Savannah Stopover preview: Mac DeMarco

I don’t know if anything special will happen at 1 a.m. — or more likely a little later — on the night of Thursday, March 7 when Mac DeMarco takes the stage at The Jinx, but even a mundane DeMarco appearance is likely to be memorable.

So while I don’t expect DeMarco to make out with an audience member, dive from the stage into the audience, or strip for an inspired rendition of U2’s “Beautiful Day” (NSFW!), I do expect we’ll at least hear some finely crafted and quirky tunes about living, loving, and cigarette smoking.

There’s an absurdist’s wildness but also a studied simplicity to DeMarco, the 22-year old Canadian who grabbed the indie-world’s ear with Rock and Roll Nightclub and the simply-titled 2 on the Captured Tracks label.

From the Pitchfork review of Mac DeMarco’s recent album 2:

DeMarco writes about life — both the heavy moments and the mundane ones — with economy and newfound grace. He’s still not entirely upfront, but he has a knack for building songs where the realness of his subject matter lies just below the surface. In a Pitchfork guest list from earlier in October, DeMarco cites Jonathan Richman as a role model, mostly because he felt that Richman had “a very enjoyable time his whole life.” Richman is an expert at writing entire worlds into his songs, an approach that DeMarco nails on 2.

Mac DeMarco by Brad Elterman

Of course, Richman is about 40 years DeMarco’s senior. DeMarco is going to have to stick around for a while to measure up to that comparison.

There are a few moments during the 2013 Savannah Stopover when the collective energy will converge on specific venues. That’s going to happen early on opening night at the Ships of the Sea for The Last Bison and Ben Sollee. It’s going to happen again the next night for of Montreal in Forsyth Park.

And expect to see all the festival insiders and visiting journalists at The Jinx on Thursday for DeMarco’s set, all trying to see just how much there is there.

I love this live version of “Freaking Out the Neighborhood”: