There's a general lie within the music industry that permeates through most people's minds; your greatest music is made when you are youthful and have nothing to lose. While there's a lining of truth to this statement as you make music in an innocent fashion, if an artist is truly great, they grow, evolve and take their audience along for the ride. Just recently I watched Ani DiFranco in a performance that was indisputable and invigorating. DiFranco is one of the most captivating and revealing artists of the last twenty years. She made her mark creating naked soul bearing records year-after-year outside of the record system at a time when no one else was doing it through her own Righteous Babe Records. Even more amazing was her success that followed. Marketers studied what she did, marveled at how she built an audience and most didn't follow her lead because it took too long. After a decade of being on the road constantly, she lured an audience that wouldn't just buy her records but would follow her to the ends of the Earth. In the last few years, music has taken a back seat in her life to motherhood. However, despite her diversion from music, she took to the stage at the Vic Theatre and over ninety-five blistering moments reminded everyone as to why she's one of her generations defining voices.

Opening at 8:20 sharp with "Anticipate" the seated crowd leapt to their feet where they stayed for the entire set. Alone on stage in khaki pants, a white tank top t-shirt and her long hair provided a rejoinder to the Britney Spears of the world. You don't feel unsettled by DiFranco but endeared to her. Her stage was bare except for two amps and a microphone. DiFranco chose to take this trek alone and her ardent string plucking provided more fireworks than most arena rock shows. Her delivery, poise and beat poet voice riveted the crowd as she tore through classics and a series of songs from her still unreleased upcoming record in early 2012. The songs matched up against her bitter protests of love and social angst and showcase maturity. She talked about her mother and how at seventy-eight the two are reconciling old wounds. She also gave some advice, with a smile slyly escaping, about how to never disparage your mother in songs or on the internet how it would come back to haunt you. She then enlightened the crowd with an industrious performance of "Angry Anymore" (from Up Up Up Up Up Up).We look for artists to lead the way and while we're trying to find our path, the dissention and anger is good. But as one ages, reconciliation is an equally important part of the healing and growing process.

She talked about her legacy as a "very angry girl" but as she did compile Canon in 2007, she listened to all her music and thought to herself "there's that anger". Yet she did this all with a smile and a sense of complacency. Not the type of satisfaction that would allow her to give up her craft but someone who is happy with her mission and who she has become. Her assurance was almost disarming because musicians are supposed to be tortured but some of the greatest find ways to break on through to the other side without having their demons swallow them whole. She was fired up for "Manhole" but right before a revelatory performance of "Promiscuity", one of her new songs, she spoke to the crowd and said "Thank you for being my therapists". This one quote sums up everyone's existence as an artist. And yet, it was DiFranco who has soothed souls through her songs. Despite apologizing to the crowd for the lack of new records as of late ("I'm on Mommy time now") when she stepped up to the microphone to sing "Promiscuity" you couldn't help but feel this was one of her most accomplished songs. There's nothing better than growing with the acts you love and seeing them evolve in ways you had hoped but were never quite sure would happen. The song is about taking your life lessons and learning from them. Few artists know how to express themselves when they find pure joy in their life and instead of scolding her fan base as she experiences domestic bliss, she gives them a template as they find their way. Whether we are teens, in our twenties or even our forties, we're all trying to figure out the mysteries of life and what "Promiscuity" does is allow us to make mistakes as long as we learn from them. Another new song "Unworry" had the potential to be a perfect pop song that should be picked up by a reality TV star and watered down, but inside the Vic Theatre it was a philosophical and raw expression of how love can occupy more than misfortune and be something of magnificence. We need reminders of this to find our way in the world without becoming a world-weary skeptic.

Despite her talk about family, she channels her past stridently in her pleading vocals evidence by "Napoleon", done in the 2007 arrangement when she re-recorded to song for "Canon". Watching her on stage you realize there is no barrier between her and the audience. There's no PR person standing behind her telling her she looks better with sunglasses, bleached hair or trying to hold her back from telling us too much. This is Ani DiFranco, the artist whom the 1,300 in the Vic also considered a close personal friend. "You Had Time" was sung in a melancholy manner with the crowd whispering along to every lyric in a song about the fleeting moments of life. "Little Plastic Castle" was done at the request of a fan and to he surprise, she barely had to sing it as the crowd sat there and sung every word to her at the top of their voices. "Swandive" featured a hypnotic weaving of chords. These challenging times define our existence yet at the same time, her words remind us the greatest rewards come from swimming in shark infested waters. "Lag Time" found DiFranco's most zealous playing of the night on her acoustic as she let loose like a thrash shredder. Her guitar playing was spot on the entire evening with syncopated strumming on "As Is" and her best Angus Young plucking on "Both Hands". "Marrow" featured a story about her anger at the state of the nation. Listening to her stories were invigorating because many don't grasp is that the ferocity inside of her is alive and well, but she has more to lose than ever as a mother. Disillusionment is easy, but to stay true to yourself and making your audience believe your every word is greater triumph than she ever could have imagined. A tale about being scared of living life, yet the greatest joys in life come about from taking chances. The stories and most importantly, the emotions continue to pour out of her two decades onward from her start.

At the end of the show, she performed a pair a covers defining her role in the world of music. "Which Side Are You On" was a Pete Seeger cover and in the tradition of great folk singers and she is continuing the tradition speaking the truth and never shying away from discussing unpopular topics in her music. "Angel of Montgomery" was a prayer sung with the greatest concentration conceivable. Her heart-on-her-sleeve lyrics paired up perfectly with these two covers and tie back to the great American songwriting traditions she still embodies to this day. It doesn't matter is she is a wife or mother because her passion was evident throughout the entire show with DiFranco not merely performing but sharing a piece of herself with those in attendance.