had a wonderful time last night. thanks again to jambands.ca for the tickets! TONS of new songs. her performance was a lot more polished than Ive ever seen, and it had a bit of a jazzy feel to some of the arrangements. always with a slightly different band, this time Ani had a female drummer, and guys on stand-up bass, and xylophone, who worked really nicely together. the rather laid-back dykey crowd was great too. kudos to the theater as well for the new seating with loads of leg room. a guy named Buddy Wakefield opened the show. he's a "slam poet". ever walk into a room and not know what the fuck is going on? that was last night. he was already on stage when we arrived, 'slamming' i.e., screaming in rhyme at the audience. was very disconcerting and not what I needed after having just prepared for the show on the walk in. after his set, Elizabeth May, the leader of the Green Party of Canada, came out and gave an interesting, but preachy speech with a couple of poinant moments that seem to inspire the crowd. overall, a very fun night. thanks! edit to add: they were not allowing photographs last night and staff politely asked people to refrain. it was REALLY nice not having to see a hundred tiny blue screens floating in the air, distracting the view of the performance, especially in a sit-down theatre. i dont mind the occasional quick camera click, but most people nowadays seem to have cell phones that require 60 seconds of manipulation to take one pic, and the lucky folks behind them get to see them fiddle with that damn blue screen throughout the show. ban them all, i say. [/rant]