While people hit the bars and clubs for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations on March 15, Toronto-based indie rock band Arenas celebrated the release of their debut album, Truth Come Alive, at the Monarch Tavern. The album, rich with fuzzy guitars and warm vocals, was released on March 5, just in time to soundtrack the springtime as Toronto finally thaws after a long and gruelling winter. Supported by fellow Toronto acts BBQ Pope and Jay Feelbender, Arenas drew an energetic crowd to the Monarch Tavern—a packed house buzzing to celebrate the milestone of a debut album alongside the band.
BBQ Pope kicked the night off at 9:00 p.m., as lively as ever with their signature psych-punk sound and hooking stage presence. Vocalist and bassist Reid Millar and guitarist Sean Hackl were joined by Max Bornstein on drums, who was filling in for original BBQ Pope drummer Duncan Briggs, who had to sit out the set due to an injury. Briggs returned to drums for the final track, the unreleased yet eagerly awaited “Pop Punk Song from 1994,” as the band noted that they were filming the performance for a music video. With “Pop Punk Song from 1994” and another unreleased track, “Content,” on the setlist, BBQ Pope was teasing a new album which they said could be expected sometime within the year. In addition to unreleased songs, the band also played their classics, including “Cartoon Moon,” “Blank Screen,” and “All My Friends Smoke Cigarettes” (“I need to write ‘All My Friends Are Vaping,’” Millar joked).
After BBQ Pope descended the stage, Jay Feelbender—the solo project of Jacob Switzer, taking the form of a five-piece band at live shows—then offered up some dreamy indie pop. They began their set with the nostalgic “Summer Camp Love Letters 2003” and feel-good “Angel,” proceeding to play a mix of both old and new tracks. Switzer kept things animated with a running joke between songs, telling a fictional story about how the band was humbly busking on stage at Yonge and Dundas “with generators” and “no permits” only a few weeks prior, where they were coincidentally discovered by the members of Arenas and asked to join the bill for the release show.
This show was Arenas’ first time gracing the stage since they played Houndstooth back in October of last year. At that point, none of the singles off Truth Come Alive were out yet, and the band had declared that they would be going into hiding for a while as they prepared the album for release. Saturday night only proved that they had been spending the past five months working hard on crafting a distinct and cohesive sound, triumphantly culminating in Truth Come Alive.
Arenas’ setlist consisted of Truth Come Alive in its entirety, with the addition of a few extra embellishments into the album’s tracklist. As the band took the stage shortly before 11:00 p.m., they opened with an alluring instrumental arrangement which led into the album’s punchy opening track “Quitting,” in which vocalist and drummer Michael Scott sings about needing to break a smoking habit (alongside BBQ Pope’s “All My Friends Smoke Cigarettes,” anti-smoking seemed to be an ironic recurring theme of the night, which Millar also pointed out during his set).
Arenas translated the energy from the recordings of upbeat tracks like “Doki” and “6/8/1” into the live renditions exceptionally well. The catchy guitar hooks and smooth drums took on an extra dimension as they loudly reverberated throughout the venue. Under the reflected speckles of light from a disco ball hanging overhead, the crowd’s swaying bodies and bobbing heads signalled the resonance of Arenas’ stellar performance.
Around halfway through the set, the band slowed things down with their one acoustic track of the night, “Letter to the Editor”—a song Michael Scott described as giving “campfire song energy.” While guitarist Camila Milla and bassist Chris Scott set down their electric guitar and bass respectively to pick up acoustic guitars, Michael Scott emerged from behind his drum kit to stand centre-stage at Milla’s mic stand, joking that his bandmates forced him to give up his “safe” spot for these few minutes. There may be no drums on “Letter to the Editor,” but as the band strummed their way through the sombre track, the crowd provided a beat as they clapped along.
Guitarist Kelly Steinhoff then played “QuittingEXE,” reprising the album’s opening track, while the rest of the band reset to their original instruments and positions, tucking the acoustic guitars away for the rest of the night. Ready to rock again, Arenas dived into a cover of Pixies’ “Here Comes Your Man,” which they mashed up with Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks.” For anyone who hadn’t yet had the chance to closely familiarize themselves with Arenas’ new tracks, now was their chance to sing along.
After playing the album’s blissfully enrapturing final track “All the Best Ones,” the band reprised “Quitting” one more time. “I think it’s time I try to quit smoking,” Scott sang as his last words. “I don’t know why, but I gotta try,” the crowd softly sang back to him. The band then issued their final “thank yous” to the enthusiastic audience, retreating backstage behind the curtain as the room filled with fervent cheers and applause. The members of Arenas returned to the stage a minute later to officially close out their set with a two-song encore, playing the first singles they released as a band back in 2023, “Soleil” and “Search Bar.” It was an explosive end to the night as Scott belted the frustrated lyrics of “Search Bar” over gritty garage-rock instrumentals.
By the end of the night, the Monarch Tavern was brimming with love for Arenas and Truth Come Alive. As a young band, only coming up on two years since the release of their first singles, and Truth Come Alive being their first major release, Arenas is making it clear that it will be worth it for listeners to stick around to see what they accomplish next.
