A surprisingly big Thursday night crowd took in a taste of the west coast at the Slice, May 14 with two Victoria based bands performing. The theme of the night was traveling from the east coast to the west coast with a focus on the west coast of Vancouver Island. 
Edel began his set solo with bassist Dave Arter waiting at the back of the stage for a song about sunny afternoons.
“We toured out to ‘Onterrible’ and back,” Edel grinned, setting the lighthearted tone for the evening.
I arrived in time to catch the the end of the Utilities drummer Drake stepping to centre stage on guitar and vocals for his second gig ever.
Mike Edel, backed by three fifths of Towers and Trees including lead guitarist Dave Zellinsky, drummer Jesse Boland and bassist Dave Arter, really made his songs stand out especially the slow build of uptempo numbers like “Two Days in Calgary” built around some catchy arpeggios on the acoustic guitars, plucked by Edel and “The Country Where I Come From.” Boland added some excellent background vocals throughout.
They knew when to play, when not to and how loudly, showing a great sense of dynamics. They had only been playing with Edel since the beginning of this tour , but have been friends for longer and sounded liked they had been playing together for even longer.
There were lots of “friendlies” in the audience including several who came all the way from Edel’s home town of Linden who enjoyed a lot of perky, cheerful songs about nature, the weather, relationships and the west coast. Edel interspersed selection from his latest CD India, Seattle with stories and jokes about his dad Larry, at one time asking the crowd to be a little quieter so he could tell the story behind his small town baseball song “the Closer.”
Towers and Trees’ Alex Milo joined him on stage to sing harmony vocals on his new single West Coast, East Coast. Edel himself sounded like a mix of Leeroy Stagger, Peter Katz with the pop influence of the Pet Shop Boys.
At other times he and his band sounded like U2 playing country and roots music.
He was called back for an encore “ When the Good Goes wrong - a sad song about two of his friends who died in the last year of high school.
“ It took me nine years to write this song,” he said.
Victoria roots rock band “Towers and Trees featured the so addictively catchy roots/ alt country pop tinged songs of frontman Adrian Chalifour whose raspy voice reminded me of a more pop sounding Rodney Crowell.
They kept the laid, back, easygoing, uptempo feel going from the start of their set with plenty of harmonies, delay-laden guitar and plenty of folky hooks.
Their latest single “ Free” was an immediate highlight early in the set on which Chalifour broke a guitar string. After a brief pause, lead guitarist Dave Zellinsky rushed backstage to fetch Edel’s guitar.
They kept the west coast theme going on “West Coast Man.”
Chalifour played a new song “Can’t Let it Go” solo as he noted he felt at home in Lethbridge.
They picked up the tempo after that to show more of their country and blues side on the upbeat “ Montreal.”
They ended their set with a more psychedelic country jam. about a road trip before calling it a night around 11:30 p.m.
