CONCERT REVIEW - Ani DiFranco 9/23/08

Ani DiFranco – 9/23/08 – Lensic Performing Arts Center, Santa Fe, NM
Concert Review by Chris Diestler, KBAC

I expected a great show from D.I.Y. diva Ani DiFranco, because her shows are always great. But this show happened to fall on her 38th birthday, and the word came backstage beforehand that the Lensic was sold out – packed to the brim with adoring fans.

“Red Letter Year,” her newest release, wouldn’t be in stores for yet another week, but I had managed to check it out the night before on her Righteous Babe Records website. Two years in the making, it’s as lovingly crafted and delightful to listen to as any in her nearly-twenty-year repertoire. There were several selections I was already dying to hear live, especially “The Atom.”

True to form, despite her confession to being a little “under the weather,” Ani did not disappoint the crowd. The birthday show ran the gamut, featuring a lively mixture of old and new songs. At one point she stumbled over the lyrics, admitting she may sometimes be a little too clever for her own good, but the crowd humbly prompted her and she was quickly back on track.

My highlights included 2001’s “Your Next Bold Move” (from “Revelling/Reckoning”), which she prefaced by informing us there were volunteers outside who apparently took it upon themselves to come out and register people to vote. She packed an extra emotional punch into lines like, “watching capitalism gun down democracy,” and “buying and selling off shares of air” just for the occasion.

The reworking of 1992’s “Coming Up” (from “Imperfectly”) came off as particularly timely, with her pockets empty except for “receipts, bus schedules, matchbook phone numbers, and urgent napkin poems,” wishing she “could cry more and care less,” and admonishing “whoever’s in charge up there” to “take the elevator down and put more than change in our cup or else we are coming up.”

And what would an Ani DiFranco show be without some of the best-written love songs on the planet? “Smiling Underneath” (from 2008’s “Red Letter Days”) oozed honest charm with lines like, “I don’t mind if the bills pile up / and the work is slow / I don’t mind the gas or the groceries or the grind / long as I’m with you / I’m having a good time.” When I first read those lyrics on her website I smiled, because it sounded exactly like something my wife, Kate, would say. As Ani sang them, Kate gave me a nudge and a smile.

“You Had Time,” though dating clear back to 1994’s “Out of Range,” still seemed fresh, as did all the dusty old numbers she played that night. A poignant song about coming home to your lover after performance tour but being too exhausted to have even a conversation, I wondered how true it might still be for her, or if she now sings it merely for nostalgia’s sake, or simply because it’s a great song.

Frankly, if Ani was sick, I never would’ve guessed. Her energy level seemed superhuman as usual. She segued effortlessly from love song to political commentary and back again, occasionally chatting with the audience about whatever was on her mind (nasal congestion; her new baby -- whom they apparently refer to as “Doot;” the upcoming presidential election; whether you can consider yourself a feminist and still dismiss the idea of voting for Sarah Palin), and sent me home with a smile on my face.

“Half-Assed” (from 2006’s “Reprieve”) and 2005’s “Manhole” (from “Knuckle Down”) also struck a chord with me, as did the new song “Present / Infant,” but as I said, my favorite from the new disc upon first listen was “The Atom,” and by God, did she give me “The Atom.” Her prefatory ramble informed us she had recently “found religion.” The audience seemed unsure how to respond. “Surely,” I thought, “she can’t expect the customary, collective “woo hoo?” Finally, she said over her shoulder to the band, “They think I’m kidding.” Someone bellowed something mostly unintelligible from the audience. Ani took a guess that they had asked that she “play something awesome.” After a few hearty chuckles, she said that she’d been holding back on the awesome for just the right moment, and proceeded to play “The Atom.” She sang about “the smallest unit of matter…uniting bird and rock and tree / and you and me,” and how “the glory of the atom / begs a reverent word” with such passion I did feel a tingle deep in my emotional being some might call religion. I don’t know if her great-great-uncle really worked on the atomic bomb, as she sings in the song, but her parents were scientists, and it’s certainly possible. Maybe it was that I knew we were so close to Los Alamos, but each verse overwhelmed me more than the one before it and I found myself wiping away tears by the time she got to the final verse, which drew a cheer from the entire crowd: “Someone fashion me a pulpit / I have been called to engage / with the maniacal heretics / of the nuclear age.”

“The Atom” is my new favorite Ani DiFranco song.

As usual, I had a handful of old favorites I was keen to hear that night – “Little Plastic Castle,” “Untouchable Face,” “Evolve,” “Not a Pretty Girl,” “Dilate,” “Angry Anymore,” “Freakshow,” “Educated Guess,” “’Tis of Thee,” “Blood in the Boardroom” – none of which were played (though my wife did manage to call for / receive Little Plastic Castles’ “Gravel,” as the first encore), but it was an amazing show nevertheless. Fresh. Thoughtful. Critical. Hopeful. Like always.

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