And then DeMarco stripped down to his undergarments, his sweat glistening under the stage lights of Warsaw, as the band shred to Enter Sandman” closing out their final sold out show in NYC.

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The show opened up with Delicate Steve, fortunately catching the end of their set as a last minute decision to not sell my tickets to the show on craigslist due to sickness. I had previously seen the band open for Tame Impala last year at Beacon Theatre and true to their nature, their multi-instrumental sounds amplified the Elk lodge-esque venue as an amazing kick-off to the fiery DeMarco. After the show, we passed Steve Marion sitting cross-legged at the merch table and he couldn’t have been more of a down to earth guy. Thanks for saying hi to two sweaty fans.

It was the last NYC show of a consecutive 4 sold out nights for Mac DeMarco on tour for his new mini-LP, Another One.” Warsaw, a Polish community center by day and rowdy Greenpoint concert venue by night, was packed this past Thursday with everyone from teenyboppers to formerly punk silver foxes you wish were your dad.

The show had every element of a classic Mac DeMarco experience: crowd surfing, screaming, broken guitar strings. But this time we were in for a treat. As Mac played most of his new record, (“They Way You’d Love Her”, Another One”) he also blessed the crowd with our long time favorites, Let Her Go” and to my surprise, Chamber of Reflection.” The latter of which he serenaded us with interchanging gravelly vocals and high-pitched wails. IMG_3165

Most entertaining was the character of each band member. In the middle of the set, Mac brought their new drummer John up to the front of the stage for a trust fall into the crowd as his inauguration into the band. John crowd surfed through the entirety of a song and was only reported to have been dropped once. Relatively new guitarist and shirtless Andrew Andy” Charles White impressed the crowd with his perfect vocals as Mac fixed his broken string. (If anyone knows the song he covered, please let us know!)

 

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All in all the show was a great success. Only one beer bottle was thrown at the band, my friend stage dived and bruised a rib, and, naturally, the tallest man at the show did indeed stand in front of me, but was kindly nudged by his lady friend to move aside for my viewing pleasure.

Had it been possible to attend a Mac show in the 90s, my younger gap-toothed self would never have gotten braces.


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