Mac Demarco Concert at UC Berkeley

Canadian singer-songwriter Mac Demarco came to UC Berkeley’s Greek Theater on September 8, touring to promote his latest album, This Old Dog. Demarco is known for his beautiful instrumentals, including keyboard and guitar, and smooth voice. So when I attended this concert with a few of my friends, I was not expecting the audience to be filled with punk-rocker wannabes.

Right when Demarco walked on stage, the crowd formed a mosh pit. I was unaware that it was even possible to mosh to slow, relaxing music like Demarco’s. However, I soon realized that if you try (shove) hard enough, you can mosh to just about anything.

On top of the pushing, my friends and I also constantly had cigarette/vape smoke blown in our faces. As a long-time fan of Demarco, I know that he often smokes, but I did not expect so many audience members to be smoking the entire concert. While the thrashing crowd of unruly smokers was annoying, I tried to not let it stop me from having a good night.

Unfortunately, Demarco’s low-key performance was not enough to compensate for the aggressively annoying audience; all he really did was stand on stage, play his guitar, and sing. While I wasn’t expecting full-on choreography and pyrotechnics, a little more energy from Demarco, and a little less energy from the crowd, would have been nice.

The concert was a strange combination of excessiveness and minimalism that tarnished Demarco’s music for me. However, if you enjoy aggressively shoving people and being aggressively shoved in return while listening to mellow music, I highly recommend you attend a Mac Demarco concert. Overall, I rate this concert 2.5 out of 5 stars: good music, but an overpowering and obnoxious crowd.