Concert series strikes the right chord
From my rickety lawn chair overlooking the water and floating stage in the distance, an outdoor concert on a summer evening is all about the experience.
The moonlit night, the recreational waterway’s west side and the view it offers of Merritt Park Amphitheatre and its surroundings, the way kayaks glide so silently upon the glass-like surface of the water have a way of doing that.
A peaceful, easy feeling, if you know what I mean.
It happened again Friday evening when we were there for the Summer Music Festival concert. It happened in the past, both this summer and previous summers, a night-time magic that charms the senses and leaves one with a itdoesn’t-get-any-better-than-this kind of happy hangover. Nice.
Friday night’s performance was a paean to music of the Eagles by New Kid In Town, (where’d that name come from?) a tribute band, and a concert-opening set by the singer Ashlynne Vince, a local girl.
We lucked out finding a spot that was directly opposite the floating stage and just beyond it the amphitheatre seating area. We brought our own reserved seats: lawn chairs.
We were not alone. A few hundred people dotted the west-side bank along Frazer Street, just like it was for the two other shows I was at earlier in the summer.
There is no doubting the appeal of these concerts to local residents. From where we sat, the amphitheatre looked packed. Event co-organizers Ralph Belvedere and Don Romano would have needed shoehorns to squeeze in more people.
It helps that the concerts are free, unlike the predecessor IlluminAqua concert series, which brought bigger name talent to town and in so doing charged for admission to the venue.
A lot of people were of the mind the price was too steep. That hit a sour, high note with many.
But passing the hat, in a manner of speaking, for a freewill, voluntary collection at these concerts does not appear to ruffle many feathers.
At one point during the show, I joined in a conversation by folks sitting nearby.
“One of these nights,” I said, “I just might sit in the amphitheatre for the sake of a change.”
“Why?” asked a denim-clad woman whose name was Lily.
In her opinion the west side has “the best view in the house,” even though it means performers on the floating stage on the other side of the waterway have their backs turned to the west-side crowd.
“But that’s no big deal,” Rose City Lily said, “as long as we can hear them.” Which of course we could. We listened to such pieces as Get Over It, Take It To The Limit, Tequila Sunrise, Desperado and many others from a long play list which went uninterrupted. There was no intermission. There were even one or two well done Johnny Cash tunes, a bonus from New Kid In Town.
Our town’s outdoor concert venue’s allure is enhanced by sideshows such as kayaks that pass by every now and then, and other craft that ply these waters on nights like this one.
At one point a half-dozen or so kayakers rendezvoused not far from the stage, parked their vessels and enjoyed the show from there.
There’s that peaceful, easy feeling again.
On this night, the “house” Rose City Lily referred to had a canopy of tiny, twinkling stars and a moon, not quite a full moon — that was the night before — looking down. The city’s night lights, including the bathed in red Main Street Bridge, added to the spectacle of colour.
“It’s all so beautiful being out here, I just wish there were more concerts because this place isn’t used enough, what a waste,” Rose City Lily said, speaking without lying eyes. Lifelong Welland resident Joe Barkovich has spent much of that time watching people. He continues to be amazed seeing the best and not so best in us, but that’s life. Get a glimpse of how Joe sees our part of the world in his weekly column. He can be reached at: whererailsandwatermeet@gmail.com.