Mac Demarco’s sold out show at the Oregon Zoo on Saturday, September 9th showed a band that has grown and evolved along with the man himself, and the old dog has learned some new tricks. Mac is a 27 year old Canadian rocker who, for an indie guy, has found a great amount of success at a young age. Mac is weird and sexy, he is often playful, and shows a natural band leader’s bravado. His themes of sexuality, love, identity, and seclusion are easy to identify with and his style of music, at once exuberant and serious, are finding solid ground in the hearts of his mostly young audience.
The Saturday night show was held at the Oregon Zoo. The venue was ideal, a forest setting in Portland’s Washington Park, an intimate locale that provided a great view of the stage from all corners of the lawn. Not to mention the presence of a wide range of animals in close proximity to the concert grounds. Before the show began the audience was treated to a light rain, an exciting event for a dry city choked by the wildfires raging in the nearby Columbia River Gorge.
The set showed a more mature approach to the music than witnessed from the band in years past. There was in intense attention to detail and a soulful approach that was accentuated by an astonishingly talented band. Mac put on his John Mayer mask with references to our bodies being a wonderland, and a few other teases to John’s music including a brief touch on the guitar parts from said wonderland song. Mac is a weird guy and he knows how to make people laugh. The John Mayer jokes were well received but at one point in the show he pissed his pants and just kept rocking, fun guy.
In the end the crowd enjoyed a show full of some of Mac’s best songs, including “Ode to Viceroy,” “My Kind of Woman,” “This Old Dog,” and “Still Together”, which had a natural similarity to the theme song from The Lion King, one that the audience picked up on rather quickly. All in all Mac Demarco and his band consistently put on a show that should not be missed.
