(Hackney Empire, London)
Moving on from his sad-clown antics with a beguiling set of instrumentals and fan faves, strung together by Tom Waitsy banter, DeMarco is a magnetic performer
The last time I saw Mac DeMarco live he jammed a lit cigarette in his ear, climbed on top of an amp with his boxers bunched into his arse crack and lit his armpit hair on fire. That was a few years ago – before the pandemic, before DeMarco quit smoking, and before a solo road trip around the US and Canada would reconfigure his approach to writing and performing music.
The result was Five Easy Hot Dogs: 14 minimal yet addictive instrumental tracks written and recorded on the road, and announced just two weeks before its release in January. In that spirit, Mac’s current tour is an atypical celebration of an atypical album.
