Northside Festival: Benjamin Booker and Mac DeMarco @ House of Vans, New York 06/12/14

As a giant warehouse, renovated into a concert venue, House of Vans sits in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn. Thursday’s show started off with Benjamin Booker, a New Orleans guitarist accompanied by Max Norton on drums and an additional guitarist. Having only heard one song, his single “Violent Shiver,” I only had a vague idea of what his music would sound like. “Violent Shiver” seems to be the most pop-ish of his mainly garage, punk rock sound with an extra mix of blues. With about a hundred people in the crowd, Booker managed to ignite a slight most pit by the third quarter of the set. Booker has a traditional rocker (doesn’t that sound like an oxymoron) stage presence, swinging his guitar around (to the point where the microphone stand fell, though it remains to be seen if that was purposeful or not), seemingly not giving a shit, and screaming his lyrics at times.

Mac DeMarco was a crowd favorite that night at House of Vans, creating a crowd five times bigger by the time they began their set. With their chill rock music, Mac DeMarco played crowd favorites (though it seemed like all the songs were met with extreme enthusiasm) like “Salad Days” and “Passing Out Pieces.” With a tucked in shirt and his signature cap, DeMarco acted grandpa-like throughout the set, from the way he plays his guitar to his dancing to his extremely polite tone of voice. There were, of course, moments where he definitely was not so well-mannered, like when he decided to put the security guard in the pit between his legs, or when he mentioned the band would be by the merch later and said, “and if you don’t want to hang, fuck you!” Though his music does not inspire mosh pits (in the traditional sense), there was an almost consistent one in the middle of the crowd by the fifth song to the end of the set, where DeMarco crowd surfed for a good minute.

DeMarco’s tour dates: