Photos (c) Mustafa Mirreh
There’s not a patch of floor in sight and when Mac and co. finally emerge onstage the roar is like nothing I’ve ever heard.
Imagine waking up in a world where Rammstein decided to start life in the 80s as a euro-pop band and you’ve got support act Dinner, a one-man outfit that embodies everything that typified the 80s with a helpful dash of irony and self-awareness. Anders Rhedin himself is pretty damn fearless in just about every aspect of his performance. It’s immediately entertaining as he dances like Kermit with rickets and fills Motion with his deep euro-brogue, but soon becomes a case of seen it once, seen it all.
We all know Mac DeMarco is a big deal, but I don’t think I really anticipated just how huge he’s become. Looking down from the safety and relative comfort of Motion’s balcony a sea of baseball caps and plaid shirts push and shove for air. There’s not a patch of floor in sight and when Mac and co. finally emerge onstage the roar is like nothing I’ve ever heard.
The stage soon fills up with a variety of trinkets and oddities as Mac ambles through his smoke-veiled catalogue. Bras, plants, sunglasses, hats and even a tube of teething gel are given in offering to the king of quirk and his cohorts. Despite the swarm of fans going berserk with every passing track something niggled away at me.
At times it’s inspired as every piece falls into place, clear when “Ode To Viceroy” sends the room into somnambulant frenzy; but adrift in a sea of chorus the set blurs into one big laid-back odyssey that lacks definition. At home the setlist would almost certainly hit the mark every time, but something just doesn’t translate live and with an unavoidable encore wasted on a bizarre rendition of ‘Enter Sandman’ the evening ends on a slightly deflating note and I’m left feeling underwhelmed.
Check out ‘Another One’ right here:
