Customer Reviews

Ani Di Franco - Trust

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

At last, all us rabid fans, have our Ani DiFranco concert dvd. I was extremely excited about this release, as I'd seen clips from the RBR website, and delighted to find it as a Christmas concert. However, I popped it in my laptop and was inexplicably let-down. The dynamic camerawork from Render's song selections has been replaced with an odd "documentary" style film-making which gravitates between grainy images and stark clear images, often in the same song. The camera also veers wildly away from Ani, choosing instead to focus on details of the stage: her urn, her cellolist's big toe, a random person in the crowd ... you get the idea. Ani alone is compelling to me, and I want to be right up with her, so I can truly recreate my concert experience. However, this dvd does not do that, not for me. I felt strangely detached from the songs as I watched, because Ani is filmed from a side angle, an angle no audience member would ever actually see from. To try to understand my disappointment, I popped in Melissa Etheridge's Live and Alone dvd, and immediately spied the difference. Trust holds me back from the action, away from Ani, as though I were a voyeur, not a devoted fan. Live and Alone puts the audience member immediately in Melissa's passionate playing; you feel as though you're there.

From a performance standpoint, the concert couldn't be better. Precise, passionate, clear singing - but to quote Ani herself, an "almost too perfect" performance. She seems to be going through the motions here - she's singing her heart out, but not with the wonderful energy I'm accustomed to in a live performance.

I even miss the Ani chatter, a staple of any real DiFranco show. Personally, I would have preferred if she'd picked one single performance, not culled it from two nights. Some of the song changes are abrupt and off-putting.

In brief, it's lovely to have genunine Ani concert dvd and I enjoy the song selection, but this feels like a trial exercise, a warm-up to actually capturing the true Ani live experience on film.

I didn't start out an Ani DiFranco fan. I'm a middle-aged, fat, heterosexual man living in Chicago for 25 years - not exactly the type to fit her typical fan profile. But I picked up one of her CDs some time ago, out of curiosity, and I really liked it, so I picked up a couple more. Then I bought her DVD "Render" and the more I learned about her music, the better I liked it and the more I came to respect her as an artist.

And I do mean 'artist' - not just a musician or performer. She's the real McCoy. In fact, I think she's one of the best American artists living and working, today. And I highly recommend this DVD "Trust". It's pretty much a concert documentary and reflects her current show as she is performing it around the country. I know, because I went to see her at the Vic in Chicago just last month. It's an excellent show and the reason for it is that she's stripped it down to it's essentials. No drums, no keyboards, no horns, - most of the performance is just her and her acoustic bass player, Todd Sickafoose. I really like this DVD because I get to see her for what she is, and to me that means as an artist who writes words and music and performs them for an audience. It's entertaining, but it's not just entertainment. It's art. It's one person opening herself up, sharing and articulating her thoughts and experiences with her audience because she knows that they think and feel many of those same things, and that they appreciate having someone express them with such skill, and courage, and honesty, and insight.

Check out Ani DiFranco, and this DVD "Trust". Even if you don't think of yourself as someone who would like Ani DiFranco, you might be very surprised. She's the real thing.

I love Ani. She is my favorite recording artist of all time, putting the Beatles back to second place. Her between-song interaction with the audience is fun too.

I liked that she has Dennis Kucinich on this dvd. I am a big Kucinich supporter and have his bumper sticker on my car. I am one of the few people on earth to own a Kucinich baseball cap.

Now that you know that I'm on my knees worshipping Ani DiFranco, I have to say that I wasn't thrilled with this dvd. It wasn't all that interesting. By the end of it I was doing something else, not watching it, just listening to the songs.

There was almost no interaction with the audience. I came away from it with the feeling that my connection to Ani is purely intellectual and musical, and that if I met her in person there would be no connection at all. Still, I had to marvel at how she plays the guitar so well while singing so well, and is so damn brilliant.

I think the part I liked best was when she was dancing with her friend.

I went to graduate school in Rochester, N.Y. (a neighbor 80 miles to the east of Ani's home city of Buffalo) in 1994 and majored in music performance. Rochester was already very plugged in to this independent poetic princess and her passionate, percussive guitar playing. I was handed a copy of "Puddle Dive" from a neighbor weeks after arriving and "TRUST" me, I have ALL of her stuff. I became a fan right way and I am a true Ani fanatic. This DVD is absolutey wonderful. I highly recommend it!As well as a treat for the eyes, this DVD is a treat for the ears. It is a fantastic playlist, the staging/instrumental simplicity and the creative filming is what makes it so incredibly beautiful to me. The addition of the bassist Todd Sickefoose added greatly to the richness and energy of this performance also. Listening to Ani reaches me in many ways, but seeing her perform like this (which I prefer) touches me in ways that seeing her with my ears can never reach.

Let me start this review by stating several facts about myself. I think that ADF is a very talented and beautiful artist. I am new to her music, but very moved by her person and some of her music.

I perceive her to be an honest and sensitive soul who attempts to combine the garbage and beauty of the world in an attempt to make a new art form.

Is it possible? Yes? No? You tell me? Because I cannot figure it out. And I wonder if Ms. DiFranco can figure it out.

I think that this DVD gives a lot of insight into the artist. Into her politics. Into her followers and audience. Into her politics.

But in the end, I perceive that for this DVD, her message overpowered the art.

The video is a mixture of artistic, amateuristic, and well filmed material. The sound is generally decent to good. The music choices tend to be high powered. Her performance tends to be high powered and in your face. Did you get my message? Then let me repeat it for you! Did you get it now? Yes, then let me repeat it again?

In the future, I suspect that this will be a DVD which sits on my shelf unwatched.

But that is me.

When Ani DiFranco released her 1st DVD "Render" a few years ago, it was criticized by some for too little music and too much extraneous "behind the scenes" footage. This DVD goes to the other extreme, and is 95% concert footage. There is little of Ani's famous between-song banter or audience interaction. The behind-the-scenes footage consists mainly of rehearsals with Todd Sickafoose (Bassist) and Tony Scherr (guest guitarist), and one scene with politician Dennis Kucinich. This DVD (in stereo & 5.1 surround) excels as a straightforward concert film, although I would quibble with the director's use of "grainy" shots.

Ani looks as buff as I've ever seen her, with rippling biceps and a very intense demeanor. As such, some reviewers have complained that they miss the bubbly persona evident on her famous live album Living In Clip. I disagree -- Intense Ani is just different, but not worse, than Bubbly Ani in my opinion. True, she doesn't look like she's having much fun for most of her performance (shot over 2 days) but her actual performance was crisp, sharp and on target. Her rapport with bassist Sickafoose was evident, although I miss her performing with drums.

Some reviewers say they listen to the DVD but don't watch it because it's boring. However, when this concert was filmed, many of the songs were new to the audience (from the album Knuckle Down which was released the following year) or had just been released on her Educated Guess album. In spite of the unfamiliar material, the audience's attention was literally transfixed and hanging on every note, just as mine is everytime I watch this DVD. It's worth the price just for her performance of the fantastic poem Grand Canyon.

I'm a really big fan of Ani Dr Franco. She's an awesome musician and obviously a great live performer. So I keep wanting a dvd of her in a live performance. I bought "Render" first and now "Trust" and unfortunately got the same thing both times. I got "ART"...instead of art. Trust (like Render before it) is much less a real performance tape than some kind of self-indulgent excercise by someone (Danny Clinch and Ani I guess) in "filmmaking". Trust might be a little better that Render in this regard..but not much. After one viewing I'm now like the other reviewer of Trust who just listens to the music playing without watching. It's too frustrating to watch because what I really want to see is Ani Di Franco singing and playing the guitar...not politics...not "ART"...and not "CINEMA". Ani, Please try again and just PLAY!

I live in a remote area and have wanted to go to an Ani DiFranco concert for awhile. This DVD has 20 performances, so it will do for now. The concert is well filmed and didn't let me down. Most of the songs are new to the crowd, so they play close attention, and on the songs that are already popular (Gravel, Little Plastic Castle, Shameless) the crowd sings along.

There's a little of this stuff, too, besides Ani on stage: some shots of Ani and Todd rehearsing the songs, the people waiting outside before the show, dramatic interpretations of the songs in sign-language, some talk of politics, brief shots of her guitars back stage, the soundman, etc. None of it distracts you from the actual concert, though.

Minor detail important for those outside the North America: DVD IS ALL REGIONS, NOT REGION 1 AS AMAZON INDICATES.

My friend offered to buy for me that other DVD of Ani and I declined the gift for the simple reason that I cannot seem to appreciate when songs are cut roughly by commentaries and such a la alanis morissette style.

So when I found out this yr that she released a full blown concert I was definitely excited! Some songs are still cut up BUT it's bearable!

This is a great DVD and it's about time she releases something like this!

Never thought I'd appreciate the spoken word poem she performed but I gotta say it's quite insightful.

Also her performing little plastic castle only on her acoustic guitar after hearing the full band version numerous times was quite delightful.

this is good people!

I am writing a review without even seeing the video but I was at the actual concert and let me tell you you are in for a treat. Ani Difranco is such a wonderful artist/poet/musician that you can't go wrong with this DVD.