Ani DiFranco – Trust (DVD Video Concert)
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: D Concert: B
Ani DiFranco was on her “Vote Dammit” tour when she
decided to do a DVD of one of the appearances.
The result is Trust, from a May 11th and 12th
2004 concert from Club 9:30 in Washington D.C., which is appropriate for being
so political. Of course, DiFranco has
always been uncompromisingly so, but it is a living approach to being realistic
for her. One of the only artists to
have her own very successful record label, Righteous Babe Records, she was one
of the first to buck the big labels long before the Internet became the popular
alternative to either stream, download or sell music product. The songs here include:
1) Educated
Guess
2) Origami
3) Modulation
4) Coming Up
5) Gravel
6) Tip Toe
7) Phase
8) Platform
9) Swim
10)
God’s
Country
11)
Anticipate
12)
You Each
Time
13)
Swan Dive
14)
Knuckledown
15)
Angry
Anymore
16)
Manhole
17)
Little
Plastic Castle
18)
Grand
Canyon
19)
Evolve
20)
Shameless
21)
Callous
Obviously left of center, she is a fine singer/songwriter,
but especially of the Folk tradition of Pete Seeger and the definite successor
to Joan Baez in this respect. She may
not be the biggest woman in music, but she is one of the most important and
having a DVD-Video of her in action is a nice addition to being able to access
the artist and her work. This is not
her first DVD either, but is one she hoped would capture an explosion of youth
voting and it instead becomes a record of a failed campaign to help the
country. At least she is
uncompromisingly good here, with the program running just over 80 minutes long.
The 1.78 X 1 image is not of the highest fidelity and is
letterboxed only, so expect limits. The
sound fares better with Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo and slightly better 5.1 mixes,
which are not bad, but still seem to miss the mark in some way. There are also more spoken parts than
expected, but absolutely no extras, unless you count all the political parts.
- Nicholas Sheffo
