Arkells are ready to take Budweiser Stage for their emotional return to performing live. All they ask is that you sing, dance and treat each other well
Five hundred and 20 days, 12,480 hours, 748,800 minutes, 44,928,000 seconds: no matter how you spin the numbers, it's been ages since the members of Hamilton rock band Arkells have stepped on a concert stage.
That live-performance-free spell finally ends Friday with the five-piece band's first of three appearances at the 75-per-cent capacity Budweiser Stage with opener Haviah Mighty, which also marks the end of the big-ticket concert drought that has plagued Torontonians since COVID-19 reared its ugly head in March 2020.
It's really exciting!" exclaims Arkells frontman Max Kerman over mid-morning beverages Monday at Queen Street West coffee shop Cafe23, recalling a charity gig for Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse's foundation at Hotel X before all hell broke loose.
The date, March 11, 2020, is indelibly etched in Kerman's mind.
We were all very excited about it: a small, fancy dinner for 100 guests and Nick was going to join us onstage for a couple of songs," Kerman recalls, wearing a black T-shirt, shorts and a pink Live Nation baseball cap.
Daniel Caesar also performed. It was a very, very memorable one because, in the air, people were kind of talking about COVID or aware that something was going to happen."
Kerman says he and the band - guitarist Mike DeAngelis, keyboardist Anthony Carone, bassist Nick Dika and drummer Tim Oxford - were lightheartedly joshing around about the virus in their dressing room.
We were jokingly doing elbow bumps instead of shaking hands. Because it was a hotel, they had TVs in the dressing room and CP24 was on. The dinner's happening and we're on in about an hour, and we see on the TV ticker Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks have COVID-19.' We thought, Are they going to die?'
About an hour later, the first NBA case comes across the ticker: Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz has tested positive.'"
Suddenly, Kerman experienced a sobering realization.
Wait a second: the Raptors just played Utah two days before, and I just shook hands with Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol, the two big guys that would have been guarding Rudy two days ago: they're at this event. Half the team is at this event.'"
The four-time Juno Award winners went onstage as scheduled as the reality of the crisis set into the crowd.
We played a 30-minute set and I could just see that everyone in the room is not really dialed in - it's supposed to be a fun night," Kerman recalls. I think the Raptors had been whisked out of the room just as we were beginning to play, because they had to go home and isolate immediately.
And I thought, Wow, this is definitely serious, but it's only going to last a couple of weeks and we'll be back on the road soon enough.' That's the last time we played in front of a crowd."
Luckily for the band and their fans, they had completed the bulk of their upcoming sixth studio album Blink Once," out Sept. 22, during two previous trips to L.A.
There were some remote sessions in Canada we sort of did via Zoom," Kerman says. A lot of stuff we were able to do at home, too ... That's how we were able to finish it."
The unpredictable rollout of the pandemic made it nearly impossible to plan release dates, but they kept busy, releasing their acoustic Campfire Chords" album in the interim and the Christmas holiday single Pub Crawl."
Through the mood of the whole pandemic, we've given ourselves a lot of things to work on," Kerman says. We were sitting on Blink Once' material from L.A. and thinking, Do we really want to put it out right now?' No! We want to put out these big energetic songs that we can go play live.
Now feels more like the time where people are hanging out on their balcony or in their backyard or at their cottage listening to peaceful, soothing music. Our audience seems to enjoy acoustic versions of our songs, so let's record Campfire Chords' entirely from home."
And when they weren't toiling over Campfire Chords," each Arkell worked on musical self-improvement.
Tony built up his home studio. Mike taught himself to play the piano really well. Nick practised the bass five hours a day. People have really been productive," Kerman says.
As the pandemic dragged on, Arkells began releasing singles from Blink Once": You Can Get It," featuring K. Flay, All Roads," Years in the Making," and One Thing I Know." Swing Swing Swing" is out Thursday.
They also made tentative plans with Live Nation president Erik Hoffman to reopen the venue once it was deemed safe to do so, leading the way for future Budweiser Stage shows by Sam Roberts, Matt Mays and k-os (Aug. 19); Blue Rodeo with Alan Doyle (Aug. 28) and Maroon 5 (Sept. 2).
We'd been talking with him and saying, We'd love to be the first thing back at Budweiser Stage whenever the world opens up ... if it's summertime. So can you pencil us in there to be the first thing back?' He was into that idea.
Of course, that date moved a lot."
When the Ontario government finally loosened restrictions on gatherings, Arkells were looking at 30 per cent capacity.
On the day of sales, it got bumped up to 75 per cent capacity," says Kerman. That was very exciting and changed the scope of show, knowing more people were coming."
With an estimated 10,000 people now poised to rock out for the first time in 17 months, Kerman says there's a never-ending laundry list of things that need to be taken care of."
When you're trying to entertain that many people, you have to really be strategic about it and every detail," he explains. Two examples: we're working with a new lighting team, so what are the looks for each song? That's been a number of meetings. What does the set list look like? What are we doing in the acoustic moment of the night?
It's all a lot to consider. Because we've always toured pretty consistently, you're building on top of the next thing and the exercise lately has been, OK, what was the moment here ... how does this song transition from that song?' You have to start from zero to a degree."
Kerman says audiences will hear a number of faves - possibilities include Leather Jacket," Whistleblower," John Lennon" and Knocking at the Door" - and a wealth of previously unperformed material.
There are so many songs that we haven't ever played live before," says Kerman. From Campfire Chords,' Quitting You' to all the stuff off the new record. We played Years in the Making' at the Nick Nurse event and haven't played it since.
As far as COVID-19 safety protocols are concerned, Kerman says Live Nation will abide by government regulations.
We're in this funny grey zone, right?" Kerman asks rhetorically. I know the venue has worked extensively with the government to talk about what we can do, so there is going to be some social distancing in place, and I think the rule is masks on, unless you're actively drinking or eating.
This is an open-air amphitheatre, which according to science is a pretty safe place to be if you're outside.
On our end, we've been quite active on social media with promoting vaccine. Our crew is vaccinated. Our musicians are vaccinated. Those are conversations that we've been having consistently over the last couple of months to make sure that everybody's being safe."
Aside from those restrictions, Kerman says Arkells have only three rules for those who attend their show.
We really, deliberately set a positive tone when people come through the gates: You've gotta sing; you've gotta dance and you've got to treat each other well, you've got to be good to your neighbour.
That's more important than ever, especially right now when people are on edge. Just encouraging a generosity of spirit is the positive approach that we try to set with the folks coming to the show."
The joys of being back onstage
Each member of Arkells shared what they're anticipating as they return to live performance.
Tim Oxford: I think it's going to be emotional to get back into it. It's going to be pretty special to get back out there and see the energy of a crowd again."
Mike DeAngelis: Being able to play music with people, in front of people, in a live environment: that's my favourite part of being a part of a band. I miss that a lot."
Tony Carone: I'm excited to play some of the new songs. We've been working on this album since 2019 and wondering, Are we ever going to get to play these songs live?' It's going to be so cool."
Nick Dika: There are lots of small things about playing itself - and this is super granular - but just feeling the air from a speaker hitting you while you're up there playing, physically feeling the drums being hit hard when you're standing right there."
Max Kerman: The most satisfying for me onstage is seeing a bunch of strangers sing along together, especially if it's something we wrote. That's the coolest thing ever. Also trying more to enjoy all the little things: popping my head out and seeing everyone get to their seats; the conversations that happen before we go on and the warming up - we do a lot of group singing before we go on - I love that. My favourite part, especially if I get in my own head during the show and think too much, I think, Just go look at the other guys' and that will take me out of it."
Nick Krewen is a Toronto-based freelance contributor for the Star. Reach him via email: octopus@rogers.com