There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this gig and Ms. Lauryn Hill herself and I'm still a little bit unsure about where I stand but here's what I thought about the first of her string of UK arena shows.
Prior to coming to the show, I hadn't heard about any support acts but as the ticket said "Plus Special Guests" I was definitely expecting somebody. At first there was a DJ (whose name I didn't catch) and he was actually really good, not interactive at all but it wasn't really necessary - his song selection spoke for itself. However, his set did go on for a long while and towards the end I was beginning to get a bit restless. Because of the length of his set I figured that he would be the only support act and that Lauryn would be on after. I was mistaken. Another DJ then stepped on stage and he seemed to be a bit more of a performer, talking to the crowd, shouting lyrics and cutting the track for people to sing along. Although if I'm honest, he overstayed his welcome. After his first couple of songs he announced that Lauryn and the band would be on very soon and started to get the crowd excited but it wasn't until about 15 songs later that the band actually stepped on stage followed by Ms. Hill. I really can't say I was even the slightest bit surprised that she was late because I'd heard about it happening lots recently but it just meant that I was expecting even more from her.
When she stepped on stage, suddenly no one was tired anymore. Everyone was jumping and screaming and rightly so! She has such a huge presence. She opened with a rearranged version of "Killing Me Softly" and as soon as she started singing everything that happened leading up to that point did not matter - her voice was magnificent. She continued, playing lots from The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill like "Ex Factor", "Everything Is Everything" and "Lost Ones". However, she'd remixed all of the songs to the point where you often couldn't recognise the song until a fair bit of the way in. This was bittersweet because although the remixes were great and showed off her talents both as a rapper and a singer, this just wasn't crowd pleasing at all. At most points the crowd were unable to really sing along because there was no way of knowing what would come next and a few of the songs (I felt) went on for a bit too long. And here's why I'm torn - her band was super talented, she herself was of course abundantly talented however there was not one element of crowd pleasing or attention to the crowd in this show. That can sometimes be good and bad but after seeing a lot of comments after the show, most people were not pleased by this at all.
Either way, she went on to perform some Fugees songs (much to everyone's delight) and actually incorporated an awesome cover of "Jammin'" into the setlist finishing with the amazing "Doo Wop (The Thing)". Aside for the continous mixture of boos and woops the vibe was great and most people seemed to be enjoying it. I just feel the rearranging of the tracks brought the set down overall.
Overall Rating - 7.5/10
Here are some pictures from the night...
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