It's been more than 20 years since I last saw Ani DiFranco live. I remember the 2 gigs she played at Copenhagen's Vega venue back in 2001 and 2003 as really great gigs. I was glad when she announced her current European summer tour dates, but they did not include Denmark. I tried searching for tickets elsewhere in Europe. I found some awesome row 2 tickets in Dublin and I bought them without hesitation. I'd never been to Dublin before - or to Ireland for that matter, but there is a first for everything, and Ireland is also known for Game of Thrones so maybe I could squeeze that in too somehow?
I arrived at the National Concert Hall venue quite early. I had a chat with the merch dude about the missing t-shirts for men of a certain size and he promised I could buy the tour poster after the gig. It also turned out that he'd get an original setlist for me after the show. Thanks, man!
The venue is a real music venue and that usually means great sound. It also meant that photography wasn't allowed and that it was not allowed to bring any drinks from the lobby into the The Main Auditorium. The drinks prohibition actually made sense because it would probably have made a mess in there with the narrow seats. It is a seated venue and the capacity is around 1.200. I don't think it was more than half full this evening though.
The support band started at 20:00 sharp and the 2 girls, Gracie and Rachel, played for nearly 40 minutes. Gracie played keys and did most of the vocals. Rachel played violin and a drum-pad and joined in on vocals. They are described as a chamber pop piano-violin duo and I guess that fits well enough. It wasn't really my preferred style of music, but they can clearly play and sing, and the sound was really great in the venue. The support set went by fast. After that there was a short 20 minutes intermission where you could grab a quick drink in the lobby.
At 21:00 Ani and her 3 piece band entered the stage to big applause. Maybe I wasn't the only one who'd had a very long unwanted Ani break? Ani was joined by a drummer, a pedal steel / electric guitarist, and an upright bass player who also played keyboards and pipe organ. Ani and her band entertained us for an hour and 40 minutes.
Ani is still very charismatic, witty, emotional, outgoing, laughing, smiling and she has her full voice intact. It is perhaps a strange choice to go and see a left-wing singer-songwriter who is being very loud about political issues that I rarely agree with at all. She is never-the-less a born entertainer and she is a great musician. So I'll just disagree with some of her views and still enjoy the show. Ani introduced most of the songs and it was interesting to hear what inspired the lyrics to the songs in the setlist. A view I could agree with was the pro-abortion song "Baby Roe" from her 2024 album "Unprecedented Sh​!​t".
Her 3 fellow musicians were very skilled and they often switched between different instruments. When Ani introduced "Dilate" the keyboard/bass player even ran away only to appear above the stage playing the venue's pipe organ. Ani laughed and said it was the first venue that had allowed it and she just loved the Irish attitude of "Well, why not?" when she'd asked for permission to use it. Gracie and Rachel joined the band for 2 songs providing backing vocals and violin on "Revolutionary Love" and "Overlap".
Ani commented on the only half full venue and she said she preferred quality over quantity and the audience loudly agreed. She also hinted at all us old people who actually know her older songs. The crowd was polite but also very focused. There were no blah-blah to hear anywhere and we also joined in singing along on a few well-known songs.
The photo prohibition obviously only worked to a certain extent. I shot some photos and several others did too, but it was kept at a low level. The great acoustics in the venue almost demanded that you focused 100% on the musicians on stage.
The setlist had a lot of newer songs and it didn't contain much of her "funkier" stuff that I really like on her older albums. Of course I would have preferred to hear more of my favorites, but you don't always get what you want. Sometimes you get want the artist thinks you really need instead. We did get a few of the catchier songs too though. Songs like "Little Plastic Castle", "Shameless" and "32 Flavors" really got the audience singing along and rocking in their seats.
Dublin is a great city to visit. It is also very expensive, but so is Copenhagen where I live. Catching Ani live again after all these years was totally worth it going to Dublin for. I really enjoyed the concert from my seat in row 2. Ani is exactly like I remembered her. Older but still a really great entertainer and musician. I also did go on the Game of Thrones Studio Tour the day after. It is a 100 minutes bus-ride away from Dublin in Banbridge, Northern Ireland. What a nice way to combine two great experiences in a single trip to Dublin.
Rating: 
Band: Ani DiFranco
Venue: National Concert Hall, Dublin, IE
Concert Date: 2025-06-22
Support Band: Gracie and Rachel
Setlist:
- Still My Heart
- Do or Die
- Pixie
- Angry Anymore
- You Forgot to Speak
- Two Little Girls
- You Had Time
- Baby Roe
- Simultaneously
- Dilate (featuring pipe organ)
- Little Plastic Castle
- Swan Dive
- The Knowing
- Untouchable Face
- Revolutionary Love (with Gracie and Rachel)
- Shameless
Encore:
- 32 Flavors
- Overlap (with Gracie and Rachel)
Ticket Price (DKK): 412
Ticket Provider: Venue
Content Type: Concert Review
Language: 
Updated: 2025-06-25 13:00
Created: 2024-12-15 16:56
