Concert Review: Mac DeMarco, Connan Mockasin @ The Danforth Music Hall

By: Daniel Gerichter (@ZenDonut) –

Mac DeMarco. (Photo: Morgan Hotston/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto)

All hail Canada’s party king.

Mac DeMarco’s name has been everywhere: SXSW, NXNE, the 2013 Pitchfork festival and most recently as a shortlisted Polaris prize nominee. He’s not up-and-coming – he’s come up – and his sold-out set at The Danforth Music Hall  in Toronto last night was a hell of a celebration.

By now, you probably know what DeMarco is about. Class clown made good. Slacker troubadour. Jimmy Buffet by way of Ricky and Julian. Clad in his now-iconic painter’s cap, filthy white t-shirt and filthier overalls, DeMarco took the stage with the music hall’s lights still on, to help set up. And that’s the thing: as big a rock star as he’s become, as ridiculous a schtick as he’s built, Mac DeMarco is a musician’s musician.

While the music hall lends itself to all manner of elaborate stage setups, Demarco’s was non-existent, save for a preserved sign from North York that read “De Marco BL”, proudly placed beside his mic. Besides that, DeMarco’s stage decorations were the score of guests – some permanent, some just there to say hey – personally invited by DeMarco.

Openers Connan Mockasin, a tripping-balls psychedelic artist from New Zealand perfectly warmed the crowd up for DeMarco’s parade of weird. Not fifteen minutes after he wrapped up, he and his band took their seats as DeMarco’s ‘banquet table’, a plastic folding table (complete with lacy cloth) at the right of the stage, stocked with various kinds of booze, ash trays (they passed around joints and cigarettes for the entire set) and from the looks of things – Cheetos.

It needs to be said that the crowd were something of a problem. DeMarco’s philosophy of not giving a fuck has clearly been adopted by much of his fan base, and in a dense crowd of wasted strangers, that’s not a good thing. Small groups purposely pushed larger groups forward, causing dangerous surges. Crowd surfers writhed and kicked their feet out, knocking people (yours truly on multiple occasions) squarely in the face. A thoroughly wasted bro, crowd surfing while smoking a cigarette (!) tried to flip around, causing the cherry to explode all over his chest and the very dense crowd. DeMarco had to repeatedly ask the audience to take it easy and “stop kicking your friends in the face”. It’s a miracle nobody was hurt.

But for those who were into that sort of thing, the night was a rager. DeMarco played a huge set, including cuts from his universally beloved album Salad Days, as well as fan favourites from his 2012 album 2. On top of that, DeMarco included a slew of totallyappropriate covers, including Bob Marley’s ”Jammin”, Kelis’ “Milkshake” and the theme from Top Gun. In between songs, the ever-smiling DeMarco invited scores of audience members on stage to generally act like (lovable) idiots. Patrick (some random kid) proclaimed that it was his birthday and was duly serenaded before launching himself back onto the crowd. Shirtless bros pumped fists, high-fived, gave (and got) hugs and off they went. Head-kickings or not, this is the kind of show people will be talking about twenty years from now.

And that’s what’s up with Mac DeMarco. Focus on the debauchery if you must. It’s certainly noticeable. But beyond that lies the proven track record of a brilliant musician – who maybe just wants to hang out.

Check out our photos from the show here.