02.17.2010 The Arkells

This concert was held at the Ontario Pavilion, which essentially is a really large tent, among a bunch of other tents for Saskatchewan, Molson Canada and Quebec. The deal is before 9 pm, there's some information stuff there, but afterwards they clear out all the minors and start a concert. Actually I didn't find any of these tents that great, except maybe the Molson one, but that one costs an absurd amount of cash to get in.

Today it's the Arkells from Hamilton, ON. There seems to be a lot of Arkells fans out in BC. Two songs in and they have the crowd dancing to that Hugo Chavez radio hit. The lead singer looks like Paul Murphy. The Arkells really seem to like Motown. There were a couple Temptation's snippets and teases scattered throughout the set. I found the sound in the tent to be okay, not really that great. It looks like the majority of the people came to party, because at the end of the 75 min or so set there were a lot of holes in the room. I may not be the biggest fan of their music (it just doesn't do anything for me), but I can't fault them for their stage presence. They know how to work a crowd with their rock show antics. And since it didn't cost a penny, it's hard not to have a good time.

$5/0