On Wednesday night, Lauryn Hill performed an intimate show at the Bowery Ballroom, part of a "homecoming" tour. Don't fret if you missed it—she's performing there again on December 10.
Hill served prison time as part of a deal for not paying over $1 million in back taxes (she has an explanation for that), and her website proclaimed, "Back home, Ms. Hill finds herself in a place where she can once again live and breathe the art that has brought her to the forefront of our psyches, and has earned her place as being one of the most prolific and thought provoking artists of our time. Ms. Hill has chosen to stride back into the public light, bringing her high energy and consciousness charged sound with Homecoming, a string of intimate shows for her fans, in and around New York City." And she definitely sounded great:
And here she is, performing her new song "Consumerism" which has lyrics like "Consumerism running through them like a tumor in 'em" and "Ugly human, ugly shame/ Corporate greed in Jesus name."
The NY Times' Jon Pareles wrote of the show, "Though her voice is lower and raspier than it was when she emerged in the 1990s, she is a supercharged soul singer who stokes her songs all the way through, and her rapping is breakneck, articulate and vehement. She’s also an improvisatory, drama-building bandleader. Throughout her two-hour set, her musicians were watching for her signals; to bear down on a vamp or silence it, to unveil pretty, elaborately planned vocal counterpoint from her three backup singers or to whip up a churchy fervor." However, he wished there was more original material, because who doesn't want to hear more of what Hill's thinking about now?
Hill also brought her son Joshua to rap.
Hill's upcoming shows are the December 10 show at Bowery Ballroom ($100 tickets), plus two Long Island dates: A December 26 show at The Paramount and a December 28 show at the Capitol.
