Around the corner; around the world.
Winners of nine Juno Awards—including a record six as Group of the Year—Arkells have developed a passionate national and global following but also an acute understanding that ‘neighbourhood’ is where it all began and where it always returns.
Hamilton.
“The city has always been super-supportive of us and we’ve always been proud to say this is where the band formed,” says Arkells lead guitarist Mike DeAngelis. “There’s a spirit in Hamilton of hard work and everyone coming together as a collective and working hard; the sense you can make things better and go further and I think that ethos has driven the band forward, in general.
“We named our first record ‘Jackson Square’ as a nod to how that idea is the starting point for sure and drove us to move forward and go out across Canada and the world. We have a strong sense of home and I think that helps us appreciate other places and also appreciate home.”
And they always pay back. The latest instalment comes June 21 when Arkells will bring their live-stage magnetism to Hamilton Stadium for the third edition of The Rally, a hometown tribute which began in June of 2018, with the biggest outdoor show in Hamilton since the notorious Pink Floyd concerts 43 years earlier. The second chapter kicked open the pandemic exit door on another memorable June evening three years ago. They also played the 2021 Grey Cup at the stadium and the 2008 Vanier Cup at old Ivor Wynne Stadium.
It is the first concert date Arkells have officially announced for 2025 and Ticats season seat holders and Forge FC season seat members will have exclusive access to the Arkells pre-sale tickets beginning today, before tickets go on sale to the general public this Friday.
“When we originated The Rally, it felt like an opportunity to bring together all corners of the city for a fun night of music and celebration,” DeAngelis told Hamilton Sports Group.
“We’re very proudly from Hamilton and Canada. I think our music generally reflects togetherness and joy and that’s sort of the way we look at it. We want that to be the message.”
The touchstones of Arkells’ history are now part of city lore: DeAngelis, lead singer and rhythm guitarist Max Kerman and bassist/keyboardist Nick Dika met as McMaster freshmen in 2004 during their first week in Hamilton and not long afterwards they got to know
drummer Tim Oxford and finally keyboardist Anthony Carone. They lived and practiced in a house on Arkell Street in Westdale, honing their craft playing wherever and whenever they could, building their skills and their following, chord by chord. They were the 10,000-hours theory wrapped in a maple leaf. By 2008 they released Jackson Square, their first of 10—so far—albums.
“We started small, just going around Ontario, an hour in this direction, an hour in that direction and just kept on,” DeAngelis said. “We’ve been lucky to tour all over the world which has been fun and really great but the response in Canada has been amazing. We just kept on going out, coast to coast, as often as we can.
“We’ve been so lucky. I think the prospect of getting to see the whole country was probably something that made me want to pursue music and play in a band. That sense of adventure…I’d never been really out west before, for instance. The number of different cities we’ve been to, the people we’ve met, the connections we’ve made, it’s hard to over-state it.”
If Arkells’ musical message is essentially about togetherness and joy, do they see those as bedrock Canadian values?
“Yes, of course,” DeAngelis replies. “I think we’ve all learned so much from all growing up in Canada. The collective feeling that Canadians have for each other, supporting one another, celebrating one another. I think that’s what music’s all about.”
DeAngelis grew up in Guelph but, like the rest of the band, considers himself an adopted Hamiltonian. He and his wife—Hamilton-born-and-raised journalist Molly Hayes—and their young son Francis, live only about a “20-minute bike ride” from the stadium and Francis takes his swimming lessons at Bernie Morelli Recreation Centre. DeAngelis says that he’s been here long enough that the city “now seems like home to me.”
Three years ago, Arkells teamed up with sports partners to refurbish a high-end, heavily-used outdoor basketball court at Woodlands Park, just a long stone’s-throw from where The Rally will have its third edition. The artistic DeAngelis created the art and colour scheme for the court and also does the design work for the band’s album covers, merchandise and other projects. Incorporated into his basketball court design is a lightning bolt, one of the symbols of The Rally, meant to evoke the feeling of excitement audiences get at a live show.
“It’s really cool seeing kids and the whole community enjoying the court. It’s very meaningful,” he said. “It is a perfect court in a perfect location that could use some love. I’m glad to see it being enjoyed.”
The Rally returns to the home site of two other sports—the football of the Ticats, the soccer of Forge FC—which is not only known as the busiest outdoor stadium in the country but is arguably Hamilton’s de facto town square; the place where, for generations, sport and music fans have regularly gathered en masse.
“The stadium in Hamilton is super unique and always has been because it’s in the middle of a vibrant neighbourhood,” DeAngelis says. “And it feels like that neighbourhood very much celebrates the stadium. Stipley is where people hang their flags and have their Ticats and Forge regalia outside. It’s kind of the identity of the neighbourhood: to be that place where people come together in Hamilton. It’s awesome that it’s right there for everyone to enjoy and congregate.”
And on June 21 they’ll congregate for Arkells.
