Arkells Live @ Empire Rockfest

Arkells live at Empire Rockfest! Photos by Jesse Read, Stuart Roberts and Logan Somers.

Arkells headlined the Saturday night of Empire Rockfest, an incredible festival that takes place outside Empire Theatre in Belleville, and shared the stage with Lights and Jake Clemons Band. Although I’ve had the opportunity to interview Arkells multiple times over the years as they are often celebrated in the Canadian scene, this was my first time seeing them live and now I undertand their hardcore following of loyal fans even better. Their live show is a unique event, Max Kerman is a master of the stage and knows exactly how to the get the crowd going. He manages to make it feel like he’s talking directly to you, no matter where you are in the crowd.

3 songs in, something magical happened. And I hope people believe me when I tell this story because it sounds straight out of a Disney movie. As the band started playing “A Little Rain (Song for Pete)” out of nowhere, it started raining. There was no rain in the forecast for the day, and it was like Max himself summonned it. Now there are some shows where getting rained on unexpectedly will ruin your night, but this was certainly not one of them. The crowd didn’t even flinch, if anything, it made it all the more exciting. The energy was non-stop, with soaked fans screaming back the lyrics to their favourite classics as well as deeper cuts in the middle of Belleville, I sure hope the neighbours were all Arkells fans too (who isn’t realistically?) because I’m sure you could hear the fans for blocks around.

Photos by Jesse Read

Photos by Stuart Roberts

Photos by Logan Somers

More Photos by Jesse Read