Gig: Bruce Peninsula

Bruce Peninsula (Minotaurs / Siskiyou)

The Horseshoe Tavern. Thursday, October 28, 2010.

"This is our second show ever," Colin Huebert of Siskiyou told the crowd near the set's start. But that on its own would be a little bit misleading, as the five-piece, mostly seated group aren't such raw hands. Started as a recording project with Erik Arnesen while both played with Great Lake Swimmers (Huebert is no longer with the group, though Arnesen still is) the band had assembled what would become their self-titled debut album before turning to thoughts of live performance. So while there were still a few unsanded edges, this sounded like a credible group.

The brief "We All Fall Down" to start it off established the terrain, with Huebert at the centre of things, the steady constant as the other members switched instruments behind him. He sang with a bit of wearininess, sometimes almost a grim urge to darkness to go with the music's deconstructed rootsy vibe. An implied-more-than-obvious relationship with folk music marked them as suitable companions on a bill with Bruce Peninsula.

Besides material from the album, the set included a cover of Simon and Garfunkle's "El Condor Pasa"¹, itself an adaptation of an old Peruvian folk song. The band's approach here was sorta to scuff it up a little, Huebert sounding more distraught than meditative. His voice could get quavery, but he could also imbue a song with prettiness, such as the quieter "Hold It In", which definitely suggests something rubbed off from the time in GLS.

As the set went on, the quieter stuff was increasingly getting overwhelmed by the chatty elements of the crowd, meaning that the louder stuff made itself a little more noticeable, such as the upbeat lament "Everything I Have" that featured a guest trumpet spot from Nick Buligan. "Never Ever Ever Ever Again", with singing saw — who doesn't like them some singing saw? — had an agreeable edge.

This was a fairly long set for an early opener in get-to-know-you mode, and truth be told, I probably would have gotten more from a more focused set, maybe saving some of the quieter stuff for a different venue.² But still, there was some interesting stuff here, and I found the live incarnation allowed the songs to breath a little more than they do on the album.

Listen to a track from this set here.

There'd be no worries about the crowd overpowering the band once Minotaurs took the stage. If I don't have much to say about the band, it's not just because I used all my best quips when I'd seen 'em before, but that their sustaining groove, from the opening blast of "Caught in the Light" and onward, obviates most of my need to think and/or observe.

Still, my didactic eye couldn't help noticing some personnel changes, the band now featuring a marimba as well as omni-percussionist Jay Anderson, who was rocking the triangle like nobody's business — more rhythm soldiers to bit of a tinkly clang under everything. Also of note on this night was sax player Jeremy Strachan sliding over to fill in on guitar.

None of the changes subtracted from the music's goodness, and this was tasty and dance-worthy throughout. "Windchymz" (which is as-yet unreleased but a staple of the live set) sounded better than ever. The quieter "Runaway Lane" lost the crowd a bit but that was the only lag in the set as "Pink Floyd" immediately after cooked like crazy. There were some subtly different flavours from the changes on stage, but the driving Afro-funk essence remained.

Listen to a track from this set here.

I've always loved vocalist/guitarist Neil Haverty's workmanlike exactness at shows: "this is our sixth time at the Horseshoe," he informed the crowd at the outset. I know it had been a while since I'd seen Bruce Peninsula up on that stage, and I think that was back before the band had managed to grow on me.

Looking back, there's a weird suspended unreality around this gig that's hard to shake now, in the light of Haverty's subsequent leukemia diagnosis. One is tempted to find portents, or read something macabre in the pre-Hallowe'en garb that the band emerged in, appearing as skeletons.³ "We're about three days away from finishing our record, so we decided to celebrate with a little costume party," Haverty said.

With that in mind, the night was framed as a big, rockin' celebration. With an opening mini-suite going from a rising instrumental — featuring, as would the rest of the set, auxiliary percussion from friend and producer Leon Taheny — into "Rosie" which plowed right into "Steamroller". The mood established, the band showed off a couple songs from the new album, including "New Mood" which had the elements of the band's folk/not-folk collision in place and "Say Yeah", led by Misha Bower's vocals.

By the time of a return to older material with "Shutters", Haverty's ghoulface was already melting off under the hot stage lights as the barrage of new songs continued. Introduced as an absolutely brand-new one, "Pull Me Under" might have been the best of the bunch, while the stomp of "Itty Bitty Baby" led into "Moon At Your Back", with a nimble, almost jazzy bassline from Andrew Barker.

The material was also chosen to spread the spotlight around on different members — the end of "Shanty Song" featured vocals from Snowblink's Daniela Gesundheit curling around the melody like a vine climbing a tree trunk, and guitarist Matt Cully led on a cover of Loudon Wainwright's "Swimming Song".⁴

The quiet "Weave Myself a Dress" opened up into its soaring choral ending that then segued into the full-on holler of "Crabapples", featuring some extra guest percussion from Jay Anderson. The break before the encore was passed with the band hanging around on stage while a broken string was repaired, chatting about the film Small Town Murder Songs (which the band contributed some original music to) before testing out the slow-burning "Open Flame". And then "2nd 4th World War", with Haverty's shouts of "I ain't ever been satisfied!" finishing things off.

With the release of their second album and all live appearances on hiatus while Haverty is recovering, the retrospective eye is tempted to hold that last image in freeze-frame, like the last shot of a rock'n'roll biopic. But the story isn't done being told. There will be more to come from Bruce Peninsula, and these skeletons will dance again.⁵

You can check out a couple tracks from this set here or here.

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¹It's the one that says "I'd rather be a hammer than a nail", if, like me, you're lousy at putting titles to songs.

² That opportunity might come on March 8th, when the band will be back in town for a show at The Drake Underground.

³ The amazing facepaint that all the bandmembers were sporting was the work of Maria Bui.

⁴ One wonders if it was it a conscious choice to put the two "song" songs back-to-back.

⁵ Neil Haverty's friends and bandmates all pitched in to hold the monumental "C is for Cure" fundraiser last month, to help Haverty and his family with the financial burden imposed by such a sudden and drastic illness. You can still donate here.

On another note, Matt Cully will be introducing his new project Eons at a Wavelength show this Sunday (March 13, 2011) — part of a bill that is well-worth checking out.