Show Review

I’m sure that somewhere in hem’s brief career their music has been labeled as “boring” or “too slow.” I’m also sure that many reviewers who gave their latest disc, Eveningland, only one listen might have fallen asleep somewhere around track seven. Sure, Hem’s music does have a sedative quality, and if it isn’t your bag, you might not know where to go with it. But if nothing else, you would have to agree on one thing: Sally Ellyson can sing.

And perhaps the best thing about Ellyson’s vocal talents is when you combine them with her and the rest of the band’s stage presence, you have magic. hem, these days performing as septet, needs this kind of magic to pull off their live show. Never have I seen a band play their music so slow and move their bodies so much onstage, even while still sitting down.

Keyboardist and chief songwriter Dan Messé moves about in the corner with his keyboard as if he’s being electrocuted every time Ellyson hits a high note. His jittery nature and affinity for lip-synching along with Ellyson makes him a sight to see; it also shows his incalculable love for the art he and his band mates create. Messé just can’t get enough of what is going on around him, and thank God he isn’t afraid to show it.

Guitarists Steve Curtis and Gary Maurer also follow this habit, as they played off of each other through most of the show. Curtis, who looks uncomfortable sitting down as he is a lanky individual, is the most fun to watch out of the two when he bobs back and forth while cradling his instrument.

And all of this is great, especially when you have Ellyson at the forefront. Opening the show with “Jackson,” a song made popular by the late Johnny Cash, Ellyson took early control mainly by displaying her cool confidence as a singer. There is nothing theatrical about her performance onstage—it’s just that she really does bring these songs to life with her vocal clarity and facial expressions, which suggest that she has fallen in love with the words she sings. And that’s quite an accomplishment for a woman who insisted to Dan Messé that she really wasn’t a “singer” when hem was looking for a voice in 1999. Ellyson sure has come a long way, and now she’s sparkling in the spotlight that should carry Hem through quite a musical journey over the next few years.

Live performances that highlighted this particular show had to be almost everything off Eveningland, which included superb renditions of “Hollow” and “Redwing,” the latter which had been sung in a different key for most of the tour due to a cold Ellsyon had been battling—but on this night she was able to soar along with its melody and deliver it with fervor. The crowd even got a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Valentine’s Day” to close the show, a song that Ellyson had no problem making her own.

Afterwards, Ellyson made herself available to sign CDs and chat, sitting in a corner of the bar area, laughing and smiling. She seemed just as calm and poised as she was on the stage, possibly proving to everyone that maybe she really isn’t a just “singer” but more like everyone else—a fan.