Arkells entertain crowd with great concert

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This article was published 20/10/2022 (1405 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Arkells submitted their application for Canada’s top rock band at Canada Life Centre Thursday night.

The Hamilton group has spent the past 16 years marking X’s on the on the unofficial checklist: four No. 1 songs on Canada’s alt-rock charts; multiple Juno Award triumphs and nominations and a performance at a Grey Cup halftime show, when their hometown hosted the CFL’s big game last December.

They’ve even played the Royal Albert Arms, which in Winnipeg might be the ultimate checkmark for a rock band.

In a YouTube video the Arkells released prior to Thursday night’s concert, they said they made a 24-hour drive 14 years ago to play the notorious punk-rock venue, which has hosted the likes of Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters and Green Day before they hit the big time.

The fact the band remembers the gig, which they say in the video attracted only 30 fans, proves they’ve learned some of the lessons of another Canadian group they once opened for at arena-rock shows — the Tragically Hip — which found so many ways to connect with fans across the country that they stood alone atop Canada’s rock ‘n’ roll mountain for more than a decade.

The crowd reaction last night showed the Arkells haven’t quite reached such lofty heights as the Hip, but they’re making the arduous climb upwards.

They led off their set with Past Life, a single from their latest album Blink Twice, with frontman Max Kerman hopping and singing on the three-part stage that jutted out into fans on the arena floor.

That got the crowd bouncing, but they got jacked up for the second song, 2014’s Leather Jacket. They sang and hollered along with the song’s chorus, which starts with “You can call me up from a pay phone, I said ‘Hang tight I can drive you home,’ ” before the band died down and Kerman took over to address the crowd.

“It’s been three long years since we’ve been in Winnipeg, and that’s far too long,” the singer shouted to rousing cheer from the crowd, which responded by singing Leather Jacket’s chorus even louder.

The stage included a backdrop with a light display resembling an eye that corresponded with the Arkells last two albums 2021’s Blink Once and Blink Twice, which they released in September.

It also had a catwalk that connected the stage with a smaller one that allowed Kerman and the band to be surrounded by the general-admission crowd on the floor. It’s a setup that become more common in arena concerts, whether they are performed by a high-budget touring band like the Lumineers or the Arkells, who rock on a more modest budget.

The mini-stage had room for six people to join Kerman during the rocker People’s Champ — there was room for the four-piece horn section the Arkells have added for this tour — and it transformed an arena-rock concert into a nightclub, especially for fans who waited by the rail the moment the arena doors opened two hours before the Arkells took the stage.

The mini-stage was also a great spot later on for the acoustic ballad Quitting You, which also allowed Kerman to mention that 24-hour marathon trip to Winnipeg in 2008.

Kerman was a ball of energy throughout the close to two-hour set, whether he was directing the crowd’s cheering, conducting a piano-drums duel or rapping during the chorus, which came late in the Arkells’ two-hour show.

Valley, a four-piece group from Toronto, which was a nominee for group of the year at the 2022 Junos, opened the show to a small but vocal crowd with a 40-minute set of indie rock.

They saved their best and heaviest streamed song for last. Like 1999 is a pandemic-era ballad that proves nostalgia even has a place among Generation Z. “I wish that Y2K had happened, we would stay forever classic,” vocalist Rob Laska sang. “You and I would be both trapped in 1999.”

Alan.Small@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @AlanDSmall