Concert review/photos: Ani DiFranco @ World Cafe

[ 4/25 ] To watch Ani DiFranco play guitar is to watch fury and subtlety intersect. To hear her unspool classics about desire and denial in songs like “Untouchable Face” is to witness an evolution. The lyrics of anger are there — “fuck you” is still a prominent part of the chorus — but rather than having its bite of old, it’s more matter of fact and maybe even more sinister. DiFranco played to this standard in front of an enthusiastic crowd at World Café Live at The Queen in Wilmington, Del., on Friday.

She was warmly talkative and playful throughout the night. She said she had time to walk through Wilmington the previous day and despite thinking she had never played the city before, she had the striking realization she had (at the Grand Opera House in 2005). This candor bled through to her declarations of how the slower-paced works of the night were equivalent to calmer life that the current mother of two has. Certainly her social activism has not withered in the least, as is evidenced by her willingness to play such works as “J.”

Throughout the show she seemed quite willing to play requests like “Happy Birthday” for multiple people in the crowd and the brilliant show closer “Shameless.” Smiling from beginning to end while her trademark duct-taped fingers picked tunes new and old, DiFranco demonstrated how much of a force she still is and will continue to be.  

More reviews and photos by Chris Sikich:

• Escovedo @ World Cafe Live
• The Sounds @ Union Transfer
• The Stray Birds @ World Cafe Live
• Okkervil River/Typhoon @ Union Transfer
• Tinariwen @ Prince Music Theater
• Suzanne Vega @ Two Rivers Theater
• Drive-By Truckers @ World Cafe Live/The Queen
• Arcade Fire @ Wells Fargo Center
• Throwing Muses @ Bowery Ballroom (NYC)
• Paul Simon and Sting @ Wells Fargo Center
• Ex Hex @ the Ottobar (Baltimore)

PS: Chris Sikich has a Tumblr.