Ani DiFranco

I first heard of Hammell On Trial when people kept telling me he was like Bill Hicks. I never listened to his stuff and dismissed him right away as no-one could be anything like Bill Hicks. Hammell opened for Ani DiFranco and proved me right. (Or as he would probably say, 'Proved me motherfucking right, motherfuckers'.) With his scatter gun strumming, he shoots at targets we already see (drugs, celebs, war) instead of revealing truths we cannot. At least the subject of his songs were interesting (telling lies as a father, a national pussy eating competition) though his obsession with Lennon began to grate after a while.

Ani DiFranco, a folk singer / song writer, has an undistinctive voice so her music and performance has to carry her. As a self-confessed 'whiny white girl' she is constantly grinning, like a manic court jester. She tries to funk out her folky songs, but I’m not sure how funky you can get with an acoustic guitar.

Her songs seem as self-obsessed as she is. When she 'talks too long and laughs too loud' you know she’s the person you want to avoid at parties. When she says 'everyone’s a fucking Napolean' you could say this projection is what she truly thinks of herself. I sometimes felt I was in some horrible house party, where the booze had run out and we somehow managed to find ourselves listening to the hostess, playing us her 'new songs'.

As a stage presence, Ani does have a certain warmth and banter with the crowd though. She’s quite funny and obviously loves her job and loves her audience, which could be the main problem. They like her better than they like her music. She’s a performer that is too comfortable and in an artistically bankrupt position of not having to win over anyone anymore.

Photo by Steve Asenjo