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by Seth Rogovoy
NORTH ADAMS, April 14, 1996 -- At one point in her fascinating show on Sunday night at the Night Shift Cafe, Ani DiFranco sang, "I am not an angry girl, but it seems like I've got everyone fooled." Given her songs and performance full of fury and outrage, it's easy to see why some might mistake her passion for anger. If she insists she isn't angry, however, we'll just have to take her word for it.
In two sets that clocked in at just over two hours including intermission, DiFranco pleased the largest crowd the Night Shift has seen since the club opened with two back-to-back sellouts last fall. Playing to a a room full mostly of college-age, diehard fans who recognized each song -- including those off her yet-to-be- released new album! -- as soon as the first chord was strummed, DiFranco exhibited the sort of charisma and audience rapport one associates with early Bruce Springsteen.
Backed by her longtime drummer Andy Stochansky and bassist Sara Lee, a rock 'n' roll veteran whose credits include the Gang of Four, the B-52s and Indigo Girls, DiFranco rendered her original compositions in an acoustic rock style heavily laced with funk rhythms, progressive-folk melodies and jazz swing.
Taken as a whole, the songs DiFranco played at Sunday night's show -- which kicked off what promises to be an exciting spring season at the Night Shift -- read like a textbook in contemporary gender studies.
In DiFranco's world, the personal is always political, and every look, action and exchange is loaded with sexual and often sexist overtones, mostly of the oppressive kind.
But DiFranco isn't a self-righteous preacher espousing some academic or partisan line. Rather, her gospel is an age-old declaration of independence, rooted in defiance and self-reliance. She lives her life according to her creed, producing her own albums and releasing them on her own record label. And her songs aren't so much complaints as they are inspirational anthems intended to guide her mostly younger fans and listeners to assert their own individuality, and to alert her older listeners to the concerns of her generation.
There is probably no one entertainer who can speak for or to an entire generation, but DiFranco clearly has touched a chord with a significant portion of today's high school- and college-age population. In some ways they harken back to an earlier, activist period -- a new song she sang spoke of a "hard rain" of the kind in songs, a reference to an old Bob Dylan tune about the spectre of nuclear warfare.
But DiFranco is not merely espousing hippie-chic. Hers are a message and a music infused with contemporary concerns that build upon the lessons of the past in order to create for tomorrow. Thus her unique brand of folk-funk is a dynamic style that blends sonorities of Patty Larkin's new-folk, minimalist art-rock of the Talking Heads, and Carribean and hip-hop-inflected rhythms.
DiFranco's first set was somewhat erratic, failing to maintain the momentum she garnered in its hottest spots. But after a brief intermission she came out swinging with "Buildings and Bridges," an audience favorite off her "Out of Range" album, which she breathed new life into by bending lines and improvising new cadences.
"Shameless," off of her upcoming recording, "Dilate," was a funky showcase for bassist Sara Lee, whose work in tandem with drummer Stochansky allowed DiFranco to play up the built-in dynamics in her material. DiFranco is almost as well-known for her muscular, percussive guitar playing as she is for her colorful dreadlocks and nose ring, and she didn't disappoint in that regard, either.
For the rest of the night, she never let up, and by the time she returned to the stage for her encore, a quiet lullaby she sang in a whisper, you could practically hear a pin drop in the room, so tight was the crowd in DiFranco's embrace.
(This review originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on April 16, 1996. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1996. All rights reserved.)
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