Time: 7 p.m.

Tickets: $56

 http://www.hedleyonline.com

Hedley, one of the biggest and brightest bands in Canada, returns with Storms, the group’s fourth album. It is a raw and riveting, emotionally-complex record, which finds the Vancouver pop act more open and more driven than ever before.

“There was a lot going on in our own lives, some pretty serious issues, but we found ourselves drawing strength from adversity and deciding to fight on,” says Jake Hoggard, the group’s singer and principal songwriter, who also produces two tracks on the album. “We’re such a close band of brothers that when someone falls, you pick them back up, and what this record’s about is perseverance – storms can be absolutely wretched, but, in the end, even the worst of it comes to pass.”

After forming in 2004, the band signed a deal with Universal Music Canada and released their self-titled debut album and entered the stratosphere of bonafide Canadian pop superstars.

From sold-out arena shows cross-country to the group’s 15 Juno nominations, Hedley’s intense musicianship and penetrating lyrics have made them something like a wildly popular cult act. Indeed, few bands share such a close relationship with their fans or can match the group’s illustrious achievements: three consecutive double-platinum certificates; 1,000,000 downloads; 10 straight videos reaching number one on the prestigious MuchMusic countdown. In 2010, Pollstar even named the act one of the 100 top touring artists in the world. Hoggard, however, says his group takes nothing for granted.

“I never want to assume that because someone’s our fan, that they’ll love whatever we’re doing. I understand that no one has any obligation to listen,” says Hoggard, who calls performing a hometown show during the closing ceremony at the 2010 Olympics one of highlights of a highlight-studded career. “When you start going, ‘Our fans will eat this shit up,’ you slow down and get less attentive, less hungry, and that’s the one thing I could never do. We don’t make music because we want to. We make music because we have to, and I think that’s what the listener will take away from our new album.”

The new album, Storms, produced by long-time collaborator Brian Howes, is at once fiercer and more melodic than any of the band’s previous work. Anthems and ballads, love songs and confessions, the record is real and raw and already striking a chord with their fans, as evidenced with the sales of “Invincible”. Released in August, the record’s touching first single has proven to be the group’s fastest-selling digital track of all-time.

After playing together for nearly a decade, the group – with Dave Rosin on guitar, Tommy Mac on bass and Chris Crippin playing drums – is tighter than ever on Storms, and more groove-based, something that Hoggard credits to the group’s deepening personal relationships.

“We’re brothers now and we feel far more unstoppable because we’ve been through a lot. We’ve been really angry with each other and unsure of our future together, but all of those elements make up the complexity of a family,” says Hoggard, adding that lyrically, he paid far more attention to detail on this record, taking up to 30 different takes in the studio and spending 15-hour marathon recording sessions to perfect each song. “You can say, ‘through thick and thin,’ but it’s hard to practice that when you’re in the muck. On Storms, we found our energy by getting through the tough times – that’s what bonds you – and it pushed our song writing and our playing, to a place where I don’t think it’s ever reached before.”