The night I caught up to them at Brother Jimmy’s, the band was mostly in the cover band mode. This, however, is not the mode most cover bands play in. 7^th Heaven performs a wider range of material than any band I’ve heard. Their set list stretches from Stevie Wonder to Kid Rock, hitting just about everything in between. They clearly have the ability to alter their show to fit the venue they are in. The band also uses a sampling rig to add keyboards, horns, and their own sampled backup vocals to some of the tunes, which makes their sound huge and full. This really makes a difference on tunes like "Get Down Tonight" by KC and the Sunshine Band, their opener that evening. One of the most interesting things 7^th Heaven does is create long medleys of cover songs, one immediately into each other. I witnessed a twenty-plus minute medley of tunes ranging from "Kashmir" by Led Zep to (I kid you not) "Pass The Dutchie" by Musical Youth. Duran Duran, Michael Jackson, and The Police were also represented, along with too many others to count. The medleys are a very effective way to cover a great deal of the cover/bar band material in a fresh way. Very entertaining.

The band (vocalist Tony Di Gulio, guitarists/vocalists Richard Hofherr and Nick Cox, drummer Dan Miller and bassist/vocalist Danny Weymouth) also included two original tunes in the set, "Separated" and "You Lied" and this is where things really shifted. 7^th Heavens’ original sound is much heavier and modern than a lot of the cover stuff they do, so these tunes more than stood out in the set. I would like to see the 7’s at one of their all-original gigs and catch more of the other side of their split personality.

The band was a little out of their neighborhood at Brother Jimmy’s and the crowd was not as large as what they are used to playing for in other rooms. Still, they played hard and put on the same show they would if there were 1000 people in attendance. They get high marks for professionalism in a situation where many bands would stand still behind their mics and paint by numbers. 7^th Heaven is too smart for that. They have not stayed together as long as they have by playing on cruise control. They know how to survive and make each gig as much of a success as it can be. Good band, good show, good night.