Everything Is Everything

Especially when you are Lauryn Hill, you've been MIA for more than a decade, and your on tour! Who cares if she only put out one solo album in 13 years? Forget that she had an unfortunate meltdown. She is almost music royalty after all, married to one of Bob Marley's sons and the mother of his grandchildren (a few of them anyway). Her Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is still one of the best albums, in my humble opinion, and JSM and I have listened to it many times over since our first date. On that first date we listened to the disc in his car and since then the whole album has held a special place in our relationship. Over the years I've asked, no one in particular, "What happened to Lauryn Hill?" Well, she is alive and maybe not-so-well as evidenced  by her performance last weekend at The Schnitz, a 2700-seat theater in Portland. To be fair, Lauryn is an amazing singer, but the screeching band drowned out her beautiful voice and the arrangements of her songs were completely different from the ones her devoted fans have been playing for the last decade. So different, in fact, as to be almost unrecognizable and definitely not worth dancing to. But that didn't matter anyway. While we waited almost 3 hours for her to appear we were "warmed up" by a fab DJ who spun all kinds of late 90's rap from Criss Cross to Biggie Smalls to Wu Tang Clan and the dance down memory lane was awesome! But it was hardly a warm up since most of the audience was exhausted by the time Lauryn graced the stage.

She opened with Everything is Everything and I made out some of the words to Zion, but most of the time I was straining to hear her voice over the racket of the band. There were moments of clarity when her voice was loud and clear, but sadly, it was only for a few words. I was beginning to question my own hearing, but since I've seen other shows at the same venue I realized something was off. JSM nailed it when he commented that her show was under-produced with not enough blocking to cushion the sounds. Oh, Lauryn, you should have practiced a little more before putting this show on the road, but I think you are so awesome that I'd give you another chance! Here's hoping she visits again (after a little more practice) but in the meantime I'll continue to jam to Miseducation and my favorite song, Everything is Everything. Because indeed it is.