Music review: Mac DeMarco, Kelvingrove Bandstand, Glasgow

MAC DeMarco is a dude. There is simply no other way to describe an affable Canadian gent who dresses like a beach bum while performing woozy, welcoming indie-pop.

DeMarco and band provided the perfect vibe for a hot summer evening, eccentric, uplifting and crowd-pleasing Picture: Brian Ach/Getty Images

Mac DeMarco, Kelvingrove Bandstand, Glasgow ****

He describes his sound as “jizz jazz”. That’s as good a description as any. It’s dominated by ice creamy harmonies and sun-dappled rivulets of reverbed guitar, all huddled up in romantic slacker warmth and the smoothest of yacht rock grooves. It’s as if he’s been beamed in from a parallel universe where the world is still reeling from an unlikely yet somehow triumphant collaboration between Jonathan Richman and the Doobie Brothers. The ideal soundtrack, then, for a hot summer evening in Kelvingrove Park.

DeMarco’s biggest Scottish gig to date was a typically eccentric and uplifting affair in which he rippled through selections from his new album Here Comes the Cowboy – the loco sex-funk of Choo Choo being a particular highlight – and fan favourites such as the tender, pretty My Kind of Woman.

The most prominent member of his wiseacre backing band of bros is multi-instrumentalist and Garth from Wayne’s World sound-alike Andy White, whose goofy stage patter involved references to Buckfast, the stone of destiny and some crowd-pleasing anti-Tory rabble-rousing.

He even recovered from the gaffe – or was it a joke? – of claiming to be in England by leading a raucous stagger through Over and Done With by The Proclaimers, which against all odds eventually morphed into Chumbawamba’s Tubthumping. The vibes, dude, they were good.

PAUL WHITELAW