JULY 2007 - EYE DAILY - LIVE REVIEW

Neil Haverty's newest gospel-pop-folk incarnation, Bruce Peninsula, followed with a jaw-dropping show that was still being raved about well into the next day (and shouldn't be missed at their upcoming Music Gallery show) The whimsical banners of the stage set made me think for a moment I was at the Nimus Festival, and it was not unlike being present at the initiation rites of a new religion, whose tenets were as yet unclear. Impeccably rehearsed and beautifully arranged, the vocal parts of the five exceptional women singers wove in and out of — and sometimes marched through — the gorgeous and fully-realized guitar melodies of Haverty and company. No easy musical comparisons come to mind, though the unabashed joyfulness was somewhat like Danielson Famile without the self-consciousness, and when the band (after inadvertently trashing the stage) joined the audience in the grass and led a gospel singalong, the love-in was consummated.