Ani Live

I saw Ani DiFranco last night at the 9:30 Club. Great show, as usual. This was the fourth time I've seen her live since '96 (gulp! time flies!) and she never fails to play a great show. She doesn't seem to play very long (just a bit over an hour for the last two shows with only one, one-song encore), but she plays hard.

She's touring in support of her new album, Educated Guess, so she played quite a few songs from that album (the title track and "Origami" are the only ones I recognized; I don't have the album yet), as well as quite a few from the last album, Evolve, including the title track, "Phase," and "Serpentine." She also played some older faves, including "Firedoor," "Untouchable Face," "As Is" (with a super-funky arrangement—her electric guitarist, "Tony," was awesome), and "Angry Anymore" among others. Most of these were sing-alongs with the crowd shouting the lyrics so loudly in the small venue that they almost drowned Ani out. She played radical variations on some of them, and I wondered if one reason for that is to thwart the sing-alongs. I would guess she'd do this esp. on "Untouchable Face"; when I first heard her play the song live (at a show at the Berkeley High School, I believe), before she played it she actually asked the audience not to shout the chorus at her since it's not really fun to be at the front of the room while hundreds of people shout "F-you" at the top of their lungs. But that may have nothing to do with it; maybe she mixes up the arrangements just to keep the songs fun and fresh. Whatever the case, it was an awesome show. If she's coming near you this summer, don't miss it!

Posted May 12, 2004 07:38 AM | life generally