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rsadelleI'd been seeing posters and TV ads for Ani DiFranco, and thinking that if I had the money, I would totally go. I saw her about seven years ago in Paradise with my parents, and it was amazing. When I sent out an email letting people know I'd changed my email address, my dad wrote back and said that he'd heard a beautiful song of hers on the radio and she was good last time we saw her, so if I wanted to go, he would buy me a ticket. So last night my dad and I drove up to Paradise to see her.
Last time I went to something at the Paradise Performing Arts Center, there were so many people there the parking lot was full and we had to park on the side of the access road behind the place. This time, the parking lot wasn't even half full, and the theater, when we got there, was barely a third full. People continued to filter in during the opener and intermission, so it was about three-quarters full by the time Ani took the stage. To get a sense of this, you might want to look at a picture of the theater.
I was on the young end of the scale for the audience. There was a fairly large contingent of people in their late twenties to mid thirties (I'm 29), and another large contingent of people in their sixties (my dad is 61). There were a couple of kids with their parents (one of said kids would've fit right in with the TAI audience), and a couple who was probably in their seventies or eighties.
The opener was Anais Mitchell, who I'd never heard of but is on Ani's record label. I thought of her look as somewhat Zooey Deschanel-like, but it might just be the haircut. She was wearing cowboy boots, what were probably skinny jeans but could've been denim leggings, a turquoise wrap skirt that was flat across the front but appeared to be pleated underneath, and a gray Obama t-shirt. Her music was good, but not quite good enough for me to go seeking her out now. As a performer, she was interesting to watch because she bounces her left knee in as she plays.
She did a couple of songs, and then told us that she was next going to play a couple of songs from the opera she wrote. It's a retelling of the Orpheus myth that takes place in a post-apocalyptic America in a depression, and it's called Hadestown. The first song from it was the best. In it, Persephone runs a speakeasy behind Hades' back, where she peddles such things as wind and sunlight.
There was an intermission, and then Ani came on. Her band is a guy on drums and another guy on upright bass. Three songs in, a guy from the audience came down the aisle and sat on the floor at the front of the theater. In less than a verse, fifty other people joined him. It was the weirdest pit I'd ever seen. They sat politely on the floor and danced with only their upper bodies. They were all the people my age, and if I'd been alone, I would've joined them.
I didn't know most of the songs in Ani's set. The only one I recognized was "Which Side Are You On?" which I only knew because I listened to the music on her MySpace yesterday afternoon.
Her last song was a good one for dancing, and the pit stood up to do so. A few more people from the audience joined them, and they stayed standing for the encore.
After Ani and her band exited stage left, her tech trailed across the stage from the other side carrying a guitar. She came back out and did "Fire Door," and then the rest of her band and a pair of previously unseen women joined her to do Gillian Welch's "Barroom Girls," which was a riot. I'm sure my dad particularly liked it because he saw Gillian in concert earlier this month.
Incomplete and out of order set list: Red Letter Year, Whose Side Are You On?, Do-Re-Mi, Promiscuity, November 4, Fire Door, Barroom Girls.
Last time I went to something at the Paradise Performing Arts Center, there were so many people there the parking lot was full and we had to park on the side of the access road behind the place. This time, the parking lot wasn't even half full, and the theater, when we got there, was barely a third full. People continued to filter in during the opener and intermission, so it was about three-quarters full by the time Ani took the stage. To get a sense of this, you might want to look at a picture of the theater.
I was on the young end of the scale for the audience. There was a fairly large contingent of people in their late twenties to mid thirties (I'm 29), and another large contingent of people in their sixties (my dad is 61). There were a couple of kids with their parents (one of said kids would've fit right in with the TAI audience), and a couple who was probably in their seventies or eighties.
The opener was Anais Mitchell, who I'd never heard of but is on Ani's record label. I thought of her look as somewhat Zooey Deschanel-like, but it might just be the haircut. She was wearing cowboy boots, what were probably skinny jeans but could've been denim leggings, a turquoise wrap skirt that was flat across the front but appeared to be pleated underneath, and a gray Obama t-shirt. Her music was good, but not quite good enough for me to go seeking her out now. As a performer, she was interesting to watch because she bounces her left knee in as she plays.
She did a couple of songs, and then told us that she was next going to play a couple of songs from the opera she wrote. It's a retelling of the Orpheus myth that takes place in a post-apocalyptic America in a depression, and it's called Hadestown. The first song from it was the best. In it, Persephone runs a speakeasy behind Hades' back, where she peddles such things as wind and sunlight.
There was an intermission, and then Ani came on. Her band is a guy on drums and another guy on upright bass. Three songs in, a guy from the audience came down the aisle and sat on the floor at the front of the theater. In less than a verse, fifty other people joined him. It was the weirdest pit I'd ever seen. They sat politely on the floor and danced with only their upper bodies. They were all the people my age, and if I'd been alone, I would've joined them.
I didn't know most of the songs in Ani's set. The only one I recognized was "Which Side Are You On?" which I only knew because I listened to the music on her MySpace yesterday afternoon.
Her last song was a good one for dancing, and the pit stood up to do so. A few more people from the audience joined them, and they stayed standing for the encore.
After Ani and her band exited stage left, her tech trailed across the stage from the other side carrying a guitar. She came back out and did "Fire Door," and then the rest of her band and a pair of previously unseen women joined her to do Gillian Welch's "Barroom Girls," which was a riot. I'm sure my dad particularly liked it because he saw Gillian in concert earlier this month.
Incomplete and out of order set list: Red Letter Year, Whose Side Are You On?, Do-Re-Mi, Promiscuity, November 4, Fire Door, Barroom Girls.