{"id":573155,"date":"2025-11-16T01:43:27","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T01:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/573155\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T01:43:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T01:43:27","slug":"mac-demarco-is-back-in-manchester-and-six-years-ago-this-was-unthinkable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/573155\/","title":{"rendered":"Mac DeMarco is back in Manchester, and six years ago this was unthinkable"},"content":{"rendered":"

REVIEW Mac DeMarco at Aviva Studios, November 14<\/p>\n

11:53, 15 Nov 2025Updated 11:54, 15 Nov 2025<\/p>\n

A different Mac took to the stage at Aviva Studios(Image: Piran Aston)<\/p>\n

Last time Mac DeMarco was in town – six years ago to the month – it would\u2019ve been unthinkable that he\u2019d ever leave it so long between visits.<\/p>\n

Ever since his first appearance in Manchester, opening for DIIV at the Deaf Institute in November of 2012, he\u2019d made a mockery of the slacker rock tag often applied to him on account of his hazy, minimalistic brand of songwriting; he toured constantly up to 2019, playing everywhere from the Roadhouse to the Apollo, via Victoria Warehouse and even Parklife.<\/p>\n

In the process, he made a slew of records, including the modern classic likes of 2, Salad Days and This Old Dog, albums that turned him into one of the 21st century\u2019s great indie rock cult figures.<\/p>\n

Then, the pandemic hit, and a host of strange things happened. First, DeMarco cleaned up his act, giving up everything from booze to coffee to cigarettes – the latter once unthinkable, given he has literally written love songs to his preferred brand of smokes.<\/p>\n

Around the same time, a new generation discovered him via TikTok, sending his streaming figures into the stratosphere, and affording him both a long break from the road and the opportunity to release whatever he liked, including an instrumental album, Five Easy Hot Dogs, and 2023\u2019s mammoth, 199-track collection One Wayne G.<\/p>\n

DeMarco made a mockery of the slacker rock tag(Image: Piran Aston)<\/p>\n

All of which is to say that there\u2019s almost an air of trepidation in the air tonight (November 14) – what to expect from the one-time clown prince of the indie world, now that he\u2019s sober and treading a more experimental path?<\/p>\n

The crowd is presumably not going to be asked to \u201ckneel for Neil\u201d, as was the case at The Ritz in 2014 when DeMarco delivered an absurd cover of fellow Canadian Neil Young\u2019s \u2018Unknown Legend\u2019.<\/p>\n

And neither is he likely to arrive as he did at the Albert Hall in 2015, by moonwalking onto the stage in an unsettlingly lifelike Michael Jackson mask.<\/p>\n

And it is, sure enough, a mellower DeMarco who rolls up at Aviva Studios\u2019 cavernous Warehouse tonight, although he promises both \u201cloud songs and soft songs\u201d as he tells the audience to \u201cmake yourself at home\u201d.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s plenty of new material from his latest album, Guitar; a bare-bones, near-acoustic affair on record, he transforms the likes of opener \u2018Shining\u2019 and the haunting \u2018Phantom\u2019 into soft rock jams with the help of his five-piece band.<\/p>\n

It was a mellower DeMarco who rolled up at Aviva Studios(Image: Piran Aston)<\/p>\n

Inevitably, though, the older songs are what really ignite the crowd; after such a long time away, you get the sense that many in attendance tonight are at their first-ever DeMarco show.<\/p>\n

\u2018For the First Time\u2019 is an early misfire – played too fast, the percussion too snappy – but after that, he settles down, and \u2018Salad Days\u2019 inspires a mass singalong, as does \u2018The Stars Keep on Calling My Name\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re making an old man feel young again,\u201d he says. DeMarco is only 35, but there\u2019s no question that songs about youthful misbehaviour, like \u2018Passing Out Pieces\u2019, are imbued with a certain pathos now, and a gorgeous slow version of \u2018Ode to Viceroy\u2019 – on which he pledged to smoke his favourite cigarettes \u201ctil I\u2019m dying\u201d – is almost mournful for his old ways.<\/p>\n

Which is not to say that the old Mac has been consigned to history; he is on playful form tonight, and perhaps nothing sums up his signature balancing act between mirth and melancholy better than when he performs an impressive handstand in the middle of heartbreak ballad \u2018Another One\u2019, as his guitarist Daryl Johns plays a yearning solo.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s proof that this new DeMarco – fitter, happier, more productive – remains as mischievous as ever. Expect more of the same when he returns to the Studios tonight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"REVIEW Mac DeMarco at Aviva Studios, November 14 11:53, 15 Nov 2025Updated 11:54, 15 Nov 2025 A different…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,9159,2465,711,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-573155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-indie-music","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-pop-music","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115556845378076450","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}