Arkells out to conquer Canada
Hamilton rock band Arkells will embark on its biggest concert tour ever in February to promote the newly released album “Rally Cry.”
Universal Music Canada announced Friday that the “Rally Cry” tour will kick off Feb. 2 at Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum and head east, hitting 10 more arenas across the country, including Rogers Place in Edmonton, the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Bell MTS Place in Winnipeg and Montreal’s MTelus.
The tour, the band’s first to be performed exclusively in arenas, will include three Ontario dates — the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium (Feb. 14), Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa (Feb. 15) and the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto (Feb. 16).
The decision to graduate to arenas was made after the Arkells’ successfully filled 24,000 seats for a concert at Hamilton’s Tim Hortons Field in June.
The tour announcement came on the same day of the release of “Rally Cry,” the fifth full-length album by the four-time Juno winning band.
“We wrote these songs to play them live for you,” Arkells lead singer Max Kerman said in a media release.
The album’s current single “Relentless” — which was inspired by the late Gord Downie — is featured in Budweiser’s commercial hockey campaign and has been licensed as a key theme to the New York Rangers’ 2018-19 season.