Elizabeth & the Catapult @ Tin Angel

Elizabeth & the Catapult
@ Tin Angel
6/27/09
www.elizabethandthecatapult.com

This year Elizabeth & the Catapult will serve as a common ground for middle-aged NPR devotees and their children who are running off to art school. The Brooklyn trio blends a coffeehouse singer/songwriter aesthetic with a clever and modern chicness that would surely catch the ear of anyone studying Picasso, Brecht, or Truffaut this Fall. For their Philadelphia debut, the band found themselves at the Tin Angel (far more suited for the parents), performing songs from Taller Children, their latest release and the year’s most fashionably endearing album. The almost twee “Race You” is the sound of Brooklyn’s hippest embracing their playfullness, the heartwrenching “Apathy” is as elegant as it is painful, and “The Hang Up” is a cheerfully enjoyable breakup song suited for topping VH1 charts. The set also included a few songs from their debut (“Momma’s Boy” and “Waiting for the Kill”) and a handful of covers of tunes from staple hipster folksters. For those who opted to skip the night of dinner theater at the Tin Angel, the band will return to the city on July 17th and find themselves at the M Room in Fishtown... a far more art-student-friendly setting. Izzy Cihak