Photo courtesy of BrooklynVegan.com
Last week there was a last-minute miracle in my life -- Ms. Lauryn Hill returned to a semi-consistent tour schedule (?!) with about six dates in February, and performed at Boston's House of Blues Thursday night. I only found out about 3 nights before. The web world was buzzing that she'd been showing up VERY late and was a "wild card" as far as the music was concerned. I worried a little, but didn't skip a beat to buy a ticket. Her show at The Wang in 1999 was one of the best in my life. I think a lot of people had the same last-minute notification about this because Thursday's show sold out the day-of.
I should have never doubted Ms. Hill.
My friend Ilana and I walked in just one minute before Lauryn was entering the stage with an explosive energy over booming DJ's at 9:45 p.m. (not so late as I thought). Her rearrangement of Miseducation was on fire -- a big band layered lots of funk, rock and old school soul over the melodies that we all know. She sped through the lyrics of the fastest Miseducation songs like Final Hour and Lost Ones with an unbelievable perfection and articulation. The crowd's jaws were dropped. It took us like 3 years to learn those lyrics at regular speed, now she's smoking any chance of us singing along. Her ballads of course, were also gorgeous, fluid and yet, often became rocking and loud midway through as well. She included just about anything you could want from her past lives in the Fugees and in her brief solo career, all in a bigger, better, revisited kind of way. I really, really, really hope that one of these few February concerts were filmed or recorded for release. And I hope she starts headlining a few tours this year, she could really move a huge crowd.
Only bummer was I didn't bring a camera (you can never quite capture the magic, anyway). People snapping distant photos of her on their iPhone amidst the intense purple lighting will barely get a faint glimpse of how remarkable it really was. But the above picture from Dec. 2010 is just what she looked like, including the furry little vest and arms of jelly bracelets: bad ass.
"you could get the money, you could get the power, but keep your eyes on the final hour"
- Lauryn Hill