Folk Alliance Conference, Massey Hall, Toronto, ON12th February 1997 |
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Gabe's review
Dan's review
The show was happening at the beginning of the 97 Folk Alliance conference,
and it was done simply to draw attention to the conference. A bunch of
great artists were playing, but all the performances were disappointingly
short. Ani (list everyone else) played a 4-song set (I don't remember what
they were, I'm afraid). Massey Hall is a fairly large venue, and because
there were so many artists playing, Ani fans were a minority (but a loud
one). The set was uneventful, except that during Shameless someone came up
on stage (a folk concert in Canada - to say that security was minimal is an
understatement) and asked if she could dance with Ani. Of course, she said
sure. At some point during the song, the woman took her shirt off. (She
was escorted off at the end of the song.)
All in all, I can only say that I was disappointed. Seeing Ani in a large
venue is almost worse than not seeing her at all, especially when she's
playing such a short set. Ani's brilliant came through despite the
conditions: she cleverly changed a line in Shameless from "they're gonna
wanna know / how we got in here" to "they're gonna wanna know / how you got
up here"...
Gabe
Set included Shameless, Independence Day (prior to release of Little Plastic Castle), an absolutely brilliant version of Woody Guthrie's "Do Re Mi", and a fourth song that escapes me. Also, your reviewer got the lyric change in Shameless wrong. She sang "We want to know how you got up here, and we want to know how you plan to get down." BTW, the woman who jumped up on stage and took off her shirt was probably celebrating the decision made in a Toronto court just that week that overturned a law which prevented women from going topless in public.
Dan