Review: Ani DiFranco

Photos by Dave Eulitt/The Star 

Ani DiFranco inspires devotion that sometimes borders on unhealthy idolatry. It was perplexing, consequently, when a significant portion of an audience of approximately 1,000 ignored much of the singer-songwriter's performance Friday at the Beaumont Club. Disinterested chatter occasionally threatened to drown out DiFranco.

The woman some advocates regard as the Bob Dylan of their generation and gender simply didn't command the attention normally accorded to an iconic figure. DiFranco has been making distinctive folk-based albums for twenty years. A cynic might suggest that the indifferent reception DiFranco received Friday indicates that a career based on extreme political correctness and self-absorption has lost some of its momentum.

DiFranco even acknowledged her navel-gazing tendencies: "Time flies when you're obsessing over yourself," she joked.

DiFranco's ardent loyalists might point to different culprits. One was purely visual. DiFranco is diminutive. Many fans could only catch glimpses of DiFranco on the Beaumont's low-slung stage.

Another possible reason for Friday's disconnect was musical. The refined subtlety of DiFranco's band may have caused the attention of some fans to wander. Her outstanding backing trio of acoustic bassist Todd Sickafoose, drummer Andy Borger and percussionist Mike Dillon was firmly rooted in jazz. Instead of rocking, they swung. The vivid colors and surprising textures added by Dillon, a former Kansas City resident, were particularly gorgeous.

His efforts helped transform material like "78% H2O" into an ambient dreamscapes. The audience, however, wasn't having it. They might have preferred an exclusively solo performance. DiFranco's unaccompanied rendition of "Two Little Girls" received the heartiest cheers of her 90-minute performance.

DiFranco's dismissive attitude about her back catalog didn't help matters either.

"Here's one from the bad old days for anyone who's still feeling bad," she said in her condescending introduction to fan favorite "Dilate."

She repeatedly made it clear that she was more interested in playing new material than older songs. DiFranco's fiercely political perspective, however, remained intact.

"This one goes out to all the activists," she shouted during her lengthy introduction to "Atom."

While strident politics have long been an integral part of DiFranco's persona, one new song seemed like a self-parody. "Amendment" was more leaden and uninspired than the driest of campaign speeches. The selection was so wretched that it made the audience members who talked through DiFranco's concert seem discerning.

Buddy Wakefield: DiFranco's opening act shares her leftist politics. When he wasn't telling jokes with the obvious punch lines of "Fox News" and "Sarah Palin," Wakefield offered a handful of compelling poems and stories.

Ani DiFranco set list: Done Wrong; 78% H2O; Manhole; Dilate; Promiscuity; Napoleon; Splinter; All This; Sunday Morning; Atom; Present Infant; Two Little Girls; Amendment; Swan Dive; Hearse; Gravel; Both Hands; Which Side Are You On?

|Bill Brownlee, Special to The Star

Comments

[mankvill]

Absolutely hate it when the crowd is full of people who can't shut up.

[Green]

Why go to a show and talk, whats the point, go down the street some place free and chat it up but to pay 20 plus and talk over music all night, thats just palin

[XXX]

Yeah, but you get a bendable straw with your drink...

[Green]

They still make those!

[betsy hartwig]

whoever wrote this article read a bio blurb about ani, obviously, cuz he does not seem to know who she is and what she is really about. the comment about her older music is par for the course. she has always made comments like that about her older stuff and has always been prone to preferring to play her newer music. i was in the 2nd row and had to literally fight other chics off to keep them from pushing past me to get up front. everyone was pushed up against everyone, so from where i was standing....everyone was very interested. it was a bar, so its prone to chatter. i saw her in a bar in dallas in 96 and people chattered in there. if the reviewer was familiar with ani, he would know that one of her first songs mentions "people talking through her songs". its nothing new. not everyone "gets" the ani experience and even she knows that. she has always had self deprecating humor, so that was par for the course, as well. i will say i expected a bit of a longer show, but come on.... ani is 39 now not 20. she has a toddler. i have been to well over a dozen ani shows all over the country starting from the very beginning back in '93 when ani toured alone (no band). this was a good show, though different from her "hayday" but still an awesome show. the reviewer needs to stick to reviewing bands he's familiar with like black eyed peas or something. awful review. made me wonder if he was even at the same show i was.

[Matt]

I was towards the back of the show and the reviewer is spot-on. There was a crap-load of talking towards the back, I'm guessing you didn't hear it because you were in the front (do people think before they write stuff on here?). There was way more chatter than any show I've been to in a few years. It was annoying.

Good review, btw.

[betsy hartwig]

i heard the chatter. but for the reviewer to go off insinuating that ani has alienated her audience by not playing old songs and by making jokes about "the bad old days" was crap. how many shows have you or the reviewer been to over the years? have either of you been to a show in the very early 90's? thats all she does is make jokes about herself and her songs. back when "out of range" was a new cd, she didnt want to play any of the songs from the 1st two albums. i agree there was chatter, but it didnt seem to me like ani has changed and alienated her audience. and if you are going to play in a bar, expect people to chatter. if she was playing in a theater where everyone was there to see her and not just get their drink on, there wouldnt be all the chatter. i know, ive been to all different kinds of ani shows over 17 years in all kinds of places.

[betsy hartwig]

and the review of buddy wakefield was good. WTF? i thought he sucked and i thought he was just a waste of time. after waiting 3 hours in line, i wanted to see ani. he was marginally humorous at times, but mostly his stuff was non nonsensical.

[kmoon]

the photos are not flattering.

[lou]

its obvious the reviewer is not a fan of ani or familiar with her work. maybe if he was, review would not have been so negative and he would have chosen more flattering photos. just shows that the media is never unbiased.

[THW]

Another condescending review from Bill Brownlee. I really just need to learn to check the byline first and if his name is there, I need to stop reading. He is just clueless. Just about every review he writes is a mess -- I have no idea why the Star continues to pay him to write reviews. As for this show, I got the feeling that Bill had his mind made up to not like the show before he even walked in the door to the Beaumont Club that night.

[boo]

..there are assholes at every gig, i dont see why ani would be an exception to the rule. :D

[trdedektiflik]

thank you