Post by bexface on Apr 13, 2003 11:49:39 GMT -5
One great things about other Toriphiles: they can turn you on to other kinds of music. Since I rarely listen to the radio anymore, this is one of the only avenues for me to hear other artists. For some strange reason, three different people recommended Ani DiFranco to me over the Pittsburgh weekend. She is touring in the area right now so I said, “Why not?”<br>
This tour she is doing solo. While I would’ve liked to have heard the band, her liveliness and attacking acoustic guitar made up for the accompaniments. She just started playing, jumping around, almost like the guitar was pushing and pulling her around and not the other way. Partway through the second song, she said, “o hi,” having forgot to introduce herself. But we all knew who she was, right? It said so on the ticket. Throughout the entire concert, a stage hand came after every song to change her guitar. Some were plain, at least one was ornate with reflective decorative painting, and one looked like one of those Russian guitars. What a treat to watch her clomp around, seemingly dragged around by the guitar! Very animated. Sometimes she would strum a dischordant vibration and then jump back, snap her head, and say something like “Whoa!” Hilarious!
I really liked “Subdivision” as it encompasses what I feel when I emerge from the woods and return to the suburbs. It gave me Tori-like chills. Introducing the next song (“Company”), she mentioned Heidi (“Heidi-Ho”) was not with her that night but had been for a lot of the last 5-6 years, helping her with lines if she forgot them. She also stated she was getting old and that she stomps around like a Clydesdale. (Certainly one would not want to be stepped on by her during a song given the intensity with which she hops around!) At one point, someone called out for “Blood in the Boardroom,” to which she replied she had thought about pulling out her guitar to sing that while recently waiting in a bank lobby. Instead she played “Anticipate” (evidently a new song) that she had written when Bitch and Animal (the opening act) had stopped by her place in Buffalo. When she saw it on the set list, she indicated she “can’t remember it for shit.” She also remembered her mother was trying to sleep upstairs but Ani “owns the place.” Most of the audience had been standing up to “2nd Intermission” so she asked someone to turn up the house lights and, even thought she appreciated us standing, asked if we could sit down to make it more intimate. She spoke about Utah, someone who told her “a revolutionary song is any song you sing.” Then went into some “new ones.” The first was “Animal” but the second blew me away. I had noticed a few sheets of paper near her feet throughout and thought it was a setlist. Nope, it was a poem she had written when the Iraq war had started. Sans guitar, she belted out this gem with her staccato bursts and intense feelings. Started off with “I am proud of my country, inasmuch….” I could not help but compare her to Walt Whitman at that point. Her poetry smacked of a unique kind of patriotism. Right after “Evolve,” she put together a good rant about the current administration’s manipulation of us, as mass consumers (“apathetic fucks” “did that start in the 80s?”), and the media displaying the conflict as a massive video game (“media spewing rampant propaganda”). But we aren’t being fooled (at least the people in that audience), supporting the war blindly was bowing to fascism, not real patriotism. What biting commentary! For the encore, she mentioned that many called this “the cunt song.”<br>
I was lucky enough to receive a set list (my second ever! When will I get one for a tori show?) and found the writing looked a lot like on her albums. That is because she writes out the set lists herself and the album listings. Cool! Another cool thing about the set list is that it showed which guitar (numbered 1 to 6) was to be used for each song. Am very happy to have seen her close-up. I look forward to seeing her live again.
Bexface rating: 8.25 out of 10
Set List (numbers indicate guitars used)
2 - Ain’t That The Way
3 - Educated Guess
1 - Gravel
2 - Subdivision
3 - Company
W.2 - Two Little Girls
6 - Bliss Like
W. 4 - Phase
6 - Reckoning
4 - Anticipate
5 - 2nd Intermission
3 - Animal
Wordz - Grand Canyon of Light
1 - Evolve
3 - Names + Dates + Times
-----------
1 - (Out of) Habit
Next up, guess who....?
This tour she is doing solo. While I would’ve liked to have heard the band, her liveliness and attacking acoustic guitar made up for the accompaniments. She just started playing, jumping around, almost like the guitar was pushing and pulling her around and not the other way. Partway through the second song, she said, “o hi,” having forgot to introduce herself. But we all knew who she was, right? It said so on the ticket. Throughout the entire concert, a stage hand came after every song to change her guitar. Some were plain, at least one was ornate with reflective decorative painting, and one looked like one of those Russian guitars. What a treat to watch her clomp around, seemingly dragged around by the guitar! Very animated. Sometimes she would strum a dischordant vibration and then jump back, snap her head, and say something like “Whoa!” Hilarious!
I really liked “Subdivision” as it encompasses what I feel when I emerge from the woods and return to the suburbs. It gave me Tori-like chills. Introducing the next song (“Company”), she mentioned Heidi (“Heidi-Ho”) was not with her that night but had been for a lot of the last 5-6 years, helping her with lines if she forgot them. She also stated she was getting old and that she stomps around like a Clydesdale. (Certainly one would not want to be stepped on by her during a song given the intensity with which she hops around!) At one point, someone called out for “Blood in the Boardroom,” to which she replied she had thought about pulling out her guitar to sing that while recently waiting in a bank lobby. Instead she played “Anticipate” (evidently a new song) that she had written when Bitch and Animal (the opening act) had stopped by her place in Buffalo. When she saw it on the set list, she indicated she “can’t remember it for shit.” She also remembered her mother was trying to sleep upstairs but Ani “owns the place.” Most of the audience had been standing up to “2nd Intermission” so she asked someone to turn up the house lights and, even thought she appreciated us standing, asked if we could sit down to make it more intimate. She spoke about Utah, someone who told her “a revolutionary song is any song you sing.” Then went into some “new ones.” The first was “Animal” but the second blew me away. I had noticed a few sheets of paper near her feet throughout and thought it was a setlist. Nope, it was a poem she had written when the Iraq war had started. Sans guitar, she belted out this gem with her staccato bursts and intense feelings. Started off with “I am proud of my country, inasmuch….” I could not help but compare her to Walt Whitman at that point. Her poetry smacked of a unique kind of patriotism. Right after “Evolve,” she put together a good rant about the current administration’s manipulation of us, as mass consumers (“apathetic fucks” “did that start in the 80s?”), and the media displaying the conflict as a massive video game (“media spewing rampant propaganda”). But we aren’t being fooled (at least the people in that audience), supporting the war blindly was bowing to fascism, not real patriotism. What biting commentary! For the encore, she mentioned that many called this “the cunt song.”<br>
I was lucky enough to receive a set list (my second ever! When will I get one for a tori show?) and found the writing looked a lot like on her albums. That is because she writes out the set lists herself and the album listings. Cool! Another cool thing about the set list is that it showed which guitar (numbered 1 to 6) was to be used for each song. Am very happy to have seen her close-up. I look forward to seeing her live again.
Bexface rating: 8.25 out of 10
Set List (numbers indicate guitars used)
2 - Ain’t That The Way
3 - Educated Guess
1 - Gravel
2 - Subdivision
3 - Company
W.2 - Two Little Girls
6 - Bliss Like
W. 4 - Phase
6 - Reckoning
4 - Anticipate
5 - 2nd Intermission
3 - Animal
Wordz - Grand Canyon of Light
1 - Evolve
3 - Names + Dates + Times
-----------
1 - (Out of) Habit
Next up, guess who....?