Arkells left behind the trappings of the indie rock pigeonhole years ago. They\u0027re going for something grander.
The band has its summer festival shows down to a science, honed over years and refined down to the minute. They delivered an infectious pop-rock performance to a packed crowd at the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival TD Mainstage at Bessborough Gardens on Saturday night.
Kerman, regularly running the length of the stage and flashing a megawatt grin, had an easy rapport with his audience, able to give chapter and verse on a Saskatoon Arkells show from 2008 in his stage banter. It’s a winning way to build a relationship with a crowd and make them dance, even if the band has come a long way from those early days.
Backed by a four-piece brass band who slipped in and out of some light choreography, it was almost a spectacle. Some of came from tongue-in-cheek staging, like when Kerman called a “band meeting” to settle a jokey beef between keyboard player Anthony Carone and drummer Tim Oxford that led to some musically impressive duelling solos.jpg
Arkells have no qualms about putting their own spins on standards to make that happen. The band dipped into R&B classic “Land of Thousand Dances” before launching into ABBA’s “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! ” for an encore. The horn section made these songs sing, but the guest spots of the band’s openers, singer-songwriter Shawnee Kish and hip hop artist Haviah Mighty, to the ABBA hit hint at something welcome.
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