Review: Lady Lamb the Beekeeper plays to a reverential World Cafe Live crowd

If there is an entry point into the multitudes of lovelorn folk poetry that is Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, “Bird Balloons” – the most rocking track off of its debut album Ripely Pine – might not seem to be it at first. But lead singer Aly Spaltro strummed forth this Afghan Whigs-esque tale to open Lady Lamb’s tight, intimate 10-song set on Sunday night at World Café Live Upstairs to a crowd of 50 reverential listeners. They hung on her every syllable about lions, vultures and Eros. High points abounded, including her solo banjo-plucked “Regarding Ascending the Stairs” and the finale, “Crane Your Neck,” with the refrain of “You’ve gotta be starving; you’ve gotta be starving for it.” Starving at first, perhaps, but by the end of the show, the crowd was thoroughly sated.