The Music in the Park series opened last week with 23 North, in keeping with tradition, but with an updated line-up.
Kathy Smith introduced the band and mentioned that this is the 20th year for this music series. She also said Karen Hamling was quite disappointed to be called away at the last minute and miss such the opening for the music series that was her brainchild.
After the sponsors were thanked, Dave Mang from Nakusp was joined on stage by Richard March from Fruitvale and Jim Miller from Castlegar, in a second show in their current line-up. The first time they performed together was on Canada Day, when they opened the Society for Nakusp Community Events’ outdoors event.
23 North took the audience through a dozen blues and rock’n’roll covers, the wickedest of which was their rendition of Wicked Games by Chris Isaac. Dire Straits’ Sultans of Swing, Santana’s Black Magic Woman, and Prince’s Purple Rain also echoed through the park but this time the audio settings were far better than they had been the Saturday before. That did give them a chance to play together and see how they jive, despite the sparse audience on a hot, muggy afternoon of July 1.
At Music in the Park, however, 23 North’s cool tunes made for the perfect refreshment for an evening out and over 100 people came out to take it in, filling the chairs put out by the organizers, as well as a couple of dozens regulars with their own lawnchairs. On the other side of the Nakusp Municipal beach, a boat had anchored close enough to take the performance in.
“These guys are good,” exclaimed Bob MacKay, one of the audience members, adding “It’s nice when you get performers who do [blues covers] well.”