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Indie folk trio Fox Glove headlines benefit concert

IN CONCERT What: Let the Love In featuring Fox Glove, Mike Edel and Kirsten Ludwig, among others When: Saturday, Feb. 23, 7 p.m. Where: Alix Goolden Performance Hall, 907 Pandora Ave. Tickets: $25 ($15 for children under 12) from ticketfly.
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Fox Glove, with Chelsea Kanstrup, left, Renn Madeleine Bibeau, centre, and Clair Butterfield, is headlining Let the Love In, a fundraiser on Saturday at Alix Goolden Hall.

IN CONCERT

What: Let the Love In featuring Fox Glove, Mike Edel and Kirsten Ludwig, among others
When: Saturday, Feb. 23, 7 p.m.
Where: Alix Goolden Performance Hall, 907 Pandora Ave.
Tickets: $25 ($15 for children under 12) from ticketfly.com

Victoria indie-folk trio Fox Glove is exploring the concept of space — in both literal and figurative terms — during its event Saturday at the Alix Goolden Performance Hall.

The group’s third annual fundraiser, Let the Love In, will present a lineup of performers in a space-themed setting, while raising money for charity.

“When we decided on the concept of space as the theme of the event, we were thinking what we could do to tie into that,” said Fox Glove singer-bassist Chelsea Kanstrup. “The idea of people deserving to have a space [made us] look around and see who was doing fantastic work in housing advocacy in Victoria.”

The group eventually chose Together Against Poverty, which offers thematic parallels, Kanstrup said. “Everyone deserves to have a warm and safe place to live — a space to be in.”

Fox Glove created Let the Love In in 2017 as a musical event that would aid local charities. Last year, the group donated a portion of the proceeds to Learning Through Loss, a support network that empowers youth through grief and loss education.

That Together Against Poverty will benefit from the concert Saturday is meaningful for Kanstrup and her bandmates, singer-guitarist Claire Butterfield and singer-keyboardist Renn Madeleine Bibeau.

“Everybody in Victoria knows someone who has struggled, whether it’s being reno-victed or not being able to find a place, to being out on the streets,” Butterfield said. “Everybody knows someone in this city who has had difficulty. We wanted to bring awareness to the organization and the incredible work they are doing.”

Joining headliners Fox Glove is an impressive array of acts, from multi-instrumentalist Chris Van Sickle to electric guitarist David Parfitt, drummer Marshall Wildman, local singer-songwriters Mike Edel and Kirsten Ludwig, the comedy team of Ryan Steele and Ryan Bangma and string trio Auburn Blind.

Edel and Ludwig both have new recordings to promote (Ludwig’s recent We Get it Now album and Edel’s Thresholds, due March 1).

The timing of the concert also works well for Fox Glove, whose debut full-length album is ready for release.

“The vibes are similar but the artists all bring different things to the table,” Butterfield said. “I think it’s going to make for a really well-rounded show.”

Fox Glove will have copies of its album, Jessie, available at the concert Saturday, and is expecting to play a few of the new compositions. The album is tied together by a lyrical thread — one they weren’t even aware of until the end of the two-year writing process, Kanstrup said. “When we first started recording the album, we were trying to figure out how the songs fit together, because each song had its own story,” she said.

“We didn’t think they were connected at all until we wrote this last song.”

The song in question, the album’s title track, started as in-band joke for the three friends, who met while they were student singers in the University of Victoria Vocal Jazz Ensemble.

“People sometimes mistake Chelsea’s name for Jessie when they meet her, for some reason,” Butterfield said with a laugh. “So Jessie became this character, the person you are never going to be, because you are you and you have your own experiences. Jessie is the person you’ll never be, but she’s also the places you’ll never see, and the songs you’ll never sing.”

Though it was the last song written for the album, Jessie proved to be an ideal way to kick off the concept album, Kanstrup said.

The song follows the character from a period of uncertainty to one of familiarity. By the album’s end, “Jessie is all the things you’ll ever be, and all the places you’ll ever see,” Butterfield said.

mdevlin@timescolonist.com