That wasn’t my first thought walking into the Mac DeMarco/Mock Media show, but it was a thought that I left with.
I remember being a teenager. I didn’t listen to Mac DeMarco, who become popular when I was a teen, but I remember all of us being pieces of shits, as you do when you’re a kid. And with the world as it is – school shootings, AI slop, an ever decreasing view of a viable future – you would kinda assume that music teens listen to would be the same – aggressive and violent.
So what a surprise when Mock Media started playing early, something no band ever does because why be polite with people’s time when you can waste it instead! And what a bigger surprise when non aggressive music started playing. Polite and easy listening, why the fuck are there so many kids here? Still didn’t know. And while the set was far from perfect – not the broken bass string, but the silence in between songs and subsequent heckling from the antsy (and angsty?) crowd – it was still a big wtf moment for me. Are the kids alright?
That was confirmed even before Mac DeMarco took the stage. From Mike the friendly security guard to someone-with-a-camera-whose-name-I-didn’t-catch telling me about the nostalgia she was about to feel, there wasn’t an aggressive vibe in the venue.
And then Mac DeMarco took the stage. He’s cool, calm, I’m not sure about collected judging from his schizophrenic ramblings between songs, but definitely cool and calm. And the teens were singing back and even cheering at song titles. Song titles that, mind you, would jump straight into another chill, vibey song. Something chiller than the cheers it elicited.
It was actually mind boggling to me to see kids so into Mac DeMarco’s music. It’s so against the stereotype you would think of kids listening to nowadays. A couple days later, an adult brought up Mac DeMarco in conversation and put it into adult words that adults can understand:
Kids are smoking pot and fucking to this music.
Mac DeMarco is their escape from our bullshit reality. Nice. Now it makes sense why the street was lined with teens and young adults before the show. And why there were such immense cheers to such intimate songs.
I get it now.
