It was supposed to be a moment that many local acts can only dream of. On the last Friday of January, Mac Saturn, a stylish, ’70s-inspired fast-rising rock ’n’ roll band, was set to play a triumphant hometown show at the historic Fillmore theater before heading out on a 35-date tour in support of its latest record, Hard to Sell.
But around 2:30 p.m. the day of the gig, The Detroit News published a jaw-dropping scoop: the band’s keyboard player, Evan Mercer, 30, was arrested by FBI agents on charges related to child sexual abuse images.
What followed was, according to many fans, a complete clusterfuck.
At 6:23 p.m., seven minutes before doors, the band posted a terse statement on social media distancing itself from the incident. “We are shocked to learn about the horrifying allegations involving Evan Mercer, a recent addition to the band,” Mac Saturn said. “We learned about these troubling accusations earlier today and he is no longer a member of the band. Our focus continues to be on our new record, the current tour, and our amazing fans.”
In response to the news, Nashville-based opener The Thing With Feathers dropped out of the show. At the last minute, Mac Saturn phoned up local act Christian Ohly as a replacement, without telling him the whole story. (“Had I known the situation beforehand, I would not have accepted the gig,” Ohly said in a statement after the show.)
Before Mac Saturn took to the stage, the band’s frontman Carson Macc made a brief statement.
@metrotimes Carson Macc of Detroit band Mac Saturn addresses the news that its keyboard player was arrested by the FBI for child sexual abuse images hours before its tour kickoff show at the Fillmore on Jan. 26. The band wound up scrapping the rest of the tour.
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“We want to thank you for coming here tonight,” Macc said to applause. “The news of today has been shocking and absolutely horrifying to all of us. We came here tonight to see you guys face to face and play this music that we have worked so hard on for you. Let’s try and have a good time tonight. Can we have a good time tonight?”
But after playing a couple more gigs in Cleveland and Toronto, the band scrapped the rest of the tour. “In our darkest hour, we remain dedicated to creating music and spaces for people to celebrate life as safely and respectfully as possible,” Mac Saturn said in a statement. “In light of this, we have made the difficult decision to end our tour effective immediately.”
On its website, the band posted a link to the Joyful Heart Foundation, a charity for survivors of sexual assault.
All tour dates were removed from the band’s website, with the exception of a lone appearance at Louisville’s Bourbon & Beyond Festival scheduled for September.
The band’s page also appears to have been removed from the website of Red Light Management, which did not respond to a request for comment.
Mac Saturn even had Mercer photoshopped off of the cover of Hard to Sell (along with another former band member, ex-bassist Jive Moses, who did not respond to a request for comment).
The news, and Mac Saturn’s response to it, also set off a flurry of anonymous social media posts accusing members of the band of other bad behavior, upsetting many fans and raising the questions:
What did Mac Saturn know, and when did they know it? And can the band ever recover?
In late September, Mercer’s ex-girlfriend logged onto her laptop and made a disturbing discovery. According to the charging documents, she found images that appeared to show Mercer masturbating with children on the video chat platform Omegle; apparently, Mercer’s phone was synced to her laptop via iCloud. The woman, referred to Witness 1 in the documents, saved the files on a USB drive and took them to the Ferndale Police Department.
The files included a 29-second video showing what appeared to be Mercer masturbating with a girl estimated to be between the ages of 7 and 9. Another image showed a man masturbating in a room that the ex identified as part of a Dexter cottage that Mercer’s family uses. According to the charging document, the man, believed to be Mercer, appears to be chatting with a boy, who Omegle’s chat log suggests to be 15, and encourages him to sodomize himself with a marker.
The next day, Mercer was interviewed by FPD detectives and confessed that his ex sent him the screenshots and said he began to use Omegle because he was depressed during the COVID-19 pandemic. A search warrant was obtained for his iPhone, which revealed around 15 images of child sexual abuse material, including “prepubescent minors and minors engaged in sexual activity.” Mercer was charged with enticement of a minor, producing/attempting to produce child pornography, and possession of and/or access with intent to view child pornography, or attempt to possess or access with intent to view child pornography.
While the federal statutes refer to “child pornography,” sexual assault advocates say the phrase trivializes nonconsensual abuse and prefer the term “child sexual abuse material,” which Metro Times will use going forward.
A federal magistrate judge refused to release Mercer on bond, citing the “extreme danger” he poses to the community. He is held in Sanilac County jail as he awaits his trial and faces 30 years in prison. His attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
Formed in 2014, Mac Saturn exploded in popularity in recent years, its good fortune perhaps precipitated by moving the charismatic Macc from drums to frontman, as well as a shift toward a more funky, retro sound. The band got a boost from fellow Michigan rockers Greta Van Fleet, whose drummer Daniel Wagner shared its single 2022 “Diamonds” on his Instagram and was also photographed wearing a Mac Saturn shirt. The band also found success on TikTok, as well as on the jam band festival circuit.
Its fans tend to skew young and female.
“There’s a lot of crossover with Harry Styles’s fan base — they have that certain kind of glam rock-y style,” says one former fan who requested anonymity. (Just about everyone Metro Times spoke with for this article requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation from the band and its fans.)
Another part of Mac Saturn’s appeal was how accessible the band made itself. “They always put on a good show no matter how many people are standing in front of them,” the former fan says. “And pretty much after every single show, they would go put in time standing at their merch booth, doing a quick meet and greet with fans.”
Fans say that Macc can be particularly enchanting.
“He is the type to like women of all ages,” one fan says. “He was very touchy-feely. When he would talk to you would be very huggy and close while he’s talking — very conspiratorial, very charming, all that kind of stuff.”
The fan adds, “I would say it’s down to how he dresses, how he acts — he’s very into vintage clothing and all that stuff. It’s like he appeals to, you know, other people, especially young women, who are very into that look.”
According to social media allegations compiled by an anonymous Instagram page called We Keep Us Safe Detroit, Macc’s pursuit of women extended beyond his band’s fanbase. A number of women with no prior connection or even awareness of the band claimed that Macc approached them via Instagram direct messages, some when they were 18 and he was in his 20s.
“also was targeted by Carson when I was freshly 18 years old,” one message posted to We Keep Us Safe Detroit reads, adding, “It was one of the most traumatizing relationships I’d ever been [a part] of and it pains me to hear that so many young women experienced the same thing.”
A number of sources close to the band also accuse Macc of lying about his age. A 2022 Oakland Press article reported his age as 24, but sources say he was closer to 28 at the time.
“I don’t understand how Carson has been 24 all these years,” one message on We Keep Us Safe Detroit reads.
Metro Times was able to reach a number of women behind the posts, but they declined to speak on the record, even anonymously.
In recent years, members of the band all lived together in a house in Detroit’s Boston-Edison neighborhood, where sources say parties were filled with young women from Instagram.
One source close to the band says Macc would also meet up with fans while on tour. “I know that there were young women that he would talk to on Instagram and they would come to a show to meet him when he was in their city,” the source says. “And I will say that being around after shows, either he had disappeared with the women, or you would see him sitting there with, like, a very young, very thin young woman decked out in vintage clothes sitting there on his lap or something.”
The source adds, “It’s my opinion that the band perhaps did not take those rumors [about Evan] seriously, because there was already talk about Carson like that out there.”
One source says, “It’s my opinion that the band perhaps did not take those rumors [about Evan] seriously, because there was already talk about Carson like that out there.”
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Mac Saturn got another big boost when it was tapped to join British rock band the Struts on its 2023 U.S. tour. But according to a source close to the band, during the tour the band allegedly had its escort privileges revoked, meaning they were barred from bringing anyone backstage.
During the fall leg of the tour, friends of Mercer contacted the band’s tour manager Austin Hurrell as well as guitarist Mike Moody to tell them that they learned of the investigation into the child sex abuse images, according to messages posted by We Keep Us Safe Detroit and corroborated by several people with knowledge of the situation.
This, coupled with the tone of the band’s statements claiming to have been completely blindsided by the allegations, has left many fans skeptical.
“What bothers me is the fact that they weren’t saying anything,” one former fan says. “They came up with two garbage statements that, you know, really don’t mean anything.”
“I was a super fan,” says another, who says she drove more than five hours to go to the Detroit show. “I spent so much time and money supporting these guys. Probably seen them 15+ times across the country. Been really shocking and horrifying the way it has been handled.”
She adds, “Honestly, I was done the second I found out. I don’t want my name associated with anyone like that or anyone who covered up something like that. It’s hard to believe they didn’t know.”
The social media storm is similar to movements that took down California rock ’n’ roll label Burger Records and the once-hot Chicago indie band the Orwells in recent years, both of which were accused of statutory rape and other sexual misconduct. Burger Records briefly attempted to rebrand under a woman president but soon dissolved. After disbanding in 2018, the Orwells self-released an album in 2019 (its artwork was blank; “We had an album cover we wanted to use, but after getting dropped by our label we can no longer afford to use it,” the band said in a statement), followed by another release in 2023 accompanied by a statement fully denying the allegations and announcing a defamation lawsuit. (Its latest record was largely ignored by the music industry.)
Mac Saturn did not provide answers to a list of questions sent to its publicist, including whether the band was aware of the investigation into Mercer before his arrest (and if so, why nothing was done about it), if the band had its escort privileges removed during the Struts tour (and why), if the band still works with Red Light Management, why it canceled the rest of its tour (and not the September festival date), and even a simple confirmation of Macc’s age.
It did make its lawyer Nick Ferrara available, who read a brief statement to Metro Times over the phone.
“I’m going to read you something, and that will be it. This will be very clear,” he said. “We don’t know where you’re getting information from, but your factual assertions and predicates are incorrect. As already announced Evan Mercer is no longer part of the band. The band had no knowledge of the activities that formed the basis of various claims against him. And we are not going to comment further at this time. There you go.”
When asked if the band still exists, Ferrara paused.
“Uhhhhhhh,” he said. “At the moment, yes.”
He added, “We are hoping to move forward. But again, I hate to say this, articles like yours don’t really help, rehashing this crap.”
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