Ani DiFranco, (January 30th, Palais Theatre)

Despite owning 16 of her recordings, I had never seen Ani DiFranco live before. I'd had a desire to for awhile, but my interest waned recently after her more muted recordings Red Letter Year and Educated Guess (and my lack of enthusiasm for the latter album meant I skipped Knuckledown and Reprieve). But Ani's an artist who best show cases her work in a live setting. Recording does no justice to seeing her jump around on a stage, playing her guitar like a percussion instrument and filling a 2000 seat venue with her big voice. So I was pleased to see her play and not at all disappointed with the musical offering she made.

The show opened with Shy, a crowd favourite where percussion drowned out the melody, making it a different song all together from the version on Living In Clip. Indeed, rhythm was the essential element underpinning the entire performance, due to Ani's playing and the selection of musicians supporting her. There were songs from the new album peppering the set, all of them made more interesting with the talent of the live musicians- her drummer, percussionist/vibes player and a cellist who seemed to be playing the bass lines. We heard Hurricane Katrina-themed Red Letter Year, Alla This, Emancipated Minor, Present/Infant and a song about labour titled Landing Gear. There were songs from earlier albums like Half Assed, a brilliant version of Dilate which stayed true to its original angsty unrequited mood, another personal favourite in Little Plastic Castle, the cruisy As Is, Two Little Girls and set closer Shameless which had the crowd on its feet. Just because Ani's apparently 'happy' with a husband and baby, as she pointed out in an aside about recent questions from journalists, doesn't mean she can't still rock out with angry and angsty songs from her earlier repertoire.

We also heard some new material- the song written for President Obama titled November 4, 2008, a song about 'balance', consumerism and the environment, plus the 'wedding present' she gave to her husband, all of which should form the basis of a new album since they were all great tracks. The encore was short but returned to her older music. First up was Evolve from the album of the same name, followed by a surprising yet pleasing choice of closer in Overlap from Out of Range .

The Palais was incredibly stuffy and I can't criticise Ani under the conditions for not playing a longer set. With such a huge back catalogue there are other songs of hers I'd love to hear live- stuff from Revelling/Reckoning, more from Evolve, Out of Range, Both Hands and Untouchable Face. But there's time for those at the next gig she plays here. Hopefully it won't be too far away.