Coming off her summer tour and performing at SXSW, Jimmy Kimmel Live, English singer-songwriter Eliot Sumner put on an intimate set with her band at Berklee College’s Red Room Café 939 on Friday night. The 26-year-old English singer and bass player performed 11 songs in the reverberating small room of approximately 90 people. A majority of the songs were selections from her album, “Information” that debuted earlier this year. Boston was the last stop of her fall tour promoting the album.
With Sumner’s natural stage presence and her slick bass skills, her talent was displayed from the minute she walked on stage. It’s easy to determine this talent was most likely passed down from her father, legendary musician Sting, front man of The Police. Her low-ranged voice is relatively similar to that of her father’s, but that is where the comparison seems to stop. Sumner has developed a sound all her own.
Opening with a track from the new album called “Dead Arms and Dead Legs,” Sumner seemed cool and collected with her four-piece band, which was positioned in a way that is different compared to most bands. Her keyboardist took the center of the stage directly behind her, and the drummer was off to her left. This brought the focus to the use of analog synthesizers from the keyboard, which was a prominent sound in each track performed, giving the band a vintage-rock vibe with a touch of new wave.
However, once the band got into one of her most popular tracks, “After Dark”, the audience became completely electrified, jumping up and down along with Sumner as she rocked about the stage. Many fans would shout to her between each song with compliments, which cracked a smile from Sumner, and it appeared to give her even more confidence with each performance.
She then kicked into newly written tracks called “Rhythm” and “Time Waster,” which both had an edgier rock tone to them with the help of her lead guitar player. Despite her low vocals, she proved to the crowd that she could widen her range with a strong falsetto to go with her slightly raspy voice.
What separates Sumner from other average rock groups is that there is a real blend of different genres like indie rock and electropop that enhanced the sounds of past generations, like the use of synth along with deep lyrics like, “the pain becomes tyrannical 400 tons of shame / As I walk into a perfect storm again / I take the burden on myself.” Moreover, she connected with each member of her band on stage and also the audience which makes her very likeable.
After performing the last song, “Information,” the band left the stage for a short moment while electronic sounds filled the room. The crowd roared as the band reappeared to play their encore song “Species.” Sumner ditched her bass to just sing for this track, which allowed her to move about the stage and interact with the crowd to display an even more enthralling stage persona.
