On February 15th, 2019, thousands of fans braved the cold and the drive out to Kanata to see the Arkells on their Rally Cry tour. The Hamilton-based band is no stranger to Ottawa, as they have played numerous venues over the course of their career. Some of the venues include Algonquin College, both Carleton and Ottawa University, RBC Bluesfest and TD place arena. Each time they roll into town, the venue gets bigger, and the crowds grow with it.
For the Rally Cry tour, Arkells had brought on L.A based indie-alt rock band, Lord Huron. Being the only opening act on the Rally Cry tour, their set ran on for a little over an hour. The band put on an incredible performance performing hits such as “The Night We Met”, “Ends of the Earth” and “Fool of Love”. Frontman Ben Schneider had gotten the crowd on their feet and singing along from the beginning. He even threw a couple handfuls of flowers into the crowd. Plus, if you’ve never seen a theremin in use before, Lord Huron has you covered there.
Lord Huron performs at the Canadian Tire Centre. Photo by Renée Doiron
Once 9 pm rolled around, the Arkells took to the stage and opened with “Relentless,” which got fans singing and dancing along right off the bat. Without any hesitation between songs, they jumped into “Leather Jacket,” which was the band’s first single to reach #1 on the Canadian Alternative rock charts. On their previous tour, the band would use “Leather Jacket” to close out their show. This choice made for a bold, yet unsurprising move for the band. Nonetheless, you could hear every single person shouting the lyrics back to them.
Nearing the second chorus in “Michigan Left,” frontman Max Kerman explained to the crowd that there are three rules at their shows:
- Sing along to the songs.
- Do some dancing.
- Look out for each other.
Kerman emphasized that these rules are extra important to the band. If someone falls, pick them up. If someone needs water, go get it for them. Lastly, if someone you feel needs to stop drinking, help them out and make sure they get in a cab to go home. Following that, Max proclaimed CTC as the non-denominational church of rock and roll for the night during “Never Thought This Would Happen,” a song off their fourth studio album High Noon.
The Arkells perform at the Canadian Tire Centre. Photo by Renée Doiron
A mashup of two fan favorites (“No Champagne Socialist” & “Oh, The Boss Is Coming”) off the album Jackson Square had fans yelling back to the band, punching out. At one point during the song’s vocal breaks, frontman Max Kerman had disappeared from the stage before reappearing in the back end of the stands. Max proclaimed that even though it’s Friday, anyone who had to work tomorrow was granted the day off as per Dr. Arkells, as he handed out a few notes saying so.
The Arkells perform at the Canadian Tire Centre. Photo by Renée Doiron
Hopping over the barricade to the floor, Max walked through the crowd, giving hugs and high fives. Along the way, Max ran into a friend who helped out with one of the band’s music videos.
Typically, Max had been wearing a black leather jacket with rainbow tassels hanging on the sleeves. However, for the night in Ottawa, he traded it in for something different. Four fans caught the attention of the band, who had made their own variation of the iconic tassel jacket. This was enough for Max to bring them on stage to finish up live karaoke style “Only For a Moment”.
At the beginning of the tour, the band set up a request hotline, allowing fans to call in requests for the show they were attending. From there, the band would select one of the requests to play live. Ottawa was treated to “Blueprint,” the last song on their record Jackson Square. Max stated they had not played that song live in four years! The band was pleasantly surprised to see fans singing along to this older tune of theirs.
Around 10:30 pm real-time, it was 11:11 Arkells time. The final single off of High Noon. This song tells a story about two individuals who meet at a concert and seemingly fall for each other.
The band’s energy remained extremely high as they powered through more songs, including “Saturday Night,” which featured a keytar, “Knocking at The Door,” and “Private School,” before closing off their main set with their most recent single “Hand Me Downs”.
The Arkells perform at the Canadian Tire Centre. Photo by Renée Doiron
The band exited the stage but came back within 3 minutes to perform their encore. The band surprised the audience with a cover of an ABBA classic hit, “Dancing Queen,” before jumping into their final song of the night, “My Heart’s Always Yours”.
The show was filled with so many incredible and unforgettable moments for the crowd. If you haven’t seen the Arkells live yet, I recommend you try and catch them on tour soon. The band wraps up their Rally Cry tour in Montreal before venturing on a tour in the United States.
