On the Road Again
Live Reviews:

Lauryn Hill
August 10, 1999
The Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto

To put it quite simply, the Lauryn Hill concert tonight was one of the single best music shows I have ever had the pleasure of attending. Ever.

Lauryn Hill is a magical performer with a unique and special talent, and her performance tonight was as joyous, as positive and as awe-inspiring as almost any I've ever seen. Lauryn Hill is earthy, funny, charming, beautiful, graceful, sincere, and has the voice of angel. If all this wasn't enough, she also has something to say — something worth hearing — something worth paying attention to. As I begin this review, I say with all honesty that I will not be able to communicate with words, exactly how moving and how wonderful this performance truly was. You really had to be there.

After a dark, chilly day that was punctuated with bursts of rain, a large group of people gathered at the Molson Amphitheatre under a blanket of storm clouds that lingered in the sky like a threat. The audience was truly diverse, even for a city as multi-cultural as Toronto. From the middle class and middle aged to b-boys and girls, college rock kids to young children with doting parents, the audience was a testament to the widespread appeal of that startlingly brilliant debut record, the much heralded The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

The evening was started in fine fashion by Toronto rapper Choclair, who took to the stage with fellow MC's Solitaire and Kardinal Offishall. The trio did their best to energize a crowd that seemed glued to its collective seat, with bass-heavy beats underlining their deft vocal layering and lyrical interplay. Though at times they seemed forced to do battle with a whack-ass sound mix that often buried the voices underneath the muddy sound of their DAT, Choclair and crew threw out the props to T-dot and represented on every level. Reworking "Northern Touch"'s infectious hook into a Choclair-heavy remix, the local rappers finally began to win over the crowd. Finishing with Choc's upcoming single off his own upcoming major label debut, these three talented MC's left the stage having whet the appetite for what will no doubt be one bangin' album.

After a brief intermission, it was time for L. Boogie. In front of a backdrop which resembled an Old World map with Africa prominently featured large and in the centre, Ms. Hill's sixteen-piece band took to the stage. That's right, a sixteen piece band, comprised of six back-up singers (three of whom double as a horn section), an MC, a DJ, three keyboard players, two guitarists, a bass player, a percussionist, and a drummer. Ms. Hill walked on stage to a roar from the audience, and slowly, confidently waded in to the sultry soul of "Ex-Factor", then slid right into her love letter to ol' skool hip-hop "Superstar". Two songs into the set, and the crowd was wrapped around her finger. And so was I.

The band was, in a word, phenomenal, sounding every bit like a sixteen-piece band should: full, loud and tight. Never too much going on to distract from the song, the band nevertheless used every trick and tool at its disposal to create a sound that was as ecstatic and as vibrant as music can be. Live versions of songs off of The Miseducation... stayed mostly faithful to the recorded versions, but the band has obviously been given the freedom to play with the parts, allowing a freshness to the music, while retaining the familiarity. The Band also brought with it a strong reggae vibe that remained omnipresent throughout the show, an element of the music that was soaked up by the crowd.

Using Pete Rock's "They Reminisce Over You" as an intro, Lauryn launched into a Troy McClure-esque "You might remember me from the hit songs"-type medley that included a couple of hits from her Fugees days ("Fu-gee-la", "Ready Or Not"), and a few other treats (especially enjoyable was the chorus from Nas' track "If I Ruled The World").

Watching Lauryn Hill, I truly was blown away by the immensity of her talent. This is a woman able to belt out the soul like a young Tina Turner, nonchalantly toss off a rhyme in Jamaican patois, then flip it and rap a verse with a crispness — a sharpness — that puts her in the same league as 2Pac, Rakim, or Q-Tip...and all within the same song. On top of that, she has the charisma and the energy to give a place as soulless as the Molson Amphitheatre the feeling of a Southern Baptist Church in Georgia on a Sunday morning.

After the band was introduced in full, with every member being given the opportunity to shine in the spotlight, Lauryn declared that it was time for the band to take on the DJ in all-out battle. What followed next was truly great, and served to underline what the entire night was really about.

The band threatened to drive the audience wild with the single most hype version of "I Want You Back" I've ever heard outside of the Jackson 5's original. The DJ counterattacked by dropping hot licks off of some still dope ol' skool tracks (including Prince's "When Doves Cry") as well as dope beats still playing in the clubs, and was loudly rewarded by the crowd.

Lauryn led the band in a retaliatory strike with a joyous version of Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke", and so it went. The battle ended with the DJ cuttin' and scratching like Jazzy Jeff, flipping his T-shirt up over his head without missing a beat, while Lauryn followed by leading the band in a reworked DJ-bashing version of TLC's "No Scrubs".

Over the course of the evening, Lauryn and the band entertained with the Blues, Soul, Jazz, Modern R&B, Gospel, Soca, Reggae and hip-hop music. Like the battle, like The Miseducation..., the entire show was truly just a celebration, a celebration of Black music past and present.

There are so many more things I could write about: Lauryn picking up an acoustic guitar to perform a short song on her own about her children — the beautiful, and moving performance of "To Zion", perhaps the most glorious song ever written about motherhood — the wild reaction prompted by ass-shakers "Doo Wop (That Thing)" and "Everything is Everything". But as I said from the beginning you really had to be there.

You just really had to be there.