righteous

ok, so the ani concert. i felt that deserved it's own entry.

bren and i did very well for time. we arrived at 7:30 (the doors opened at 7). we got pretty good seats, fourth row... way over by the wall, but that was ok with me.

the crowd was really interesting. it was full of great people watching potential but the view would've been better from a balcony so we didn't get to observe much. the hall was filled with 90% women, and of those, i would guess at least 50% were lesbian. i couldn't help but think about ani's decision to marry a man after so many years being known as bisexual and sometimes thought of as lesbian herself. i can see why it would feel like a betrayal. being married to a man and having a baby makes her seem really conventional in comparison to her past experiences. she actually sang a song about looking back on the time when she slept with everyone from her now perspective of not doing that. she seems really in love and connected with her partner, it's really charming, enchanting in a way. although she didn't really talk about that part of her life or her baby.

the opener was unknown to me and bren. when she first came out i assumed she was an up and comer, but after a large percentage of people cheered in familiarity i wondered if perhaps she was a queer and as a result known to the queer community. turns out i was right. i quite liked her stuff, she was solid and there was a level of professionalism that is often missing in openers. her name is melissa ferrick if you're interested in checking her out.

ani was great. i remember the feeling of seeing her on stage and it truly hitting me that ani difranco was standing before me in the flesh. i was a little in shock for the first song or two. i love how familiar her voice is, and how i knew it was her from hearing her talk and laugh. i know... i realize she wouldn't send an impostor or something, but it's still neat to be able to recognize her that way. she has this great spunk to her. the way she moves around and lifts her knee in the air when she plays. she seems really comfortable in her own skin, i really admire that. and it makes her very compelling to watch, i was always curious about what she'd do or say next.

she had 6 guitars. after each song and man would come from off stage and give her a new one then walk away again. all her guitars were wireless which really intrigued me. i'd never seen wireless guitars before, but i figured they can make a lot of things wireless, so why not guitars?? each guitar was different, although there was two similar - you could tell them apart because one was more damaged than the other. it seems she doesn't like pick-guards, because none of her guitars had one. she wore picks or something like it on each finger.

there was a whole band with her. they were solid folks. a lot of the songs were new, which was what i expected. ani has written hundreds of songs, and released 35 albums. pretty impressive. bren knew more songs than me, which is understandable because she's been a fan for about 10 years longer than me. i didn't mind, i loved all her songs anyways. i think the whole a lot of insight.

it was a great show. i hope we get another chance to see her, i'd like for b to see her live at some point. he's not very familiar with her music, but i think he'd really appreciate her guitar skills.

we got home around 12:40. in time for me to go to bed and get up sufficient sleep for work the next day. i'll post 2 of my 3 pictures later.

you can doubt anything,
if you think about it long enough.