On a balmy Wednesday in June, Ani DiFranco, the punk-folk and DIY pioneer, brought her 23rd (!) album Unprecedented Sh!t to a packed Royal Albert Hall, supported by her Hadestown collaborator Anaïs Mitchell. It was a gorgeous setting for a night of Americana peppered with a touch of protest (an emerging common denominator of most gigs I attend these days). Ani proudly sipped from her water bottle with sticker saying ‘fuck racism’ between songs, and broke the set list to give passionate speeches about the state of the world.
Dipping to her rich back catalogue released on her own label Righteous Babe, she opened with ‘Still My Heart’ from her album Allergic to Water from 2014, to a huge cheer from the audience. Accompanied by drums, double bass and guitars (including pedal steel, to give the songs the classic folk twang), she lit up the hall with her feminist Americana anthems.
There was an element of bitter-sweetness in the air, with her sound so steeped in the finest Americana reverberating through the regal walls of the Royal Albert Hall, it was impossible to ignore the current politics and Ani remarked how angry she felt in the wake of the recent election at the educated people she knew who decided to simply sit it out. She said that she could sense it was coming and she could feel we (the UK) were in a similar turmoil. The lyrics to ‘Do or Die’ seemed to really resonate with the audience.
Do you ever just wanna give up
Well, me too
Are you shocked by what people get
Get used to
Do you wake up in a cold sweat?
Well, that’s sane
‘You Forgot To Speak’, the first song in the set from the recent album, felt like a natural follow up. But after that we were transported all the way back to 1996 with the title track from the album Dilate. With Ani DiFranco’s guitar tapping, the signature knee kick mannerism and confessional singing, I suddenly realised how she paved the way for artists from the likes of PJ Harvey, Belly and Sleater-Kinney to Billie Eilish and Julien Baker.
Despite the undercurrent of a political turmoil, Ani had incredible banter with the audience and between the title track from 1998’s Little Plastic Castle and ‘As Is’, she reminisced about her time in London when she was 19 (she was disappointed the sirens were sounding a lot more American!), when she would bum around town. She said she often wondered where the friends she made back then were today – to which an audience member heckled ‘I’m here!’ from one of the stalls. She then dedicated the ‘next songs ‘As Is’ to all the friends she left behind and messed up. “Just give up and admit you’re an asshole and I think you’ll find your friends will forgive you” was a piece of advice that really hit home for me.
What I did not realise until that night was that the hit West End and Broadway show Hadestown started out as a folk opera released on Righteous Babe, put together by Anaïs Mitchell who sang the part of Eurydice opposite Justin Vernon’s Orpheus, and she enlisted DiFranco for Persephone, Hades’s vernal goddess wife. This meant that the Royal Albert Hall became a full circle moment for Ani DiFranco and Anaïs Mitchell, who – in DiFranco’s words – showed up one night in one of the dive bars frequented by her and it was the best night, and Mitchell was a “startlingly beautiful animal”. This made for a perfect segway to a few songs from Hadestown (and technically Anaïs Mitchell covers): ‘Our Lady Of The Night’, Persephone’s main song, and ‘Why We Build The Wall’, which again really resonated with the general vibe in the room.
With ‘The Knowing’ we were back to Unprecedented Sh!t, a personal favourite among the new songs that DiFranco finds difficult to play – “like friends you love the most, but they’re the hardest”, another hard truth that really spoke to me, and judging from the many whoops and cheers from the audience – I was far from alone in this.
It was crystal cleat that Anaïs Mitchell was the perfect, if not the only possible opener for this concert, considering their close bond and how interwoven their careers have been. Opening up the night with ‘Real World’ from her eponymous 2022 album, she set the tone pitch perfectly. Her set featured four songs from the self-titled Anaïs Mitchell LP, with ‘Bright Star’ being a standout. She was joined on stage with another guitarist and Ani DiFranco’s double bass player, resulting in minimal yet full sound. Her ethereal stage presence filled the Royal Albert Hall with a light and airy breeze.
Also dipping into Hadestown material, Mitchell performed ‘Wedding Song’ and ‘Flowers (Eurydice’s Song)’ before revisiting her 2012 album Young Man In America for a medley of the two opening tracks – ‘Wilderland’ and the titular ‘Young Man In America’, to finish on a cover of Ani DiFranco’s ‘Gratitude’. Both artists material worked so well together, I don’t think there was ever a possibility that this event could have flown differently.
Sure enough, Anaïs Mitchell (and Josh Kaufman) joined Ani Di Franco for the three encores of her set: a very timely cover of Woody Guthrie’s ‘All You Fascists Are Bound To Lose’, as well as ‘Revolutionary Love’, the title track from DiFranco’s 2021 album, just to finish with the closing track of her 1996 album Dilate – ‘Joyful Girl’. And that’s what she proved to be – despite the undercurrent of worry and anger, Ani DiFranco’s music also brings joy and wonder – alongside the feminist anthems – and it’s that lightness that was most needed in the dark times we seem to be facing.
Ani DiFranco’s tour continues across Europe this summer:
Jun-12 – Antwerp, BE – De Roma
Jun-14 – Rome, IT – Casa Del Jazz
Jun-15 – Ferrara, IT – Cortile del Castello
Jun-17 – Utrecht, NL – TivoliVredenburg
Jun-18 – Dusseldorf, DE – Savoy Theater
Jun-19 – Berlin, DE – Passionskirche
Jun-22 – Dublin, IE – National Concert Hall
Jun-24 – Gateshead, UK – The Glasshouse
Jun-25 – Glasgow, UK – Pavilion Theatre
Jun-29 – Cardiff, UK – New Theatre
Follow Ani DiFranco on Righteous Babe | Instagram | Stream 1-800-On-Her-Own
Follow Anaïs Mitchell on anaismitchell.com | Instagram | hadestown.com