A happier, more relaxed Difranco performs with graceful brilliance
So much has changed since the last time Ani Difranco played Babeville: the house she built with her own sheer will, the songs that emerged from that will, and the trusted friends and partners who were drawn toward that will like metal filings toward a magnet.
Last time DiFranco was here, the church at Tupper and Delaware she’d purchased and had committed herself to fully refurbishing didn’t have a real name yet. DiFranco gave it one during that show, and not surprisingly, it stuck.
Most importantly, at least in the microcosm of DiFranco’s songwriting, it seems the ceaselessly restless clenched fist of a songwriter has learned to let go of the wheel when matters of the heart, spirit, or whatever you choose to call the unquantifiable, rear their head.
DiFranco has learned how be happy, and it has made her a better songwriter, musician and performer.
Concert Review
Ani DiFranco
Saturday night in Asbury Hall at Babeville.
So Saturday’s full house at Babeville was treated to what, to these ears and through this particular vessel of interpretation, is DiFranco’s finest album, “Red Letter Year.” With a stellar band — now the seasoned and fully tenured trio of bassist Todd Sickafoose, drummer Allison Miller, and vibraphonist/ percussionist Mike Dillon — wrapping its six arms around her, our city’s loudest daughter dug deep into that record, pulled out some surprising tunes from her considerable catalog, and played some seriously brilliant, idiosyncratic acoustic guitar.
It wasn’t surprising that the set was intense, quite well-played, visceral, and marked by what felt like strong emotional interplay between the singer, her songs, and the listeners gathered. The same could be said of every DiFranco show I’ve seen.
Most refreshing, however, was the air of graceful ease coming off of the stage throughout. At one point during a new song, DiFranco took her hands off of her guitar and just sang, letting her band carry the weight of the proceedings for a bit. That was telling. In nearly two decades of witnessing Di- Franco perform, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen her stop playing for a second. It was as if she feared the whole thing would collapse if she did.
The “Red Letter Year” material is wonderful when experienced on record, so smartly and subtly was it recorded and produced.
Live, however, the songs breathe a different, perhaps headier air. That’s likely a direct result of the way the musicians interact, huddling around a common cause, and truly listening to each other. DiFranco’s percussive guitar style is a busy one, and certainly, players with a strong understanding of dynamics would be the only ones capable of working around and with that style. These three can and did, and when they grabbed the title tune from the new record, they took it a few steps beyond its recorded version.
“Landing Gear” was another high point.
“Paradigm” may have been the most telling performance of the evening, however. It’s a song that traces the singer’s personal initiation into the concept of social/political activism and civic responsibility, and in its written form, reads as a lament, a song of remembrance.
DiFranco acknowledged that, with the recent paradigm shift in this country’s self-image and world stance, perhaps this was a song more about the here and now. That it worked was a testament to the ability of her songs to transcend the immediate milieu of their creation. That, in my estimation, is a pretty big deal.
