ELIZABETH & THE CATAPULT: LIVE AT THE RUMBA CAFE

Discosalt’s midwest envoy Casey Bowers fills you in on the hype you missed last weekend:

Perfectly Out Of Place by Casey Bowers
Elizabeth & The Catapult: Live at The Rumba Cafe: October 13, 2009

There are paradoxes in music history that become apparent to the greater population long after the historical events transpire and instantly clear to those uniquely tuned-in.
In fact, often after an encounter, these individuals will feel an insatiable need to share their revelation with friends and coworkers and express their profound amazement of the experience by relaying some form of this common message: “You should have been there.” Pseudo-science and pop psychology aside, Monday night, October 13, 2009 (Columbus Day) at The Rumba Cafe was a transfixing and trans-formative experience thanks to Brooklyn-based Indie Pop trio, Elizabeth & The Catapult. Oh, and yeah – You should have been there.

E & The C, as they’re sometimes affectionately abbreviated, seem both perfect for 2009 and wildly out of place in time.Playing a tight and smooth schizophrenic mix of folk, lounge, AM gold, country and yes, pop, the indie trio put on one hell of a show. Professional musicians all, whether playing tight or loose, the band is a well-oiled music machine. Channeling everyone from Ella, Joni, Grace Slick and Aimee Mann, vocalist Elizabeth Ziman has a sweet and arresting voice full of equal parts POW!er and splendor and the eclectic indie-urbanite folkie chords of Peter Lalish’s guitar quizzically compliment every soft sweeping ballad and foot-stomping rocker in equal measure. As do Molad’s laid back but passionate drumming.

All smiles on the gleeful kidult romps (Race You, Taller Children, Perfectly Perfect)  and sadly beautiful on the soft but weighty heartache ballads (Apathy, Golden Ink, Just In Time), Ziman still appeared to lose herself in song and the crowd was right along with her. Case in point – “Golden Ink.” Thanking J Liu’s restaurant owner for “making [the band] fat and happy,” the band fulfilled the restaurateur’s’ request and played a song which, as Ziman candidly pointed out, is normally reserved for “when [she’s] either really sad or really drunk.” In witnessing the toll the song takes on E, it’s understood why.

Through the hour-long plus set, the New York natives effortlessly breezed through most of their catalog and even treated the audience to new material like the slight rocker, “Mr. Hypochondriac,” a quirky song about the King of Quirk, Woody Allen. There were few missteps, only gorgeous melodies, catchy choruses and joyful noises – but there were standouts.

The Catapult are wonderfully enchanting on the lighter and brighter side of Taller Children, but they reach a profound level of exciting when they speed things up or get a little darker. “Hit The Wall,” is one such example and live, it’s a wall-shaking rocker and a sinister little big song that sees the band alley walk with E as she cuts through her blues. More proof is their take on Leonord Cohen’s “Everybody Knows” which is much more epic than but just as menacing as the original. You can hear Cohen’s pain through Ziman more than through Cohen himself and with Lalish + Molad’s haunting textures, it’s almost palpable.

As for the local response, if the audience wasn’t full of fans at the start of the show, by the end, all were converted.Acting genuinely surprised by the encore request, which only added to their charm, the trio returned with the feathery, lilting “Right Next To You” and before they brought up the house lights, they brought down the house with a rousing rendition of The Beatles’ “I’m So Tired.” Which, after a powerhouse performance like that one, I’m sure they were.

-CB