As the floor and the stands continued to fill, it was soon time for the Hamilton fivesome, Arkells, taking the stage to Edwin Starr's "War" and kicking off with a song perhaps chosen specifically for Vancouver, "A Little Rain (A Song For Pete)".
From the raucous songs like "Oh, The Boss is Coming" to "And Then Some" with the band acoustically huddled together; the dark and brooding "Passenger Seat" to the gospel-tinged "Drake's Dad" -- which saw frontman Max Kerman smack in the middle of the crowd -- the band played for about two hours, pulling from all their albums, never losing steam. Especially Max, who I don't think stopped moving for more than 30 seconds.
They also had a few special guests through the set; first Frank Turner come out and "defend his PhD in Rock 'n' Roll" by putting him on the spot to sing some Springsteen (remember what I said earlier?), and Said the Whale's Tyler Bancroft was out to play guitar for "My Heart's Always Yours". And then in a true "Dancing in the Dark" moment, Max pulled up a girl from the front row to dance with him to "Dirty Blonde" before all the lights went out while the band encouraged everyone to literally dance like no one was watching.
They finished off the main set with Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls back out to join them on "Private School", but of course that wasn't going to be it. The encore began with an acoustic rendition of "Whistleblower", the band rejoining Max one by one, before one last singalong of the night, and the biggest yet, "Leather Jacket".
It's been years since I've been to an arena show -- to be honest, I'm not really a big fan of them -- but if anyone's going to bring me out to an arena, it's Arkells. The sound wasn't nearly as bad as I was fearing, and of course the band was explosive on stage. They've always been one of my favourite bands to watch live, and it was such a joy seeing them rock the big stage. 10
setlist
A Little Rain (A Song For Pete)
Came to Light
Michigan Left
Savannah
Passenger Seat
Never Thought That This Would Happen
11:11
Making Due
Hung Up
And Then Some
Oh, The Boss Is Coming
Pulling Punches
Drake's Dad
The Ballad of Hugo Chavez
My Heart's Always Yours
Book Club
On Paper
Dirty Blonde
Private School
(encore)
Whistleblower
Cynical Bastards
Leather Jacket