LIVE: Lauryn Hill
Tuesday July 30, 2002 @ 05:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

Hummingbird Centre For The Performing Arts
Toronto, Ontario
July 28, 2002
by Vanessa Bruno


Wow. If I could sum up an entire show in one word, it would be this one: Wow.

I can’t say I expected much from this show. I don’t like going to shows with no opening act because it seems rushed and impersonal. But with Lauryn Hill, I should have automatically expected more. With the release of Unplugged Version 2.0, an all-acoustic solo album by the ex-Fugee member, there was a lot of new material she could work with. I didn’t particularly like this new album because it seemed to drag on, but after seeing her live, it gives a whole new life to the recording.

There has never been a more personal and emotional show in the hundreds I’ve been to. I would be confident to bet that there hasn’t been one, period (except when she first performed these songs for the album.) The venue was perfect for this kind of show. Anything she said was heard. If she coughed, we heard. If she giggled, which she did a lot, we heard. And likewise, when someone in the audience said something to her, she could hear just fine.

"WE MISSED YOU LAURYN!" someone yelled.

"I can tell, you’ll clap for anything," was her response, laughing. A cell phone went off and the crowd freaked out and yelled at the person to turn it off. This crowd was giving her their full attention and respect, which is easily what she deserved.

The crowd’s reaction was huge to "Ex-Factor" and "Zion," the two songs from the Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill album, with the rest being new material. It didn’t matter though. In fact, she could've sang "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and I would've still gotten shivers, which I had the entire show, in between tears in my eyes.

As flaky as this sounds, this woman’s talent on stage was like nothing I had ever seen before. The emotion in her voice, the raw sound of this musician and her guitar was more than I could handle without dropping my mouth open in awe. I attended this show alone because none of my friends wanted to spend between $50 and $80, but if I knew I know now, I would have paid for them to be able to see the show I saw. Go see Lauryn Hill live, please!