(Photo courtesy of Ticketmaster.)
On Tuesday, December 13th, the MLH Caravan rolled through Indianapolis to make its appearance at Old National Centre. It had been a long time coming for the rescheduled Murat Room show, originally planned for September, and for Ms. Lauryn Hill to make an Indianapolis appearance in general, so when that night did finally come, it almost didn’t feel real. A Diaspora Calling! featured special guests DJ Gabby and Seun Kunti with Egypt 80, the latter of which provided an energetic jazz-tinged set that prepared the crowd for Hill and company. Following the latter’s set, Hill’s DJ came onstage to “pump up the crowd,” but this felt unnecessary after Seun Kunti and Egypt 80 had already seemingly done so. Nearly two and a half hours after the show was scheduled to begin, however, Hill and her band finally went on, leaving the audience to almost immediately forget about the otherwise-out-of-place DJ set.
From the moment she stepped onto the stage, Hill’s presence could be felt throughout the entire 2,500-capacity room. She opened her set with a revamped rendition of “Everything is Everything,” a trend that would be continued for the vast majority of the night. On “Everything is Everything,” the pace was sped up significantly, making for a spirited way to kick things off.
Her band of instrumentalists provided a lively jam session which complemented her vocal performance rather well, and her trio of backing vocalists offered up a similar complementary effect. The trio really got the chance to shine through though on soulful cuts like “When It Hurts So Bad,” when their emphatic belting in unison proved them to be more than just “backup singers.”
There were other points in Hill’s set where things felt more like a rock and roll concert (such as the amped-up reworking of the Fugees’ hit “Killing Me Softly). Hill and the audience fed off each other’s energy all night long, but it was those points in the set where the back-and-forth was particularly noteworthy.
Another extremely impressive aspect of her set was the fact that Hill and company put a fresh spin on virtually every single song they performed that night. Though this was likely Hill’s own idea, it could not have been fully executed had she not surrounded herself with so much musical talent all around. In turn, she was able to reinvent her music for those already familiar with it and easily seize the attention of those unfamiliar with it.
Aside from revisiting many of her Fugees tracks, Hill also took on the Cy Grant classic “Feelin’ Good” near the end of her set, and did so with an incredible amount of power and poise. “Feelin’ Good” showed that not only can Hill outdo herself in performing her own tunes, but she can also take songs which she had no part in writing originally and make them her own.
Ms. Lauryn Hill closed out the night with a relentless arrangement of “Doo Wop (That Thing),” the unusually-fast instrumentation forcing her to rap at an even faster pace than she does on The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Somehow, she was more than capable of doing so, making her rapid fire verses look easy and absolutely slaying on the signature hit for which she is best known. By the end, the entire audience was completely in-sync with Hill and company, reluctant for the night to be over.
After nearly two hours, the music finally came to a close and spectators went their separate ways, but not before witnessing an awe-stricken night. Ms. Lauryn Hill had arrived in Indianapolis that evening to give the crowd an experience they would not soon forget, and she did just that.
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