First of all, I think that I have to thank Adam Jay Downer, a.k.a. A.J.. First, he maintains what I consider to be the best site about Ani DiFranco: A.J.'s Not A Pretty Ani Page. Thanks to his list of tour dates, I discovered in July 2000 that Ani DiFranco was coming to Boston for two shows and he was the only one providing a phone number to get tickets; I therefore called this random number found on the Internet, left on a recording machine my credit card number to buy $165 worth of tickets, and hung up. And here I was, tonight, right in the middle of the fifth row! Thanks A.J.
I had never been to the Orpheum Theatre, and it's a really nice venue. It's somewhat like the Sheperd's Bush Empite in London where I saw Ani DiFranco for the first time. And I was sitting really close to the stage, so that was nice (not like the time at the FleetCenter).
The concert started with Sara Lee who had just released an album with Righteous Babe Records. I was really happy to see Sara Lee because I discovered Ani DiFranco with Living In A Clip, and Sara Lee was playing on this record.
I didn't know what to expect though: a bass player starts a band, what is it going to sound like? Well, it's not folk at all, but it sounds good. Her band is composed of an excellent guitarist, drums, keyboards, and somebody for background vocals.
She played a good set, with Julie Wolf singing in the background on the second and sixth songs, and Ani DiFranco joining her on the third one.
Half an hour after the end of Sara Lee's set, Ani DiFranco finally come on
stage with her band. That was the same people as last time I had seen her live
(Jason Mercer on bass, Daran Hahn on the drums and Julie Wolf on the keyboards)
plus two new additions: Hans Teuber on the saxophone, flute, and stuff
as
Ani DiFranco said, and Shane Endsley playing the trumpet.
The concert started with a brand new version of The Diner, which is one of the songs I prefer from her; however, I thought that the addition of the trumpet and the saxophone removed the punch of the original version... So I was worried about the rest of the concert.
Well, I must say that I was wrong: the rest of the concert was great. Her new sound is something between folk and jazz, and it sounds good except that there are from time to time too many instruments playing at the same time to my taste. This time again, I realized that I really prefer when she plays new song because everybody is quiet and you can really hear what she does and appreciate it (such as Marrow for example), whereas when everybody sings Craddle And All, it kind of spoil the song in my opinion.
Some more or less interesting facts about the concert:
Anyway, she played a great set for 1h50, finishing alone on the stage playing Both Hands because it had been requested by a lot of people.
Here is the set list:
I am somewhat disappointed by the fact that she has a fixed set of songs that she is going to play, and it seems that she never plays one more song. She basically replaced the encore she had planned (Sick Of Me) by Both Hands, but didn't play the two songs. Well, I guess that it's the was you plan your concerts when you're on tour two thirds of the year.
It doesn't make her less of a great artist. But still: I want more! :-)
Note that the concert was available a few hours after the concert in MP3's on the alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.bootlegs Usenet newsgroup. What would we do without the Internet?