“Mac is back.”
That’s the message posted Tuesday on the Instagram account of Mac Saturn, a rising Detroit-area rock band whose future seemed uncertain after its keyboard player was arrested earlier this year, announcing its return from a brief hiatus.
In January, Evan Mercer was arrested on charges related to posession of child sexual abuse images — just hours before the band was supposed to kick off its tour in support of its latest record, Hard to Sell, with a big hometown show at the Fillmore.
Following the negative publicity and backlash from fans, the band scrapped the rest of the tour, with the exception of a Sept. 22 appearance at Louisville’s Boubon & Beyond festival. At the time, the band said that it “made the difficult decision to end our tour effective immediately.”
But now the band says it’s back on the road without Mercer, announcing two new tour dates:
With gratitude and supreme humility, we look ahead toward the next chapter of our musical journey. It has been a year of healing, reflecting and intense growth that the strength of our focus as a group has mirrored.
We thank deeply those who came forward to rid our lives of an unknown evil, and our loyal fans for the encouragement and love they’ve shared over these past months. We’re as hungry and excited as we’ve ever been to get back onstage and start writing this next chapter with you all.
See you on out there.
With love,
Carson, Mike, Angelo, and Nick
The new shows are scheduled for Oct. 9 at Brighton Music Hall in Boston and Oct. 10 at Empire Underground in Albany, New York. Tickets go on sale at noon on Friday at macsaturn.com.
Following news of the arrest, allegations surfaced on social media disputing the band’s claims that it was unaware of the charges against Mercer before they were made public. Metro Times interviewed former fans who accused the band’s frontman Carson Macc of other bad behavior, including a penchant for approaching teenagers and young women on Instagram and lying about his age. The band’s representation denied the allegations.
The band’s team, and Mercer’s attorneys, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
