With live music slowly coming back to British Columbia, local (and relatively new) venue, the Effie Arts Collective, have already lined up a number of great concerts this fall. Kicking off March was Vancouver Island’s Ryan McMahon and local musician Nick Fast.

Nick Fast is an up and coming Kamloops artist, who played a 50 minute set with about 10 original songs, sandwiched between two covers (“The Weight” by The Band and Matt Mays’ “Travellin’”). Fast played his set as a solo acoustic act, but he’s promised a full length album coming out this spring with a full band.

Ryan McMahon is a veteran performer and was very charismatic and engaging in this stop on his tour. Having just returned to the road, he seemed refreshed and ready to play. He sang through a long set of originals, including solo work and songs from his long running but now defunct band Lion Bear Fox. He highlighted some new songs he has coming out, including a single called “One More Fire”, a solid acoustic rock track. He took the time to dedicate a song to the late local concert promoter Drew McLean, who was instrumental in getting the Effie up and running, and slipped in a couple of covers: the late John Prine’s “Angel from Montgomery” and The Turtles’ “Happy Together”, which has the audience singing the harmony part in the back half of the song. He finished the night with the crowd favourite “Shine”.