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player ready...“Little Plastic Castles,” which Ani DiFranco performed as the encore of her sold-out concert at the Auditorium Theatre Saturday night, is set in the ultimate folk singer haven, the coffee shop. But while DiFranco certainly shares the progressive politics and cultural sensibility of folk singers past, instead of their mellow vibe her music always has been filled with the overcaffeinated jitteriness of the Starbucks era.
DiFranco is undeniably a dynamo; her intensity and energy have been crucial to the 34-year-old Buffalo native’s rise to cult stardom over the past 15 years. Her sleeveless vest displaying toned biceps, DiFranco lunged at and from the microphone and bobbed and weaved across the stage during her set as if she were going 12 rounds with Hilary Swank.
It was easier to admire her passion, though, than her songwriting as DiFranco mixed songs from her new “Knuckle Down” CD with material drawn from her vast catalog of annual self-released records. As she addressed her trademark themes — female power and vulnerability, the intersection of American political and business corruption and tortured relationships — her stream-of-consciousness lyrics came in torrents joined to skittering melodies.
Whether playing intricate, funk-indebted riffs or strumming power chords with punk fury, DiFranco played her acoustic guitar with an aggressiveness Pete Townshend might have admired.