Ani Tours

The Mullins Center, Amherst, MA

4th April 1998
Setlist Photos Tape
SETLIST PHOTOS YES

Chris's review Sandy's review Kim's review

It was one of the greatest nights of my life. I bought the tickets for my girlfreind for her birthday, but her birthday is about 12 days after the concert, and I had bought the tickets the first day they went on sale, which was on January 31st, and had given them to her the next day at the movies. I had my mom drive me 45 minutes to Amherst, MA to get the tickets. Good thing I bought the tickets so soon, because they ended up selling out the day of the show. and the seats I got us were so great.

The night of April 4th, my dad dropped us both off in front of the Mullins Center at UMASS. We showed up around 6:40 p.m. as soon as we steped out of the car, the cold breeze made us shiver. There had already been a long line forming outside the arena. We had to wait only about ten minutes before they opened the doors. As we were walking in, I hid my camera on my waist, underneath my belt. They were taking peoples tickets and the guards were only checking the insides of peoples jackets, so my plan worked fine.

We each bought an ani t-shirt, and then we went to find our seats. We were so amazed by how close we were to the stage. We watched as people filled up the arena quickly. Soon, 8 o'clock rolled around, and two of ani's friends, chris and kate, opened up for her. About 5 minutes after they were done, ani came on. We were just struck with awe. After she sung her third song, "fuel", she started telling a story, about this band she knows, and how they smoke up before their shows, and "spew" out the lyrics to their songs, and whatever happens, happens. then she said, "well, that was my first attempt of that." and everyone started to cheer greatly. Then she played "little plastic castle".

After ending her show about 2 times, she came back out one more time to play "not so soft", with andy on percussion. The concert went on until about 10:30 p.m.. through her stumbling of lyrics and her giggling of stories, i would say she was pretty blasted. But that with her natural high and her amazing personality, it was one of the greatest concerts i've ever been to. My girlfriend was just overly thanking me and she enjoyed it so much, because ani is not just a folksinger to her, but a hero. And to me, ani difranco has become a bigger part of my life than i thought this would become.

Chris

Well, my friend Denise & I rented a car and drove almost 3 hours to get to Amherst Common, where we were supposed to meet Icarus, Lindsey, Randy, and some other list peoples. Unfortunately, we never got to meet 'em. I don't know if we were at the wrong place or what, but we never found any of them. Oh well. So we spent the day riding around Amherst (very boring town, I have to say), stopped to eat, blah, blah, blah. Then waited outside the Mullins Center for about 2 hours in the freezing cold. We finally got into the building around 7 pm, and the show started at 8. We weren't as close to the stage as I had hoped to be, but I could still see Ani pretty well. The opening act was so-so. I didn't really like 'em, but that's just my opinion. At one point, Ani rushed out on stage to play drums and Jason came out to play bass. Needless to say, the crowd went wild. The crowd at this show was pretty good. Well, sort of. They were really respectful of Ani...they just weren't respectful to each other. I mean, I only heard someone yell "I love you, Ani" once. And I guess she supposedly ended Friday night's show early cuz of all the screaming the crowd was doing. But the crowd last night was cool to her, and really into the music, and she thanked us for it. Unfortunately, certain people in the crowd were really disrespectful to others. There were people who would push their way to the front during Ani's set, even though the people up front had waited in the cold all day to get their places before the stage. And there were these chicks in front of us who lit up a bowl and started smoking pot during the opening act. Ok, fine, whatever. But then during the opening act (right when Ani came out to play drums) one of the girls started to lean back...then she started to fall...soon she was in my arms. Basically, she passed out. She was one of about 4 people who passed out. It was crazy. And none of her friends seemed to care. They just helped pass her over to security, then kept smoking.

So, all in all, being on the floor sucked cuz of some of the people. But Ani was amazing!!! She looked gorgeous--I think her hair was purple (hard to tell in all the lights), and she was wearing brown pants and a little black tank top. She seemed to be in the best mood, and her performance was incredible. I don't know the exact set list, but she played:

I had a blast watching Ani play. She seemed so happy. She told some really great stories, and she performed better last night than the other times I've seen her.

Sandy

The Amherst show was absolutely delicious! Ani was in a great mood, and the crowd didn't shriek as much as I thought they would. There were only 2 audible "I love you Ani"'s (Actually one of them was a "WE") She told many funny stories (surprise surprise) and she rocked the house.

Set:

Encores:

During Gravel, you could really hear that the whole audience was singing along, and Ani noticed it too and stopped singing for a second to hear it)

Too bad this ugly skanky girl with the most painfully terrible wannabecute tight t-shirt was doing this Paula Cole/Soy Bomb Guy/Mongo from SNL interperative-modern dance that I found to be very offensive to me, and very embarassing for her one row in front of me, for the whole concert. Ick!!

But besides that. The concert was marvelous.I couldn't have asked for anything more.

Kim

Ani Tours