Polaris Prize-nominee Mac DeMarco has been known to have an unpredictable stage presence, but police at a California university campus thought he went over the line Friday night.
Spin reports DeMarco was performing at the University of California Santa Barbara on Nov. 14 when things got out of control. The Santa Barbara Independent reports DeMarco was detained after he was crowd surfing and scaling the ceiling beams in the venue known as the Hub located on the university campus. The concert was stopped twice: once for fans moshing and the second time to detain the singer which ended the gig. Two other arrests were made for moshing and resisting arrest.
"It was definitely not some Slayer concert," Haley Snyder, who took in the gig, told the local publication. "(Associated Students) wants to put on these campus shows as an alternative to kids partying in Isla Vista. What was supposed to be an intimate concert turned into 'I can't believe the police are acting this way'....There was no danger in the crowd."
DeMarco took to his Instagram account to describe what transpired:
A YouTube clip posted Sunday (see above) also showed the same officer leading DeMarco out of the venue and down a hallway as fans behind him chanted "We want Mac! We want Mac!" DeMarco -- sporting a Simpsons t-shirt -- didn't appear to be in handcuffs but the officer was holding DeMarco's left arm behind his back. The singer was then escorted up a flight of stairs before event security blocked off the crowd from going any further up the steps.
On November 10 at a Hollywood gig at The Fonda DeMarco -- as shown in another YouTube clip -- went to the second level before diving backwards down to the audience below who caught the singer.
DeMarco, touring behind his latest release "Salad Days," made no further comment on what happened. The singer will launch a brief European leg later this month before playing gigs in Singapore, New Zealand and Australia next January and February.
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