The Arcade Fire and Mumford and Sons weren’t the only Jazz Fest artists to play Coachella last weekend. Ms. Lauryn Hill (Saturday, May 7, Congo Square Stage, 5:25 p.m.) returned to performing as well. She has yet to return to punctuality – she was 20 minutes late – but despite a few shaky elements, she won over the crowd. According to Charley Rogulewski at Spinner.com:
While Hill stepped out of the music limelight the last decade, and is only slowly beginning her comeback — and what fans hope will lead to ‘Miseducation”s long-awaited follow-up — Hill’s commanding croon has appeared to have lost its way. Instead, an enthusiastic sing-shout delivered at 200bpm replaced Hill’s once-soulful voice on classics like ‘Everything Is Everything,”Lost Ones’ and ‘Ex-Factor’ during her Coachella set. The effect is still positive with those listening throwing up their arms in the air and dancing — Spinner even spotted ‘Jackass”s Bam Margera in the VIP area grooving along.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcyhrXmqF1I[/youtube]
Margaret Wappler wrote for the Los Angeles Times:
Whatever her vocal challenges, Hill is still an arresting performer, bursting with the kind of crackling stage presence that suggests you’re watching one of the great, unpredictable eccentrics of pop music. She spun her arms, reached up toward the sky and danced so that her legs made her dress balloon around her body. Her focused glare, almost hostile in its insistence, roved over her audience. If they hadn’t liked her show, well, who knows what could’ve happened. In other words, you’re not the only loose cannon in Indio this weekend, Kanye.
But her audience did like it, responding with an exalted roar when she dipped into a couple of Fugees hits, including “Ready or Not.” By the time she ended, coasting five minutes or so over her allotted time, with “Doo Wop (That Thing),” she knew she’d locked it in. She started having fun with the finger-wagging chorus, snapping her head to the sudden stops and starts of her band, who backed off a bit, maybe finally secure that their hero could reap what she had sown.
Spin.com named her set Best Comeback at Coachella. David Marchese wrote:
She may have lost some vocal range as the years have passed, but, boy, did Lauryn Hill show that she’s still one hell of a singer during her joyously funky set on the main stage. Dressed in a blue and white striped dress, Hill sang in a sexy rasp on “Everything Is Everything”; rapped in quicksilver bursts on “Lost Ones”; trilled playfully on the Fugees’ “Ooh La La La”; and even scolded the soundman with charming I’m-not-mad-just-disappointed sass. Her band was an able match for her singing, playing with flex and fire (the horn charts exploded with old school R&B brio). Hill’s had a bit of a struggle with live shows for a while now — if she’s not feeling it, the crowd knows, and she’s made a habit of being hours late for gigs. On this day, though, she was on time, all game, and on point.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BEgnfobSRA[/youtube]
For more video from the show, you can see almost 40 minutes as it ran at ThatGrapeJuice.com. At YouTube.com, there are eight songs from the set including her introduction and a version of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ “Rastaman Chant.”
