Folk and indie icon Ani Difranco returned to the New York City Area for a full length performance for the first time since last year, appearing at the Jones Beach Amphitheater in Long Island last Saturday, June 19th. Ani performed for approximately 90 minutes on the "F-Word Tour" (F standing for Funk, and its emphasis in the show). Her set held a mix of old and new numbers. Ani provided a solid twenty song outing, including pieces performed solo, acoustically, and even with a female DJ. Ani even broke out the bongos for a performance of "not so soft", one of Ani's older songs. the age of older songs that were performed, including a stunning rendition of "you had time" (from the LP out of range) and a funky "32 Flavors" belied the power and life which still remains in the songs' performance. The songs concentrated mainly in the new album "up up up up up up up", and in the 1993 and 1994 releases "Out of Range" and "Not A Pretty Girl".

The outdoor Jones Beach Theatre made for beautiful backdrop, the water and setting sky juxtaposed with a woman and her guitar flying all over the stage. Ani and her band (including Jason Mercer on Bass and Julie Wolfe on keys) had great stage presence, entertaining the masse of Ani fans in attendance with their amalgam of fun and folk.

It should be noted that even though Stadium 2 seats were not put up for sale, the show was not a sellout.

Blues and Funk musician Maceo Parker opened up the concert, boasting a full blues band with trumpets, keys and sax. The performance also highlighted the rap styling of Maceo's son, Corey Parker on songs like "uptown up". I'm not one for the blues or jazz, but Maceo's near hour performance was a nice look at some of the best that genre has to offer. The surprise of the night came when little Miss Ani herself decided to join Maceo on one performance. The crowd nearly didn't notice her on the stage, but woke up when she started to speak into the mic. Ms. Difranco decided to get a head start on the festivities and the sneak preview eventually gave way to the featured attraction. .

the set list:
virtue (w/ maceo parker on sax)
little plastic castle (w/brian wood(?) on trumpet)
fuel (she switches, the 3rd and 4th verses around... says "oops" and then fixes her mistake)
2 little girls

*incidentally lpc, fuel, and 2lg were the first 3 songs last year at battery park city when "our asses got downpoured on"

-intro to the band. jason says he got freaked out when he saw a plane fly over jones beach. ani: "jason's still in n-am! don't get freaked out, jason!"-
32 flavors (funked up and bassy)
you had time (woo hoo!)

*ok it gets a bit fuzzy here. these ARE all the songs, but they may be and probably are somewhat out of order =-)
letter to a john ("this is a dance song... well, a lap dance song") -with pulse
angry anymore (julie on the accordian)
hello birmingham (new)
cradle and all (with hat shaped hat right before "you can chain me like a pet" verse)
come away from it
anticipate
coming up (spoken word solo)
shameless (solo acoustic)
not so soft (w/ bongos)
the diner (ends with a long storytime feature how she found dj courtney, that they're both ceo's -"2 on one stage!"- intros to the band "gee, look at the time..."
jukebox

-encore-
to the teeth (new)

The two new songs Ani performed indicate that she is returning to very political platforms. "To The Teeth" and "Hello, Birmingham" center on her reaction to the killing of abortionist Dr. Slepian and the increasingly dangerous issue of children and school shootings. "To the teeth" places responsibility directly on the media, while Birmingham is a desperate plea for the cities like Buffalo and Birmingham to stop engaging in violence to solve their problems. The crowd reacted very favorably to these songs, it was very quiet when she performed these songs, listening to every word spoken and absorbing the message of these new songs. Despite the heavy handedness of these songs, the show carried an enjoyable vibe as the crowd relished one Ani song after another. The enjoyment endured and spilt over after the show for the exiting fans. Everyone was in good spirits, and ready to go home.