csberry | Ani in Gnashville

Had a mid-week date w/ the wife last night. We left H'ville at 4pm to make our 6pm reservation at the Melting Pot in Nashville. The usual splurging was done and done well! Afterwards, we walked over to Municipal Auditorium to see Ani DiFranco doing a solo acoustic performance. They closed a lot of the room off and had us all quite packed into about 1/3 of the auditorium. It was very much the Patoulli Anonymous, "No really, I'm bi, it's not just a phase in college," I'm Pat convention that one might expect. JD and I have seen Ani about 4-6 times, but this was the first time that it was just her and a guitar (no Sara Lee this time around). Ani seemed sad. She joked, as usual, but she asked the crowd to stop singing along so she could be "in the song" when she went into some ballads, during between song banter she talked about having to learn how to write and sing sad songs better "especially lately." I've been to several Ani sites and haven't seen anything that would indicate a recent personal crisis (aside from leaving the band that she's worked with for years, but that's been several months now...).

Anyways, it was another great performance from Ani.