Ms Lauryn Hill @ Birmingham Academy – 23rd September 2014
After reports of booing, disgruntled fans at her London gig earlier this week, it seems many people were not expecting much from tonight’s Ms Lauryn Hill gig. The former Fugee was reportedly over an hour late on stage and, when she did finally appear, she reworked many of her songs to the supposed disappointment of the masses. So, I was more than curious to see how she fared in Birmingham.
By 9:45, 45 minutes after she was due on stage, Ms Hill was still a no-show, and it seemed we may be on track for another let down. She eventually saunters onto the stage at 9:52 looking supercool in a wide brimmed hat and big smile. She gives no explanation for her lateness but thanks the crowd for coming out tonight, before immediately bringing the funk, ably assisted by her quite brilliant backing band.
Early signs that she’s reworking some of her hits begin with Everything Is Everything which is almost unrecognisable, except for the lyrics. It actually sounds great in this new guise, but it’s easy to imagine why fans, many of whom are undoubtedly seeing her live for the first time, would prefer to hear the version they know and love. The crowd goes crazy as soon as Lauryn begins the rap and it’s clear to see that she’s lost none of her skills when it comes to delivering a rhyme.
For the first few songs, she seems slightly distracted, frequently looking to the side of stage as if she’s unhappy with the sound she’s hearing through her monitors. It’s hard to know for sure what was going on but it does cause an obvious disconnect between the performer and her audience. Eventually though, she seems more content and the show begins to have more impact as a result.
A mid-set section sees Ms Hill perched atop a stool with acoustic guitar as she takes things down a notch. This section shows off her singing voice beautifully, but does seem to go on just a tad too long.
The real highlights are saved for the second half of the night. The pace noticeably picks up and the band seem to spring to life, dancing around the stage as Lauryn start dropping hit after hit.
“Where my Fugee fans at?” she yells, receiving a predictably deafening roar before a medley of gems from the Fugees’ back catalogue including the stone-cold classic that is Ready Or Not which has the almost-full venue dancing and singing along in unison. Killing Me Softly sounds as blissful as ever and, once again, showcases Hill’s crystal-clear vocal once more.
We’re then treated to a medley of funked-up Bob Marley covers where Hill is visibly having a ball up on stage, and her fans are right there in the moment with her.
80 minutes after she started it’s Doo-Wop (That Thing) that truly steals the show and ends the night on a party vibe. No reworkings here, just an R’n’B classic delivered by one of the genres greatest performers. She thanks the crowd once more and waves goodbye. No encore. No encore needed. Not a perfect performance. There were moments where she seemed disconnected from her audience. A couple of interludes where she disappeared from the stage for no apparent reason. But ultimately, this was far more than any of us expected and I, for one, loved it.
Review – Steve Gerrard
Photos – John Dent
I’ve never heard such an abysmal P.A / sound system. Couldn’t make out a word of the lyrics and the bass particularly just swamped everything else, We were right by the sound engineer who seemed to be doing little if anything to correct things. A real shame as to be fair the band and Ms. Hill seemed to be putting much more into it than we’d been led to believe went down in Brixton.
Still, worst gig I’ve been to due to the sound issues, others said exactly the same coming out. Lauryn Hill seemed to put in a decent performance,, but half of me always had my eyes on the sound engineer wondering if the guy even knew how to better EQ the thing. Due to the big band nature of her band it just all bled into a muddy dirge mostly, a great shame – but contrary to previous reviews I thought it was primarily the venue’s fault.