To see a show of someone you admire doing something they rarely do it a rare occasion that you just know you have to take all in before you never see it again. Ani DiFranco’s show at the quiet and intimate Chicago Theatre was this kind of show.

Why was it rare…it was acoustic and solo. I started getting into Ani in 1995 when her Dilate album came out and to me she was a new artist compared to Alanis Morissette…but yet Ani had a 5 year career under her belt by then and even having a huge cult fan base that didn’t like that record to much cause it was with a band, taking away from her acoustic ad-lib stylings.

Since then I dived sloooowly into her albums since…from “Up, Up, Up, Up,” “Little Plastic Castles,” “Revelling/Reckoning,” & her two live albums, “Living in Clip,” & the last “So Much Shouting So Much Laughter.”

Those are the albums that pretty much were covered in this show. I’m not that huge of a fan to have sat there writing down the set list…but they all sounded new and great to me. I then saw what those old fans where talking about…her solo stuff is so clear and readable, while the band takes away from the emotion and reasoning.

The whole show Ani had to sit; she only mentioned how she hurt her ankle and didn’t go into how or where…so not having her jump around on stage made you listen more and want to jump around yourself.

The highlight of the night was her poem that I later found on the latest live album…it’s called “self evident”…it left the audience not wanting more…NOT meant in a bad way…but you couldn’t get any better than that.

This show made no into an old fan…I don’t think I’ll enjoy the show as much if I saw her back with the band…there just would be less shouting and no reckoning and that would not be self evident.

--Todd, Chicago - iownu2@yahoo.com