Ani DiFranco provides a "Red Letter" night for adoring fans
From the quicksilver, wunderkind folk-rock dynamo, whose early shows at The Ark nearly two decades ago were nearly as emotionally exhausting for audiences as they were for the artist, through a period when she seemed as if she were carrying the burden of all that potential around on her tiny frame, Ann Arbor has been a regular stop for the singer throughout her career.
But on Friday at the Michigan Theater, DiFranco — now a 38-year-old mother and wife — emerged onstage with her rhythm section as something else altogether: a fully-formed artiste who finally seems comfortable in her own skin.
The result was a 90-minute performance that was at once exhilarating, cathartic, tender and occasionally profane — and which, despite the lack of a single electric guitar onstage, rocked harder than the loudest power trio.
Cycling through 20-plus songs spanning her career, DiFranco concentrated on tunes from her latest — and many say happiest — record, “Red Letter Year.” The singer-songwriter seemed finally able to put the anger that seeped through her earlier career into a good-natured context.
But this didn't dim her fierce attack on an endless stream of alternately tuned guitars. Finger picks taped firmly in place, she dug deep into the strings, coaxing her trademark syncopated rhythms from deep inside the instruments and filling the old theater with the warm, resonating tones of violently vibrating wood.
But during a gorgeous and heartfelt ode to domestic bliss, DiFranco showed a tenderness that has too often remained hidden beneath a tough-as-steel shell. Her growth as a songwriter — and presumably as a human being — benefits her craft, providing the yin that her yang has always lacked.
DiFranco, of course, is one of those artists who can do no wrong in the eyes and ears of her devoted, largely female, fans. They weren’t disappointed, rising to their feet repeatedly, pumping their fists and singing along with a put-down targeting a jilting ex-lover.
The connection between artist and audience is special and few performers seem to bond as strongly as DiFranco does with hers. And it’s gratifying to know that even as the artist has softened — even if ever-so slightly — that connection hasn’t.
Will Stewart is a free-lance writer for AnnArbor.com.
Comments
Sierra Elizabeth
Sun, Sep 27, 2009 : 1:45 a.m.
While this seems like a heart-felt review, I must argue that her yang hasn't lacked yin - her yin has just been downplayed. Truly, some of her earlier work is filled with yin, but we choose to concentrate on the yang that shit-talks what she doesn't agree with. I'd argue that we tune in to the balance between yin and yang more when it's a female emitting it, and not some typical counterculture male artist. In that case, we'd never even expect a balance, we'd just tune in to what they have to say. We've been socialized to do this, and it shows through here. Yes, she's a mother now. But that just means musical, musing reflections on recent experiences, and she's been provoked to write about motherhood because she's a mother. That's not a fundamental change, just a different framework for writing her music. Ani will always be the Ani I've always loved, immortalized. :) And this concert as well as your review seems to prove it.