On Friday, September 19th, Mac DeMarco took to the stage of the Greek Theater in Berkeley. His set encompassed many of his songs, ranging from newer songs on his new album Guitar and older songs from his albums Salad Days and This Old Dog.
Before Mac DeMarco came out there were two openers. The first was Daryl Johns, who ran onto the stage with a full band and lots of energy. They started the night off on a fun vibe, jamming out as the crowd filed in. Vicky Farewell then took to the stage. She sang some beautiful electric pop songs with an enchanting, melancholy voice supplemented by electronic effects. The audience seemed to adore her – at one point, everyone took out their phone flashlights to show their admiration. She then declared that the Bay Area crowd was better than the crowd in Los Angeles – yay!
Mac DeMarco opened with his song “Shining” off of his album Guitar. His voice was strong and sounded a lot like the recorded versions. After his opening song he screamed with a raspy voice, “Berkeley, M—Fer… Daddy’s home!” which was met with cheers from the audience. DeMarco continuously used this unsettling, deep voice to run comedic bits between songs, making me think his next tour might be for stand up comedy. Suddenly, the band would start playing and he would slip out of his bit before singing some of his most popular tunes like “Ode to Viceroy” and “Heart to Heart.” Audience members swayed and sang along, wrapping their arms around each other.
He also did bits between songs that included rhymes and sayings. One rhyme involved stating ‘Huey Lewis’ in different ways, and another bit involved saying he will be going to a ‘blood bar’ after the show, adding onto a bit he was doing about craving blood? All of this was met with laughter from the audience, and there was certainly a mood switch of humor to sentimentality when he moved from joking to singing. At one point someone shouted “I love you!” to which he responded, “You don’t love me… you don’t know me!”
Mac DeMarco would announce he was about to sing an old song, to which the audience erupted into cheers. This was the case right before he sang “Salad Days”. When announcing he was about to sing a new song, most came from his album Guitar which came out this past August. DeMarco instructed the crowd on participation, showing us when to sway our arms and encouraging us to bring out our cell phone flashlights, to which everyone happily obeyed. The circular theater was completely lit up with phone lights and there was a unifying energy of love for the music in the entire stadium as everyone sang along.
The audience went wild as Mac ended the concert with two of his biggest songs: “My Kind of Woman” and “Chamber of Reflections.” Many cameras were out, recording this special moment, and many voices of the audience were singing along. After these two songs, a chant for an encore was attempted, but unsuccessful. I expected Mac DeMarco to sound terrific vocally, but he surprised me with his sense of humor, making this concert an especially unique experience.
Review by Dahlia Kapelke
