I Was There: Ani Difranco @ House of Blues 4/26/09

I'm not sure what I was expecting from Ani DiFranco last night. I've always enjoyed her music, but I haven't given anything a solid listen in years and it's been years and years since she was in the regular rotation. But Ani is one of Partner-in-Crime's favorite acts so we went. And while the show was an extremely solid performance the glaring flaw was the crowd.

Personally, I'm most familiar with Not a Pretty Girl and Dilate era DiFranco. When I was listening to Ani back in '95 I got strange looks that a dude would be listening to an artist that I heard described as both a "rabid feminist" and "who didn't like guys very much." Which I thought was kind of weird given that the people who said these things had never actually listened to the albums more than causally and the fact that…well the human condition is universal and those parts of it that we directly can't experience should probably be of interest. Yeah, she was angry, but then again so I was. I'd say her music has matured over the years without losing any of it's sincerity.

And her Cleveland House of Blue's performance was an example of it. DiFranco seemed genuinely delighted to see the crowd, to be there in front of us playing her songs. It was a vibe that never seemed to dwindle or diminish throughout the night, even as my tolerance for my fellow concert goers rapidly disappeared…

Here's the thing, Ani put on a show that was darn near too subtle for the Cleveland crowd. She sung low and sweet a lot and was consistently drowned out by the buzz of hundred of different conversations throughout the club. I had to strain to hear her at times esp. when she spoke in between songs. Maybe she spoke too low…maybe the sound should have been turned up a little higher. Maybe I should have been slightly closer to the stage. But...you should be able to clearly hear the performer no matter where you are in the HoB no matter who the performer is. The place isn't that big. And a little more volume would have drowned out some of the conversation. But with a Cleveland crowd…they just may have talked louder… As it was I got the feeling that people for large part treated her as background music at a social event.

Oh yeah, the music. I love Ani's voice. Would it be too cliché to say "honey and whiskey?" It's warm, it's distinct, and I was a bit surprised by it's versatility. I'd point out the specific songs that wowed me but my 2 lines of notes are in my other pants and I have a brief confession to make…I didn't prep properly for the show by listening to her back catalog. Her backing band was also really awesome. Haven't seen anyone rock the xylophone in…ever. And I always dig a stand up base. The drummer (and yes I should really look up her name, but I'm lazy) also seemed to rock a…box(?) on a couple songs. Which was very cool.

Oddly the entire crowd came alive for the last songs and the encore. I don't know if the set was too mellow for most or wasn't what they came to see or what but they rocked the house during the encore. I wish they had been as into and attentive for the bulk of the set. But that would have entailed sitting still and listening and fighting our city-wide ADD.

Set list is courtesy of PiC. She wasn't sure about 3 of the songs and thinks they're probably new. And then there's the President Obama song, " November 4, 2008," which I guess is on her website...

1 Done Wrong (Little Plastic Castle, 1998)
2 78% H20 (Reprieve, 2006)
3 Lag Time (Knuckle Down, 2005)
4 Napoleon (Little Plastic Castle, 1998)
5 Angry Anymore (Up Up Up Up Up Up, 1999)
6 Red Letter Year (Red Letter Year, 2008)
7 November 4, 2008
8 Smiling Underneath (Red Letter Year, 2008)
9 (?)
10 Present/Infant (Red Letter Year, 2008)
11 Flood Waters (Reckoning, 2001)
12 Which Side Are You On (Cover)
13 (?)
14 Alla This (Red Letter Year, 2008)
15 (?)
16 Shameless (Little Plastic Castle, 1998)

Encore
1 Two Little Girls (Little Plastic Castle, 1998)
2 Every State Line (Imperfectly, 1992)
3 Overlap (Out of Range, 1994)

Bottom line: Good show. One of the top songs of the night for me was her version of "Which Side are You On." Always nice to see a new spin on an old song. And I'm going to have to pick PiC's brain to help me figure out what my other favorites are. There was a really ethereal number than I really dug… If I see her again I think I'd like a different venue or maybe I'll have to bite the bullet, get there ultra-early, and carve out a space directly in front of the stage where hopefully everything but the music will be droned out.



Wait…wait…wait…I'm forgetting something…oh yeah…the opener Hammel on Trial…um, he's not bad. But I didn't think he was good. He left me scratching the head and wondering what the point was. I think my favorite song of his was his song to his guitar which was made in 1937. Otherwise he seemed to hit some pretty standard political rants and anti-commercial themes, but it was like he was preaching to the choir. Seemed like his entire performance was an extended set-up to a pay-off which wasn't delivered. It is obvious that the man can play his guitar though.