Wednesday night at The Drake Hotel Halifax's Cousins opened for 22-year-old Montrealer Mac DeMarco. I hadn't seen the underground that packed since Peaches, so I guess the word has gotten out on DeMarco's charms.

Cousins played a fantastic set as usual — their Toronto fan base seems to grow with each visit. Fortunately, they're in town for a while working on a new album, so we should get some more shows out of them before they head back east. Crucial observation: Aaron Mangle of Cousins and DeMarco are possibly twins (or at least were dressed the same).

Mac DeMarco is a bit of an enigma. He enjoyed a wealth of critical success with his first LP 2 (don't pretend you don't read Pitchfork anymore) and yet seems to have come out of nowhere. His performance only furthered the mystery as he teetered between a grinning lovable brat and an old timey crooner with a buttery voice. His tunes fall somewhere between lounge and 80s glam and have an incredibly woozy lo-fi quality that makes me feel like I'm drunk in a hot-tub.

"My Kind of Woman," especially made me feel like someone had dropped a Quaalude into my drink.

He and his band intertwined snippets of "Blackbird" and "Message in a Bottle" into their own loungey songs, and I couldn't help but think of Richard Cheese.

That, and his shit-eating grin makes me question whether this is all a hilarious prank or at the very least whether he's not taking any of it very seriously (a good thing, to be sure). Regardless, the band was tight, his guitar playing and vocals impeccable, and I can't wait to see what he does next.

Photos by Matthew Broszkowski