The public meltdown of Lauryn Hill, which has
been apparent for five years, moved further into the realm of the
bizarre Wednesday night during a late-starting sold-out show at
Oakland's Paramount Theatre. The 32-year-old New Jersey singer-rapper's
90-minute performance mixed new, unfamiliar material with hits from a
decade past, most of them rendered unrecognizable by radical new
arrangements and a blaring, poorly balanced sound mix.
Aural audience response was divided between cheers and boos.
Others sat and stood in silence, their mouths agape at what they were
hearing and seeing.
Her hair in an unkempt rust-colored Afro, Hill wore a
green-and-yellow plaid jacket that appeared to be made of wool and an
ankle-length black skirt, looking not unlike a bag lady one might
encounter at a taco truck on International Boulevard. She held a
microphone in her right hand and a black handkerchief in her left,
frequently wiping sweat from her face as she paced the stage.
At one point during the show, the singer tripped and fell,
landing flat on her backside. "That's what I get for wearing high
heels," she said as she rose to her feet.
Only during Hill's version of Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel's
"Killing Me Softly With His Song," which she recorded with the Fugees
in 1995, did her ensemble of 10 instrumentalists (all from the Bay
Area), a DJ and a quartet of female harmony singers become quiet enough
for her voice to cut through clearly. A raspy tone, cracked notes,
clipped phrases and melismas that meandered painfully off pitch
demonstrated just how badly Hill's once-commanding pipes have
deteriorated.
Most of the music, including old favorites such as "Ready or
Not" and "To Zion," as well as newer material recorded locally last
year but reportedly rejected by Columbia Records for being too
uncommercial, was treated to highly syncopated arrangements drawing on
Afro-pop and reggae elements. Few featured the backbeats with which
fans of her older material are most comfortable, but rather a
frenetically throbbing pulse driven by a three-man percussion section
that included former Tony Toni Toné drummer Brian Collier. There's
nothing wrong in experimenting with new rhythms; the primary problem
was in Hill's slipshod presentation.
Some concertgoers who had paid as much as $89.50 for tickets
were requesting refunds even before Hill hit the stage -- two hours and
15 minutes after the concert's scheduled 7:30 start and 80 minutes
after the opening act, Jupiter Rising, had finished its set. This was
an improvement, however, over club shows last summer in San Francisco
and Santa Cruz at which her performances began more than two hours
behind schedule. Other patrons started their exits during her first
song, and the trickle turned to a flow after a speech late in the show
during which the vocalist attempted to explain her new musical
direction.
"When you're young, gifted and black -- and female -- you have
to have a lot of endurance," she said, borrowing from the title of a
song made famous by Nina Simone, a singer who'd had a somewhat similar
meltdown more than three decades earlier.
"I can't fit into a stereotype that makes me comfortable for
you," she added. "If that makes me feel uncomfortable to you, I need to
find some new company."
Hill had drawn a line in the sand. With many of the disgruntled
customers now gone, she continued on to no further boos. One suspects,
however, that if Hill remains on her present unprofessional path, the
company with grow thinner and thinner.
