Ani DiFranco at the Beaumont

By Robert Folsom

​Ani DiFranco brought more friendliness than fire to the Beaumont Club Friday night. That worked out; her audience brought the brio. DiFranco herself, short-haired and fresh-faced, played a career-spanning set that lacked the attitude her in-your-face lyrics suggest. She even seemed to play some songs begrudgingly. 

Before playing “Dilate,” she told the audience how the song was “from the bad old days,” saying some people come up to her and tell her, “That’s my favorite record,” to which she replies, “I’m sorry.” At least she said it with humor, and that’s how it was received by the 900 or so fans who would occasionally pump their fists to a favorite lyric, such as, “Everyone is a fucking Napoleon,” from — well, “Napoleon.”