf of the drummer who beforehand had chance to improvise and rap to ‘In Da Club’ (50 Cent cover).
This utterly impressive performance captures Mac DeMarco's cheeky, charismatic character. The show was more like a big party/reunion then a gig and with being onstage for over 2 hours, much fun was had. What’s next for Mac? Who can possibly tell?
Review and Photography by Lauren McDermott