![Students in the National Art Honor Society work on the Mount Hood mural on the window of SouthLake Church. The students brought a variety of paints and mixed their own custom colors. “Instead of brushstrokes, we’re doing more dabbing, because it gives [a] better impression of tree foliage, rather than looking like actual brush strokes, because if we’re painting trees, we need it to look like trees,” Crawford said.](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/IMG_2397-1200x900.jpg)
![Main Street said farewell to summer on Aug. 30 through the second annual Chalk Walk Art Festival. Ruth Offer, Chalk Walk organizer, brought this tradition from Wyoming in an attempt to make use of the renovated sidewalks of Willamette Falls Dr. “[This is] a community event for the kids,” Offer said.](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-12-1200x803.png)
On Sept. 22, 2025, Canadian songwriter Mac DeMarco came to Portland to perform at the McMenamins Grand Lodge in Forest Grove. The popular indie rock artist toured over 35 venues this summer and is continuing his performance internationally. He’s known for the slacker indie, nostalgic, and quiet rock vibe to his music.
DeMarco rose to fame in the 2010s with his dreamy and offbeat music that was lesser-known at the time. The lyrics on his music often connect and explore topics of memory, everyday life, and vulnerability which wraps into his own music making it personal to him.
DeMarco started his career with his first two albums not making any charts. His third album, “Salad Days,” made it to top 30 on Billboard charts. Following “Salad Days,” his next two albums were “This Old Dog,” making it to 29 on Billboard, and “Here Comes the Cowboy,” making it to 10.
The concert vibe that Audrey Reiner, junior, experienced was laid-back with monuments of chaos. The stage and venue were simple but had a warm glow.
“[His image and performance connected because] he was very chill,” Reiner said. “The vibe was super dim light. It was just feeling really nostalgic.”
DeMarco’s music fit the atmosphere of the concert, but the audience also saw him goofing off.
“He was making really weird moaning noises into the microphone and saying really random stuff, and was like doing handstands on the stage. The crowd was going wild for that,” Reiner said.
Reiner sees him as a very fun, silly, and light hearted person that makes very emotional music.
“I could see [his personality] on stage,” Reiner said. “I didn’t know he was that crazy until I went to the concert and he was doing flips.”
Corbin Laurer, sophomore, is an avid fan of DeMarco, and he’s been keeping up with him since 2022.
“He seems like a really relaxed, goofy person, and I think that’s a part of why people connect with him,” Laurer said. “His music feels very warm and it’s slow. I don’t know how to describe it. I feel like there’s not a lot of other [artists] that feel like that.”
A lot of DeMarco’s work is described as laidback, calm, and emotional music, but there’s still a lot of his work not like that. The other type of music DeMarco creates is more loud, fun, and happy pieces.
“Mac DeMarco music is either really fun, silly, happy, while the others are sad [and] emotional,” Reiner said.
This contrast in style shows how different people interpret the same artist and his best music.
“I like the laid-back ones. But like at the same time, it really depends on the mood I’m in,” Laurer said.
Reiner describes how DeMarco’s music causes a mix of emotion ranging from sad to relaxed which is her favorite type of music.
“It’ll make me sad and [hits] my feelings, and sometimes it’ll make me just relaxed, so I prefer that,” Reiner said.
Reiner has her own interpretation of the themes present in DeMarco’s songs.
“Mac I think definitely [sings about themes of] love or isolation. I feel like he talks more about being lonely and feeling pretty isolated. But he also has songs where it’s like my kind of woman. He’s talking about love and he’s talking about the love that he wishes he had,” Reiner said.
