Photo Gallery: Ani DiFranco at Thalia Hall • Chicago

Brassneck | April 13, 2025

Ani DiFranco

Friday, April 11, 2025

Thalia Hall

Chicago

Recap and photos by Curt Baran

“In a coffee shop in a city/Which is every coffee shop in every city/On a day which is every day.”

It could be argued that these lyrics are quintessential Ani Difranco. They certainly speak to her earliest days of busking and playing those aforementioned establishments in the days before a certain green and white logo was immediately affiliated with caffeinated drinks.

Taken from her song “Little Plastic Castle,” it was also the line that drew one of the biggest audience reactions on her second night of two sold-out performances at Chicago’s Thalia Hall. The genre-bounding native from Buffalo, New York, has always possessed the aesthetic of a left-leaning folkie but has also radiated the adventurous vibe of an anarchic punk rocker.

This I’ll-do-as-I-please approach has served her well as she enters her fourth decade in the music industry. That same attitude was also pronounced across the course of her 18-song setlist, which oscillated through introspection, politics, gender affiliations, lighthearted storytelling, and countless stops along the spaces in between. It was a stark reminder of the Folk tradition that mixing pop and politics is not only warranted but welcomed.

Though she refused to utter the man’s name, there was little mystery as to who she was referencing when discussing how the media was certainly an accomplice in getting Trump elected during both of his terms. It was also a reminder that this is what she has done, and done remarkably well, for the entirety of her career.

Taking political, International, personal, or otherwise informing without feeling preachy or condescending. And as a testament to how great she’s become at her craft (and how desperately in need we are of public pushback), her scathing soliloquy served as the preface for her delivery of a song entitled “Unprecedented Sh!t.” Apparently, once a Folkie, always a Folkie.