LIVE REVIEW: Ani DiFranco in Somerville, MA (04.20.25)
Despite my decades long music journalism career and being a feminist since I was in elementary school, I didn’t listen to Ani DiFranco back in the day. Now in my middle age, I love and appreciate folk music much more. I just wasn’t a big folk music fan in the 90s. I focused on alternative music, Britpop, indie rock/pop and local Boston bands. A friend and I recently saw the inspiring and bold Ani DiFranco documentary 1-800-On-Her-Own at the Regent Theatre in Arlington so I was really looking forward to attending the feminist icon’s second of three sold-out shows for Unprecedented Sh!t: The Tour at Somerville Theatre.
I know we’re all going through an extremely challenging time right now with the current administration, particularly women and the LGBTQ+ community. People choose to spend their money on concert tickets because they desire connection and community. We want to feel all the feels. We want to be part of something bigger. For an evening, we want to escape our concerns about paying bills, losing personal freedoms and ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine. DiFranco is a prolific writer with interesting things to sing about but the show fell a bit short with a low energy level and an overall lack of emotional connection. I expected to feel much more than I did. Despite some strong songs and solid moments throughout the night, the show was missing something to make it truly memorable. The quiet audience seemed to appreciate her and there were plenty of superfans in the crowd; I’m sure they were going to all three shows.
DiFranco has a connection to the area as both her parents graduated from MIT, where they met. DiFranco herself graduated from Buffalo Academy of Visual and Performing Arts at 16. She’d been legally emancipated at that point. She attended The New School. In 1989, at 19, DiFranco started her own record label, Righteous Babe Records. She’s toured steadily since then as folk singers are known to do and she’s released 20 albums. In 2024, she released Unprecedented Sh!t. In 2021, she released Revolutionary Love, inspired by activist Valerie Kaur’s book, See No Stranger. She performed “Revolutionary Love” during the 90 minute set.
Songs that hit the mark: a jangly and wistful “Angry Anymore,” “New Bible,” with its old Western high noon vibes and the fantastic lines: “You’re going to die way too early/ you’re going to live way too long” and my favorite song of the night, “The Knowing,” one of seven songs she played off Unprecedented Sh!t. It’s a gorgeous song about identity that she published as a children’s picture book two years ago. On “Pixie,” DiFranco happily danced around while strumming the guitar. I loved the dark, New Orleans funereal melody of “Our Lady of the Underground” from Hadestown, the Tony-winning Broadway musical. DiFranco played Persephone on Broadway for six months and Todd Sickafoose, her upright bass and keyboard player, composed the music for Hadestown and won two Tonys for orchestration and best musical.
Before playing “Baby Roe,” DiFranco said: “It’s been really beautiful to see all the people taking to the streets. We need to be here for each other. The stronger we make ourselves, the more badass our party gets.” However DiFranco also said that she doesn’t consider herself a protest singer although the song “Fuel” is included in Rolling Stone’s Top 100 Protest Songs of All Time as well as performing at Pete Seeger’s 90th birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden and releasing the 2012 album Whose Side Are You On? —the title track recorded with Seeger on banjo and backing vocals. I get it that she doesn’t want to be restricted or typecast. But isn’t being a protest singer a positive?
California singer/songwriter Wryn opened the show with an effervescent and infectious charm and low rumbling vocals on pretty, thoughtful songs. They were funny and forthcoming talking about being queer, polyamorous, in therapy and having anxious and avoidant attachment. Honestly relatable. Their album Shapes is out now on Righteous Babe Records.
Featured image by: Anthony Mulcahy
