Southern Ontario’s all-star Arkells are on tour now in support of their newly released album, Between Us, playing a number of intimate venues alongside some huge stadium shows.
It was not too much of a surprise then, when, similar to last summer, they announced a last-minute gig at Muskoka’s famous summer concert venue, The Kee to Bala.
In fact, the June 4, 2026 show was announced just three weeks prior, on Wednesday, May 13, with pre-sale codes going out the very next day for those who signed up via a link from the band’s social media pages.
Kicking off the Thursday evening show was Canadian indie folk artist, John Muirhead, who has opened for the band on a few dates this tour, and actually played The Kee last summer as an opener for Canadian Music Hall of Famers, Glass Tiger. Muirhead was joined on stage by multi-instrumentalist Clayton White, who helped out on both keyboard and guitar for different songs. I arrived a few minutes later than the opener start time of 8 p.m., but I enjoyed what I heard of the duo, who played soft but rocking indie songs. In fact, the only complaint I had about the whole night was that the pair only played for about half an hour, and I would have liked to hear more!
The Arkells hit the stage pretty promptly at 9 p.m., which was especially great given that it was a work night for myself and my friend.
I was, admittedly, slightly stressed before heading to this show, as my friend and I had both been slightly assaulted by a guy at last year’s Arkells show at The Kee, and then spent the rest of the night being harassed by three of his female friends who thought their best move was to defend his honour and try to pick a fight with us, after we reported him to security. I was with the same friend this time around, and only slightly worried we would run into the same group, but if they were there, we didn’t see them, so that was a major win! Luckily this time around we made fast friends with a couple in the crowd beside us, and once the band was a few songs in, my tension had completely melted away, and I was happy to be able to fully enjoy the show.
They spent the first hour playing their entire new album, front to back, starting with dance-inducing tracks ‘Next Summer’ and ‘What Good?’. The band is always lively on stage, and this night was no exception, with singer Max Kerman incorporating some theatrics into the act by throwing (fake) stacks of money into the crowd for their song ‘Money’, and giving the audience some cute choregraphy for the chorus of ‘Two Hearts’. They did, however, also slow things down, with Kerman sitting on the edge of the stage to better connect with fans for the slow song ‘Desire’s Got Some Questions’.
I’ve only listened to the album twice through so far, but I would say my early favourites are ‘Ride’, and the aforementioned ‘Two Hearts,’ which is reminiscent, to me, of some of their other cute love songs such as ‘My Heart’s Always Yours’ and ‘And Then Some’ (which they played a small portion of a scaled back version of, as a favour to someone in the crowd).
Once they finished the play-through of the new album, the band spent the next hour and then some playing favourites from their hit-filled back catalogue, including ‘You Can Get It,’ ‘Relentless,’ ‘A Little Rain,’ ‘Leatherjacket,’ and my personal favourites, ‘Oh, The Boss is Coming!,’ and ‘Whistleblower.’
Kerman went above and beyond to connect with fans, as he often does, not only by moving around the stage and making eye contact with many members of the audience while singing, but also by jumping down and immersing himself in the crowd, to walk/dance through while performing on more than one occasion (including walking right past me at one point, but I didn’t have the camera ready on my phone, and also didn’t just want to shove a phone in his face while he walked by, so I only caught a pic of the back of his head after the fact), and later inviting anyone who was there as part of a bachelorette/bachelor party onstage to dance while they played a cover of ABBA’s Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight). One of the friend’s we’d made in the crowd was trying to convince my friend and I, and another girl, to go up and pretend to be part of a bachelorette party of our own, and I considered it for a second, but I quickly remembered I’m not really comfortable dancing unless I’m about eight drinks in (which I wasn’t) and neither my friend or I really like being the centre of attention – so although it may have made for a memorable moment, we decided to pass.
After the band had played their more than two-hour show, including an encore, Kerman and a few members kept the party going on the front lawn, just like last year, playing an acoustic version of their hit ’11:11’ with horn accompaniment, and then wrapping things up with a cover of the Bruce Springsteen classic ‘Dancing in the Dark.’
I have to give a shout out to the whole band, including especially the horn section, who definitely help give the songs an extra umph, as well as keyboardist Anthony Carone, for adding a whole lot of energy of their own to the show. Carone, especially always looks like he’s so excited to be playing, that he might just topple over his keyboard with intensity. I noted in my blog post from last year’s Arkells show that I interviewed Carone when I was in journalism school, as he had been a Humber graduate, and I actually found an email from that time still in my inbox when I was pulling information together to write this piece! He was so humble at the time, stating he would only do the interview if it was about him, and not the Arkells since this was *just* before he became an official member of the band, and it’s a little bit extra special for me to see him now more than 10 years later as an integral part of the group.
I also feel spoiled that I’ve seen the Arkells at The Kee a number of times, since it is such an intimate venue, and they’ve become so popular over the years – but lucky for fans, as noted, they are playing a number of shows at smaller venues throughout this tour, so others will have the chance to experience the same intimacy, despite the band’s success and popularity.
Given the energy they put into shows, the care they put into connecting with fans, and the feel-good vibes of so many of their songs, I think it’s easy to see why so many people have come to enjoy this band over the years. I wish them nothing but continued success in the future, and can’t wait for the next opportunity to catch them at The Kee.
Lisa goes to shows 