On May 3rd, I saw McBriare Samuel Lanyon DeMarco at the Mission Ballroom in Denver, Colorado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have spent many hours of my life watching Mac DeMarco. I have mentioned this before, but I often avoided doing my homework in my pre-college years. My amazing mother would try to help me better prepare for life by making me sit in the mustard-colored room adjacent to our kitchen. It was in this room, which we referred to as \u201cthe study room,\u201d where my journey truly began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My brother had introduced me to Mac through a recording of him playing for a small crowd at a music festival. I had heard some of his hits, but this was my first time witnessing the uniquely funky fellow that is Mac DeMarco. After that, some of his performances found their way into my rotation of procrastination tactics. But the true deep dive into this visually recorded discography really didn’t begin until my junior year of high school. Moving forward, watching him play became one of my favorite pastimes, and his face often filled the corner of the dorm that held my TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All this is to say that every version of me (from 8th grade to now) shared the excitement in receiving the opportunity to cover this show, and I am still so overwhelmingly grateful. Additionally, in a moment of vulnerability, I must admit I have had a crush on him since the first performance I watched, and although there is no part of me that hopes to infringe on his 16-year relationship, it was nice to see if it would still hold when confronted face to face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyways, here are my thoughts on the Mac DeMarco Mission Ballroom show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an interview (I honestly can’t remember what exactly it was, but I remember the interview parts were in black and white if that helps anyone), Mac says essentially he will perform his songs but not his album. He knows people can listen to the recorded version whenever they want, but at his concerts, he wants to give them a show! On May 3rd In his navy blue coveralls, he did just that. I knew every song that he played yet, not a single one was the way I had learned them. Bouncing across the stage, he spent long moments drawing out and emphasizing some lines yet, skipped others. His understanding and mastery of his sound were apparent. He pulled me into his performance with anticipation and amusement . His age was clear, but it was not an inhibitor; rather, a metamorphosis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Mac DeMarco I have come to know through YouTube is creative and articulate, but lightly devious. In many ways, my connection to his music stemmed from a connection to him. The youth he displayed in the videos I watched reminded me of something I rarely see in \u201ccelebrities\u201d but saw a lot in those who surround me. Lacking in thought but abundant in intention. Far from sober but in reach of clarity. The maturity of the man on stage was new but in no way negative. He was singing about uncertainty with the voice of someone who had figured it all out (or at least been media trained). Although I love the voice of the 22 year old that wrote 2 <\/em>there was something about the age in his voice that made me emotional. Like watching a friend learn their sound. It sounds odd, but I can’t really describe it any other way than proud. He doesn’t know me yet I felt grateful to experience him in a way that felt so undeniably intimate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These feelings were primarily during the first 3 songs, as those were the ones I was able to be in the barricades for. For those three songs, I stood about 15 feet away from Mr.Demarco and was able to see him in all his glory. He opened with Shining, <\/em>and although it was a fantastic tune, I don’t have much to say about it. I only recall standing in awe, thinking about how, after all these years, I was finally there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He then played For The First Time<\/em> a beautiful track off This Old Dog. <\/em>This set the tone for the show as he moved about the stage tossing the mic and catching it before each line. He seemed mildly nervous but unmistakably comfortable in the act he was putting on. By this \u201cact\u201d, I mean the jestful nature of his performance. While the singing and dancing felt lightly timid, he seemingly found comfort in the voices and juggling acts that filled those spaces where his voice was not needed. Despite this minorly awkward cadence in his movements, his voice brought me to tears. It was heavy and clear, showing no signs that it had been used to perform this song hundreds of times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He followed up with another song off his newest album, Shining. <\/em>This song was beautifully psychedelic, layering each melodic line to create an echo that filled the whole venue. A stream of cool colored lights danced across the stage, emphasizing the sounds I was so lucky to hear. It was this that pulled me out of my star-struck trance and into Mac’s accompaniment on stage. There were four fellas who performed behind him, each rocking an outfit that was a true reflection of the psychedelic sound they were producing. I was not alive in the 60s or the 70s, nor the 80s, and if you can believe it, not even the 90s, BUT, I would imagine they would’ve fit in perfectly. I found that the groove they produced seemingly overtook me, and in the photo pit, I couldn’t help but hit a little jig. To my surprise (and honestly, I am still trying to figure out if this really happened), the Canadian I had come to see extended a long, brief finger to me, and had a little laugh. Then an an amazing thing happened, for a split second, we were synced up. He mirrored my moves as I stood jaw dropped in the space between the crowd and the stage. If anyone out there has a recording of the performance, I would appreciate it so I can confirm if this was all a trick of the mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, this is where my time at the front ended. My 3 songs face-to-face had flown by, and I was soon to be banished to the crowd of a sold-out show at Mission Ballroom. I wanted to hold off on talking about this until I could emphasize just how awesome the performance was, because he truly did kill it. This was one of the weirdest crowds I have ever experienced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To properly understand this show, you must understand my experience with the crowd. People seemed to be one of 3 ways: extremely intoxicated, angry, or stagnant. Throughout the show, I witnessed multiple individuals actively \u201ctossing cookies\u201d or \u201cblowing chunks,\u201d some might say. Additionally, I was in earshot of AT LEAST 3 verbal quarrels. Finally, with all this excitement, people somehow did not move their mouths or bodies. I understand that for many, indie concerts do not seem like the place to dance, but with the groove being thrown out on stage, there could at least have been a little sway. This did not stop us, but some community engagement would have been nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was a tired, uninterested energy within the space. When the only voices you can hear are those who are audibly over the legal limit or chirping the dude next to them, it becomes hard to appreciate what you have all come to see. The rest of my time at the show was in no way bad, but it simply did not compare to those first three songs. I feel corny putting this into writing, but truly, people just needed to dance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n People needed a wake-up call, some kind of reminder that this was who they had come to see. Once he came back on stage for his final songs, energy filled the crowd. I had left the crowd to go stand at the edge, where there was more room to dance, and found an easy path to the front for the last two songs. He played, freaking out in the neighborhood, and the people around me erupted. He threw his guitar in the air repeatedly, and I heard the girl next to me audibly gasp. This proved to me that they had it in them; maybe they all just realized that it could’ve been over, and they hadn’t taken the time to enjoy it. All they needed was an apology for a profane, impulsive act to get their feet moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Mac DeMarco show was baller to say the least. Thank you to my friends for dancing when no one else was. Thank you, Mac, for putting on an awesome show. I expect more from you, Denver concert goers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you for reading<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On May 3rd, I saw McBriare Samuel Lanyon DeMarco at the Mission Ballroom in Denver, Colorado. I have spent many hours of my life watching Mac DeMarco. I have mentioned this before, but I often avoided doing my homework in my pre-college years. My amazing mother would try to help me better prepare for life […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1816,"featured_media":7996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[359,12,18,1],"tags":[248,400,401,204],"class_list":["post-7995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concert-reviews","category-music","category-shows","category-uncategorized","tag-concert-review","tag-mac-demarco","tag-maisie-moylan","tag-socc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/files\/2026\/05\/IMG_0795.jpeg?fit=1179%2C647&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa7fJU-24X","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1816"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7995"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8003,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7995\/revisions\/8003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}