The O-town Scene

DiFranco plays to a girl-power- fueled crowd concert reviews concert reviews concert reviews concert reviews concert reviews concert reviews and breathy lyric. If you think “girl power” ceased to have meaning passed butterfly-backpack-toting tweens and Powerpuff Girls or, if you’re more of a history buff, the third-wave feminists of yore, you are sadly mistaken. The reality check for Oneonta was dated and cashed June 7, when Ani DiFranco brought her post- punk folk-spunk to the Oneonta Theatre. Roars of women ricocheted off the walls of the theater from a large crowd assembled at the front. “Ani for president!” and “We love you, Ani!” were heard throughout the night as Ani displayed her powerful grace and tight guitar work. She stood alone in a wife-beater and grey Dickies, swathed in the dim lights of the stage, and took it all in rather humbly, almost shyly. The stage shrunk to best fit the intimate atmosphere she created. The tone of the night was exuberant and empowering, groups outside or at the bar were chattering anxiously about the show to come. People, mostly women, had come from all around the area, the pilgrimage an exalted one, to be in the presence of a talent that is at once raw from emotion and calcu- lated by years of experience. For DiFranco fans, there is a direct and deep relationship between the music and the music-maker; to love Ani’s music is to love Ani. The die-hards flanked the front and belted every word, loving each guitar strum DiFranco played old favorites like “Shame- less” and the deeply emotional “Angry Any- more” intermingled with more recent and stir- ring solo endeavors such as “Marrow”and the beautifully performed “Garden of Simple,” coming on for an encore with “Untouchable Face” and the popular “32 Flavors.” There was a trenchant mastery of each piece, and her unassuming enchantments never waned. Before performing, DiFranco explored Oneonta to garner a connection with the folks and environment to add extra depth to the concert. “Having traveled around the country so much, I think I can assess a town very quickly; cool town, good spirit,” DiFranco said of Oneonta to the crowd with smiling eyes. She seemed at home here, likening the town to her native Buffalo, where with all the big beautiful houses “a couple of turn-of-the- voices to become in- creasingly vehement.” Alternately jumping around stage ener- getically and poised at the microphone, her guitar took over the theater. Between almost every song she had to switch her guitar so it could be retuned after her tightly frenetic play- ing. Her strums were not violent, but full of the determination and independent vigor that she has made her trademark. It is this she is able to capture Her strums were not violent, but full of the determination and independent vig- or that she has made her trademark. centuries ago, we were hot shit.” This made it more than a concert, it was a connection, a page out of the handbook of what it is to be a folk singer. Her rapport with the audience was magnetic, kept charged by her wit and comments between songs. DiFranco’s unique mingling of open-hearted self-observation and folk activism was pres- ent as ever, which galvanized an intimacy among the audience. At the end of her hour-and-half-long set, she covered “Which Side Are You On?” and urged the audience to sing along, “There’s only one chord in this song, so it has to go somewhere, I want your with the immediacy of live music. When she performed “Manhole,” it was much different than the recorded version for her 2005 album, “Knuckle Down.” Without accompaniment and with varied timing, the song took on new strengths, found a different rhythm and Contributed Ani DiFranco performs in this undated photo. depth, each chord resounded with defiance and intensity. Dressed to the nines in a tie and oxford shirt, the opener, Seth Glier, a musician on DiFranco’s Righteous Babe label, won the crowd over with his delicate and emotional voice, passionate on both the piano and keyboard. Having also opened for DiFranco at the Tarrytown Music Hall on June 5, he has not lost his ecstasy in playing with her, “I remember my father taking me to an Ani show when I was 12 years old, and amaz- ingly I’m here now 10 years later. I’m pinch- ing myself.” Reminiscing with the audience about a time that inspired his song “Walk Katie Home,” where he drove from his home in Shelburne Falls, Mass., to New York City to see a girl only to “take to dinner and walk home,” was well-received and intimate. The thematic musical contrast between Glier and DiFranco was distinct but complementary, 14 O-Town Scene June 9, 2011 Glier’s soul-searching lyrics were a per- fect set up to the surefooted questioning of DiFranco’s. This was music as empowerment, a no- tion implicit in Righteous Babe Records and manifested by both Glier and DiFranco at the concert _ from Glier mentioning that he performs at Children’s Hospitals and HIV clin- ics before shows because “music is a remedy and it is, first and foremost, for the connec- tion to people” to DiFranco’s well known do-it-yourself lifestyle, constantly voicing her discontent at the double standards imposed on women. “I’ve never experienced so many female fans at the theater,” said a concertgoer dur- ing the show. There’s a reason these women were drawn to the strength of DiFranco, to her constant creative energy and indepen- dence that comes to life upon her stage. Two words: girl power. _ Whitney Bashaw

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