Canadian rock icons Arkells celebrate the final night of a three-show run in Calgary with a sold-out crowd in a historic downtown venue.
The last time the Ontario quintet Arkells played in Calgary, they were at the Saddledome – the city arena that hosts concerts of 20,000+ people. But, as a band notorious for fan interactions and connections – and especially as the spiritual successors of the tongue-in-cheek Canadiana left behind by The Tragically Hip a decade ago – it’s not surprising that the band chose something much different for their current tour, supporting their new album Between Us. Instead of arenas, they’re revisiting the small dive bars, clubs, and theatres that earned them all those fans in the first place.
So, after packing a 150-person bar on a Tuesday night and a 400-person Legion Hall the next day, the band closed out their Calgary stops with a performance at the 1,200-cap Palace Theatre. It’s a historic old venue in the heart of the city’s busiest downtown strip, and as showtime approached on this warm evening, fans lined up around the corner and down the next block, swapping stories and comparing merch from past tours. With nearly 20 years in their discography by now, some of the earliest and rarest designs are decidedly vintage – a point of pride for those who bought them new, before the rest of the country even discovered the band existed.
Opening up for all three nights was Ernesto Barahona, aka the Trombone DJ. He’s on the tour to play with the band itself, but here he pulls double duty: combining a 40-minute electronica DJ set with fun trombone accoutrements. It seems like something that’s only a good idea on paper, but it absolutely works. By the time the last of his remixes arrives – a high-energy version of The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside” – the whole crowd is singing along at full volume.
Finally, after a quick stage swap (and a perfect excuse to go refresh your pints), the lights come down, and the cheers rise up in a perfect inverse. The band – drummer Tim Oxford, guitarist Mike DeAngelis, bassist Nick Dika, keyboardist Anthony Carone, and charismatic toe-tapping frontman Max Kerman – takes the stage and launches right into “Next Summer,” the first track from Between Us that kicks off the first half of the set: a top-to-bottom performance of the whole album.
As Kerman explains later, the album focuses on the relationships we build and the moments we share. It’s an auditory invitation to prioritize human connections in a world that’s becoming increasingly synthetic and artificial, created by a band well-known for their community service and immense support for social issues. That theme of connection is a major reason why they’ve chosen to play smaller, intimate venues that allow them to more easily engage with the crowd, and that engagement comes naturally to Kerman and his crew.
After criss-crossing the stage like a tap dancer while performing the first song, he is up over the barricade and into the crowd by the second, “What Good.” Next is “Ride,” a feel-good summer jam that keeps the energy up and the cheers coming, and “Money,” a condemnation of corporate greed that sees Kerman throwing out fake money and holding the mic out for a call-and-response from a thousand eager voices.
The whole first half keeps building on this foundation. While the rest of the band stays relatively still by comparison – aside from a few front-and-centre solos showcasing DeAngelis’s skills, and the surprisingly animated, rogue-jazz-inspired piano chops from Carone – Kerman is everywhere at once. He guides sing-alongs at centre stage; he dances on a short wall with a rainbow folding fan, surrounded by a sea of recording phones; he gets up on the drum riser, accentuating every hit; he horses around with Dika and poses for a photo op. His showmanship comes so naturally that you can’t help but enjoy yourself, because he is so clearly doing the same. If ever a man was born to be an entertainer, it’s hard to argue a better candidate: he can scream with the best of them, croon when it’s called for, and connect it all together with the banter and antics fans fawn over.
As “Escape Door” – the last song of Between Us – arrives, Kerman explains that they’ll be back after a short break to play more tunes from their other albums. It’s a strategy that’s paid off, based on the raucous cheers that follow: every night of the tour has had a different second half, and diehard fans have been rewarded with deep cuts and huge hits alike. Of course, some people may have just been happy that they could hit the bathroom or the bar without missing more music, too.
Part II kicks off a few minutes later with back-to-back singles: “Come to Light” and “Hand-Me-Downs,” both of which elicit raised hands, voices, and energy levels throughout the room. But then, they start a run of songs that any true Arkells fan will remember for years to come – not just for the performances, but for the rarity as well.
First up is “One Thing I Know,” a massive crowd-pleaser that sees Kerman and Barahona (remember him?) 100 feet deep into the audience and wailing from the top of the barricades. The rest of the band doesn’t slouch, though, as the thundering backbeat is felt even more than it’s heard. This is followed by “The Ballad of Hugo Chavez,” a sleeper from their first album that constantly comes up as a fan request. But anyone who thought it couldn’t get better is mistaken, because back-to-back-to-back comes “Cynical Bast*rds,” “Past Life,” and “Relentless,” some of the loudest and most well-loved tracks in their entire discography. They’re helped along by Dika’s criminally underrated basslines, which add a sonic je ne sais quoi that helps define the band’s big, beefy sound without overshadowing anything else.
By the time the huge brass notes of “Knocking at the Door” ring out, with Kerman’s unstoppable stage presence and Carone’s exceptional piano work, the crowd noise has gone from swells and fades between songs to one constant, ongoing cheer. At one point, the band even brings a fan up on stage to help sing – something you can count on at almost any Arkells show, actually – and it’s impossible not to lose yourself in the experience.
With the end of the set in sight, the band pulls out one more unexpected surprise: “Agent Zero,” the final track from their 2011 album Michigan Left that hasn’t been heard live in over a decade. The erupting roars of applause tell you all you need to know. It’s only surpassed by the response to the closer, “Leather Jacket,” which has become a mainstay singalong at live shows since its release in 2014. But no modern concert is complete without an encore, and after disappearing for a moment, the five return to deliver one last tune to hold fans over til next time: “Deadlines,” another first-album fave that gives them an excuse to use up any remaining energy they may have had left.
Even if you had never seen or even heard of the band before this, it would be hard to walk away unimpressed. Their performances keep getting better, their commitment to fan experiences keeps growing, and you can be completely sure that you’ll never see the same Arkells show twice – so you should simply try to see as many as you can.
You won’t be disappointed.
ERNESTO BARAHONA
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