REVIEW: Arkells open Rally Cry tour with a bang in Edmonton, at home in Oil Country
It was hard not to feel empathy for Arkells – who chose frigid Edmonton as the launching point of their current 11-city Canadian tour. But it made sense, given that the Steeltown stereotype of the band’s Hamilton origins is a match for the blue-collar reputation that’s worn on the sleeves of hardy Edmontonians.
More significantly, the Thursday night show at Rogers Place also marked the first time the quintet had ever headlined an arena venue as more than 8,000 fans, most of them preppy tweens, braved the latest incoming cold front to catch the event. They weren’t disappointed.
Neither was the band, as they picked up on the energy of the crowd from their opening number Relentless to their encore, which included an aggressive take on ABBA’s Dancing Queen. Throughout the night, the space turned into a mass love-in, with most of the people familiar with Arkells lyrics. It was a raucous sing-along that didn’t need amplification, even prompting lead vocalist Max Kerman to let the crowd bellow the chorus to Leather Jacket without any assistance from the band.
In short, the boys from The Hammer were quite at home in Oil Country.
The reaction may have caught Kerman off guard, not that he was complaining.
“This is amazing!” he exclaimed. “First time we ever played here, there were 13 people in the basement of the Starlite Room!”
For their part, Kerman’s bandmates (guitarist Mike DeAngelis, bassist Nick Dika, keyboardist Anthony Carone and drummer Tim Oxford) remained focused in their gargantuan surroundings, unfamiliar territory for an act more accustomed to club confines. It helped that the concert bowl setting with an extended apron enabled the act to interact with the audience – which they did frequently, with Kerman singing while surrounded by the crowd on the floor and in the stands.
It’s no knock on Arkells as to why they’re a hot item, not just in Edmonton but all across Canada and even in Europe where they toured last fall. They’ve already garnered three Juno nominations, including Group of the Year, on the strength of their fifth album Rally Cry. What’s curious is how the Gen-Z set have latched onto a sound that’s decidedly retro pop. Arkells are miles away from their headier, polyphonic Canuck counterparts Arcade Fire. Instead of shooting for the anthemic political correctness that attracts older millennials, Arkells prefer to sing about more everyday situations – like wavering high-school romances and the circumstances of working class life in an industrial city. At first listen, the sound is almost Springsteen-light, but there’s more to it than that.
Arkells smacks of a hearty combination of Canadian groups that sparked a live ’80s renaissance, with strains of domestic pop acts from Glass Tiger and Payola$ to The Northern Pikes and even Bryan Adams. Arkells has deftly honed its ability to borrow from the melodic essence of post-disco Canadiana and refine it to a fresh new audience. A rendition of Cuts Like a Knife wouldn’t be out of place with Arkells originals like Come To Light and Never Thought That This Would Happen.
And while no one in the band looks like they’ve ever smelted ore in their life, the group hasn’t abandoned the grounding that a working class town has pounded into them. Even their stage setup resembled the skeletal frame of a factory, complete with a neon sign that almost resembled the Stelco insignia. It’s also rare for an act to thank their own road crew in public, which Kerman did heartily. Good on them for that, because once the junket north of the 49th is over, the second leg of the tour poses a greater challenge: toiling in the relative obscurity of the U.S. club circuit, trying to win over a mirror-gazing crowd that’s starting to flirt with a wave of nationalism. Even armed with the confidence of capturing the hearts of loyal Edmontonians, humility is going to come in handy.
