Live Review: Mac DeMarco, Kirin J Callinan

It takes a master contortionist to put the enigma that is Mac DeMarco into a box. His musicianship confuses those who are only familiar with his home-studio recordings. His antics wow and intrigue. His can-do attitude beckons his audience perilously close to the natural high that only comes with this cocktail of tomfoolery and talent. Together with Kirin J Callinan in support, Mac brought his A-game to the Enmore. 

Fresh from a Laneway lynching due to his lewd ARIA appearance, Kirin J Callinan was characteristically dividing. Playing songs from Bravado, his uniquely kitschy combination of cowboy ballads and post-pop anthems, Callinan shirked the recent bad press to engage an enthused audience.

The ciggy-smoking Canadian champion of chumps and pioneer of post-surf-pop, Mac DeMarco took to the stage sporting his stock-standard oversized shirt, snapback dad cap and middle-tooth gap wider, and probably more famous, than that of Georgia May Jagger.

A sold-out Sydney crowd swooned as DeMarco, on the back of a country-wide romp with Laneway, scrolled through his catalogue of dazed and confused songs. He slayed several soft-centred bangers off his new album, This Old Dog.

The lights undulated across the ceiling as DeMarco crooned songs like My Old Man (a song about getting old and seeing yourself growing into someone you never thought you'd become), Still Beating (an update on his love song and festival favourite, Still Together) and the album's title track, which frames the singer as a veteran of life, tired yet still full of new tricks.

Of course, the hits were all there too, with Salad Days rousing a rowdy crowd further still. Ode To Viceroy saw the green smoke turn to grey and DeMarco demonstrated his larrikin spirit with some handstands and a good old-fashioned shoey.