Kirsten James Creative
The 67-year-old theatre on Quadra Street, formerly know as The Fox, The Quadra, The Roxy Cine-Gog and the Roxy Classic is now called Blue Bridge at the Roxy! (exclamation point included), and run by the Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre.
Instead of showing movies, a full stage has been built up to showcase live theatre performances such as Macbeth and concerts such as the Mike Edel album release concert with Towers and Trees, which enjoyed two sold out shows on April 10 and 11.
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The bomb shelter-like metal ceiling is still there, but its silvery sheen has been given a fresh coat of acoustic tiles (in blue, naturally). Despite this, the shape of the ceiling still creates the decidedly strange acoustic phenomenon of being able to clearly hear a conversation 30 feet away like it was taking place in your head. This is a bad room to talk smack about the performers, because they can probably hear every word you’re saying.
Kirsten James Creative
No such smack was talked during these shows, however, as Mike Edel and Towers and Trees both gave spectacular, powerful performances.
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Heck, even the opener, a band from San Diego called Second Cousins (usually a four-piece who were on a “Duo Tour), gave an unexpectedly strong performance.
Kirsten James Creative
Towers and Trees walked on stage to cheers from the full theatre, giving “West Coast,” their opening song (and the title track from their recently Kickstarted and soon-to-be-released album) an extra boost.
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Fans of their 2012 album Broken Record heard three favourites, “We’re Not Islands,” “Devil on the Highway,” and possibly T&T’s best known song, “Montreal.”
Kirsten James Creative
Oftentimes, fans come to a concert to hear the familiar hits, not the dreaded something-from-the-new-album, but this audience seemed excited to be among the first to hear a number of new tracks from “West Coast,” including the aforementioned title track, a calm moment in “Wayward Love,” the slow-building explosion of sound and fury which was “Bad Heart” (showcasing Dean — father of drummer Jesse — Boland’s powerful trumpet cameo), and their peppy finalé number, the recently released “FREE.”
Kirsten James Creative 
Kirsten James Creative
Mike rocked out with his band, which is always surprising for such a generally soft-spoken seeming guy.
Kirsten James Creative
Towers and Trees is a seven-piece band (eight when Dean is on the horn). Mike’s is but a lowly four. 😉 Perhaps that’s why he brought in special guests like Vince Vaccaro and The New Pornographers’ Kathryn Calder.
Mike’s core band included Sjoerd Meyer (also part of The Carlines), Shaun Huberts (author of the book How to Pack Like a Rockstar), and — perhaps most amazingly — Jesse Boland, who’d just rolled right into his second full set of music after drumming his heart out for Towers and Trees.
Kirsten James Creative
Mike, his core band, and the special guests easily wove on and off the stage during his set, inbetween some amazing musings from the man himself.
A quick aside from his musical talent. Mike Edel is hilarious. He told a number of somewhat drawn-out, awkward, yet totally worth it anecdotes in between songs. The best involved a phone duel between himself and his father, each calling the other and waiting for the right punchline to hang up the phone on.
Victoria was lucky enough to snag Mike Edel for 2 sold out hometown shows only 3 days into his extensive cross Canada tour to promote the release of his album “India, Seattle”. Mike now embarks on a THIRTY-TWO stop tour so you won’t see him ’round these parts any time soon. However if you’re already having withdraw Mike Edel’s album officially drops today and you can snag it on iTunes or, if you are of the tactile persuasion, from MikeEdel.com.
Kirsten James Creative
Kirsten James Creative
More of Kirsten James’s photos can be found on the Atomique SmugMug and Musique Atomique.
More of webmeister Bud’s photos can be found on happydesigns.com.