Live Shows: Mac Demarco | Tucson, AZ
Tucson, AZ - Lunda Ronstadt Music Hall - May 22, 2026
In case there was any doubt that indie-rock legend Mac Demarco had lost any of his star power among younger audiences during a relatively laid-back, modest period of his music career, his performance at the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall in Tucson, Arizona, on May 22nd was certainly an indicator of the contrary. Even as opening act and label-mate Tex Crick took the stage around an hour prior, lines of fans that stretched the radius of the concert hall, waiting to purchase highly coveted Mac merch, continued to grow. For the uninitiated, Mac Demarco is a Canadian-born singer/songwriter who has led an illustrious career of indie rock/indie jazz output since 2012, when Demarco began releasing music under his own name. For much of his early career, Mac was known for chimey, melodic indie rock that garnered him not only millions of fans, but boundless accolades and recognition, including but not limited to his crowning as the “prince of indie rock”. These days, as Mac approaches 40, he’s taken on a much more mellow, introspective songwriting attitude – reflected most recently on Guitar, his latest self-released LP.
As he demonstrated in Tucson, though, he’s still the same charismatic, delightfully erratic performer he has always been. Whether it be stripping down to his underwear onstage, demonstrating his hilariously topical fondness for Jackson-esque dance moves, or gallivanting about the stage in a toddler-like fashion, Mac Demarco’s stage persona is just as theatrical as it is musical. This was no different this time around, wherein Demarco humored the crowd with his typical antics, which included a rather impressive handstand mid-song.
The setlist was, in my opinion, excellently curated, appealing to tenured fans with tunes like Rock and Roll Night Club, to more mainstream, die-hard fans with classics like “Salad Days”, “Freaking Out the Neighborhood”, and “Chamber of Reflection”, a viral hit for Mac, all the while showing off new material from Guitar, much of which was masterfully reworked to accommodate a full band. A band, by the way, comprised of wildly talented musicians that brought a relatively jazzier sound to Mac’s material than appears on his releases. Among the most memorable moments of the show was the band’s performance of “Moonlight on the River”, a nearly decade-old tune that continues to awe audiences such as myself with its long, swirling, psychedelic outro, which the band fully and expertly embellished.
While I was delighted to hear some of the timeless Mac songs that dedicated fans know by heart, I was even more pleased to hear some of Mac’s later material, such as “Little Dogs March”, one of my favorite cuts from 2019’s Here Comes the Cowboy. Demarco even performed a cut off 2023’s One Wayne G, a 9-hour release of demos, snippets, and ideas, called “I Like Her”. It was during songs like this that Mac went guitar-less, channelling his inner Sinatra while his backing band handled the brunt of the instrumentation. Regardless of the material, I observed the audience fully and completely immersed in the performance, often singing along to the songs they knew best, most of which were the more viral of Mac’s tunes, such as “Viceroy” or “My Kind of Woman”, which was wisely chosen to finish off the performance during the encore.
As someone who had been seeing Mac live for the very first time, I’d be hard-pressed to ask for a more vibrant and satisfying performance. The variety of material, the stage banter and crowdwork, and the razor-sharpness of Mac’s backing band combined to deliver precisely the performance that loyal Mac followers have come to know and expect. Mac did express interest in returning sooner rather than later, so I will certainly be in attendance next time as well.
