Online Extra: Ani Difranco

After the birth of her daughter last January, numerous activist endeavors and 19 albums under… After the birth of her daughter last January, numerous activist endeavors and 19 albums under her belt, you’d think 37-year-old Ani Difranco would show some signs of wear.

But you’d be wrong. Difranco’s Sunday show at the Carnegie Music Hall of Homestead served as much more than a paramount musical performance – it was also mini stand-up comedy, a political activism springboard and a personal question-and-answer session.

“I like your new hair cut,” shouted a fan from the balcony of Ani’s fresh, short, scissor-chopped locks.

“Oh, thank you, did it myself,” Ani responded with her signature powerhouse voice and ever-present grin. “It was a day off in New Hampshire. I got a little carried away.”

Starting off the set with an old favorite, “Shy,” the energy of the Buffalo native and feminist icon extraordinaire was beyond elevated. The crowd remained seated in their retractable wooden seats and transfixed in Ani’s lyrical and stage genius.

“We’re gonna slow it down so I can do this,” Ani hissed as she pranced across the stage into a hoe-down hop reminiscent of Ashlee Simpson’s “Saturday Night Live” lip-synching impromptu in 2004. Ani began to play the politically charged, spoken-not-sung “Fuel” and drew a thunderous crowd response.

“And I wonder who’s gonna be president, tweedle dum or tweedle dummer? / And who’s gonna have the big blockbuster box office this summer?”

The music centered around newer songs, referred by Ani as “rants,” most of which were untitled.

The standouts were “Sunday Morning” from 2005’s Knuckle Down – complete with an awesome upright bass interlude and a stripped-down acoustic song about her young daughter and the superficiality of appearance and insecurity: “Lately I’ve been glaring into mirrors picking myself apart /