shows tend to turn into love fests between performer and artist. While that can lead to sloppy performances with others, DiFranco always justifies her fans’ undying loyalty. Such was the case Saturday night at the . While the show was short (80 minutes) DiFranco packed a lot of punch into it, leaving the crowd begging for more.
At one point, DiFranco stated that the last time she played in Colorado (Folks Festival 2010), she had played her entire newly-released album “Which Side Are You On?” As such, she said she was going to delve into some older material, opening with a fierce “Anticipate.” DiFranco’s percussive guitar attack reverberated the subs with plenty of bass, while drummer Herlin Riley, who has played in the past with Wynton Marsalis, laid down a snappy beat. When DiFranco lit into her classic “Fire Door,” many in the crowd rose to dance along.
DiFranco also played several of her newer songs, including the humorous “Promiscuity,” which got more of a rock edge thanks to Riley’s drumming.
While DiFranco has played with a drummer more often than not over her long career, at one point in the show, she played a few songs solo, saying she “just wanted to prove to myself I can still do it.” One of the songs she played, “Two Little Girls,” was by audience request. DiFranco also mentioned having a “Super Glue incident,” a reference to the fact that she glues fake nails to her fingers to help with her aggressive guitar playing.
Violin player Jeb Bows, who played with opener Gregory Alan Isakov, joined DiFranco on “Present/Infant,” and Isakov added backing vocals on the set-closing “Which Side Are You On?” — a traditional song that DiFranco reworked the lyrics for to make it more contemporary.
On the first encore, DiFranco treated fans to a reworked “Shameless” that perfectly straddled the line between punk, folk and a slightly sultry bluesy rhythm.
Set list:
Anticipate, Splinter, Manhole, Promiscuity, Fire Door, Sunday Morning, Albacore, See See, J, Gravel, Who Is She (And What Is She To You?), TR`W (aka W.O.W.), Two Little Girls, Reckoning, Everest, Present/Infant, Which Side Are You On, E: Shameless, Hypnotized
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Candace Horgan is a Denver freelance writer/photographer and regular contributor to Reverb. When not writing and shooting, she plays guitar and violin in Denver band .
Joshua Elioseff is a Boulder based photographer of everything, a self-professed music junkie and regular contributor to Reverb. Check his photos out on Facebook or his .
