Ani Difranco 4/06/2004

Springtime in St. Louis brings many unfortunate things like mold, pollen, and humidity. There are a few pleasant days, but, for the most part, you might spend half your day sneezing while sweat continuously drips from your slick skin. Fortunately for St. Louisans—and those who care enough to find out—springtime also usually brings a certain independent artist to The Pageant. Her name is Ani Difranco, and she, unlike a trip to the allergist, always comes with a smile.

Like last year’s show, Difranco came to wow the crowd as an acoustic act, this time with the help of Todd Sickafoose on upright bass. Unlike last year’s show, this year was not a sellout—but that didn’t stop the crowd or Difranco from having any fun as the dreadlocked singer and guitarist picked through many new, unrecorded songs, as well as tunes from her current release, Educated Guess.

Bouncing around the stage for most of the show, Difranco rushed through “Names and Dates and Times” before finding a groove with a trio of songs from Educated Guess, including “Origami” and “Platforms.” Although not as chatty as usual, she took the time to converse with the crowd, bragging about the Prince show that she attended the night before in downtown St. Louis. She told the crowd how cool it was to be backstage at the Prince show and to have her own room with a sign labeled, “Ani Difranco.” Her smile, which lit up her face for most of the evening, showed the crowd how much it meant to her.

After she was done talking about Prince and how much St. Louis reminded her of her hometown of Buffalo, Difranco experimented with a large chunk of new material that left the crowd in a slight funk. The new material, which sounded fresh to my ears, didn’t quite catch the crowd’s attention and the fans in attendance really didn’t have much energy until Difranco gave them a joyful version of “Untouchable Face.”

Instead of finding comfort in songs that the crowd was familiar with, Difranco, who informed the crowd that she would be recording another album after the tour, couldn’t resist the temptation to practice more new material. Storming through another couple of promising tunes, Difranco finally settled down and ended the set with “Gravel” and “Evolve,” both of which had the crowd going nuts.

For the encore, Difranco treated her friends with “Shamless,” which drew a nice standing ovation. It turned out to be the final performance—and with the show only clocking in at about 70 minutes—Difranco may have left some wanting much more. But as many fans probably already knew, they probably won’t have to wait very long for that to happen; once the flowers begin to bloom in 2005, Ani will be back….probably with another handful of new songs to show off.