For me, going to a concert, or listening to music, is all about EXPERIENCING.  The reason we love music is because of how it makes us FEEL.  How can we be feeling anything at all if we are spending all of our brainpower trying to get a half-way decent photo of the lead singer striking a pose – so we can upload it immediately to Facebook, text it to our friends, and have it in our permanent digital libraries, so we can then later be nostalgic about a moment we weren’t present for to begin with? (I confess to my own singular transgression in this regard, however – I DID make a brief Facebook post announcing my arrival at Terminal 5 last night before the show started, so I’m no saint either, I suppose!).

I’ve been going to concerts regularly for over 20 years, and as smartphones have become more ubiquitous in our culture, I’ve watched the audience participation go from active and engaging to detached and self-absorbed.  It seems like, these days, we are more preoccupied with the IDEA that we are at a show, and our ability to instantaneously tell our social network what we are doing (and how cool/interesting/hip it makes us), than we are with actually BEING at the show.

Because of this, when I become famous, I will ban cell phones at my show.  Completely.  As in, you have to leave them at the door completely.  And not because I am an old Nazi bitch, either, but because I want to offer my fans the opportunity to experience music from a pure place, to give them an inductive experience of how much more wonderful experiences can be if we just allow ourselves to be immersed in them.  And perhaps it’s a little selfish, too – when I thought of the band last night, or any band, staring out at a sea of disengaged fans who were looking at the view they were capturing from their Iphones instead of up at the stage, I thought about how I would feel if I were them.  Because if I were up there, I would WANT to connect with my audience, because that’s why I’m there to begin with.  It’s why I do what I do.  And how can I connect with an audience that’s not really there?

I have seen Ani perform perhaps over a dozen times over the past 18 years, yet to me, her shows never get old.  At last night’s show, her bubbly, rambling between-song banter was just as entertaining as the focused, passionate delivery of songs that span her prolific canon of albums.  Even the songs that I don’t know, or don’t really love in recorded form, came to life in a remarkable show of what one voice and one guitar are capable of.  I started off the evening slightly disappointed that she didn’t bring her band along for the ride, but by the second song, Manhole, I was sold.  In many ways, the absence of other instrumentation really allowed Ani to display just how extraordinary – and powerful – her guitar playing is.

Ani is known for her leftist political diatribes and commentary onstage, and last night was no exception.  As much as I disagree with some of her premises, her earnest and thoughtful attempts to enlighten her audience were impressive.  I admire her fervor and her willingness to express her perspective.  She is a natural leader – which is most likely why she has, though never eliciting the backing of major record labels or traditional distribution, a loyal – hell, rabid – fan base.  It is evident that she understands the potency she has a role model, and is taking full advantage of that position, with the best of intentions.  It would be great if more performers were aware of this fact, and conducted themselves accordingly.

Ani Difranco is one of my favorite performers in the world.  She is passionate, expressive, joyful, intense, uncompromising, talented, beautiful, and rare.  She is a true example of all I hope to become someday.

(video is of a song she played last night, though the video itself is from a couple of weeks ago at a show in California)

This past weekend, she played a wonderfully intimate show at the Steamer No. 10 Theatre in Albany with another local artist, Bryan Thomas, and I was fortunate enough to attend.   At the end of the show, she and Bryan did a beautiful duet of Joni Mitchell’s “Case of You”.

Check out Rosanne at rosanneraneri.com, and enjoy the video….

It is a shame that only 450 people got to witness last night’s event at the Egg, a show where Joan and her band took the audience from foot-stomping blues to tender, gentle, and often sexy love songs.  On stage, she is joyful, confident, and communicative, both with her band and with the audience; she seems genuinely happy and grateful to be doing what she is doing.

While most of the set was made up of the cover tunes that make up her new album, Bring It On Home, she made each song her own.  She took on Slim Harpo, Ike Turner, and Otis Redding songs as if she had been singing them all her life, and got the unfortunately older crowd on their feet several times (I say “unfortunately” not as a judgment, but more as a comment to the fact that I truly believe that if younger people were to have attended the show, they would have been equally blown away… As it was, at 35, I was possibly the youngest person in attendance).   To me, however, the best part of the night was when she performed some of her own, as-yet unreleased songs (“This Is Where We Start” is the video I’ve included here).

Joan Osborne is one of my favorite performers in the world, and last night she demonstrated, yet again, why she is.