Brooklyn loves Ms. Hill—at least, the old Ms. Hill.

Last night, in her first solo performance in Brooklyn, NY, Lauryn Hill played a free concert to over 10,000 eager fans.  Lately, Lauryn has been plagued with reports of erratic, if not downright unprofessional, performances.  At a recent concert in Oakland, CA, a reporter from the San Jose Mercury News declared that “calling it a fiasco would be an insult to fiascos everywhere.”  Similarly, her European tour was derided by journalists and fans alike—unrecognizable arrangements of her hits, odd new material, incessant vocal problems, a bizarre and arrogant on-stage manner.

At last night’s show in Crown Heights, Lauryn fulfilled most of these complaints.  But she also played an incredible, amazing, high-energy show that I am truly thankful I got to witness.  For free.

Standing in line in Crown Heights obscenely early (we even took off from work), my friends and I heard the band’s soundcheck (sans Lauryn, of course).  We screeched with excitement as we recognized chords and hooks—“To Zion,” “Doo-Wop,” “Everything is Everything.”  Seems she would indeed play her old tunes!  Although the concert was scheduled to start at 7:30, most of the attendees had been standing in line for hours before the gate opened—we arrived at 4:30, and even so there were at least 150-200 people ahead of us.  Once inside, Sean Kingston, the opening act, did not perform until about 8 pm.  Unfortunately, the young rising star delivered a sloppy and sophomoric performance, and failed to really get the humidty-fatigued crowd excited (save for his hit “Beautiful Girls”).  Sean only performed for about 15 minutes—then the waiting, the anticipation began.  Would she show up?  Would she play 2 songs and storm off the stage?  Storm clouds seemed to be just barely holding off from dumping their contents on the audience.

Finally, word came that Lauryn had in fact arrived—but still needed time to get ready.  We placed bets on when she will actually make it on stage.  By the time her band entered, it was nearly 9:45 pm.  And then I realized—her band is huge.  3 drummers with 3 separate drum kits.  2 guitarists.  An 11-piece band, plus 3 backup singers, took the stage and played.  And played.  And played.  For 20 minutes, without Lauryn.  The tension built as a sweaty, impatient crowd waited for Ms. Hill to take the stage.  And then she finally did, breaking into a brand new unfamiliar song that lasted for another 15 minutes.

The performance’s vibe was decidedly retro, but not necessarily accessible.  Everything about Lauryn was oversized—her jewelry, her hair, her band.  She wasn’t the sleek, polished beauty that enthralled millions, first with the Fugees, then as the miseducated solo artist.  Her voice, too, was not the milk-and-honey smooth siren we are used to.  It was hoarse, rough, strained.  She sounded like she had been through some things in her time away.  It sounded like she had aged, and quite a bit.  (I believe that her recent consistent vocal troubles are due to poor singing technique from earlier, and I fear that two of my other favorite artists, Alicia Keys and John Legend, will also have a similar fate.)

But besides her vocals and her appearance, her initial song choices were most certainly not crowd-pleasing.  As Lauryn said when she came on stage, “We’re gonna do some new things,” met with boos from the crowd, she quickly added “but we’re gonna do some old things too!”  The old did not come soon or well enough, because after a couple of new songs, a couple of Bob Marley covers, and an unidentifiable version of “Lost Ones,” people began leaving in droves.  Despite having waited in the muggy heat for nearly 5 hours, people all around me were picking up and leaving, shaking their heads, booing.  A woman in front of me said, “I liked the old Lauryn.”  Another exclaimed, “I can’t take this anymore!” as she left during an extended band jam.  Me?  I had skipped work and waited in the heat, there was no way I was leaving.  But my heart began to sink a little.

After it seemed that nearly a third of the audience had left, the opening hook to “Ex-Factor” began—and thankfully, we could recognize it.  Although Lauryn strained to hit the higher notes, the women around me belted it out for her.  It was our song.  It was on.

From then on, it seemed that her earlier songs had weeded out the casual listeners from true fans.  We moved up closer to the stage, and she thrilled us with surprise after surprise.  During a Fugees moment, she went through “How Many Mics,” “Fugee-La,” “Ready or Not,” (a reggae intro to this song was the only truly awful arrangement misstep) and “Killing Me Softly” to the delight of the audience.  Also, “To Zion,” “Everything is Everything,” and “Doo-Wop” in the encore were solid.  Scattered among the set were Bob Marley covers, “Natty Dred,” “Iron Lion Zion,” and “Hammer,” as well as material from her controversial Unplugged album.

Through it all, Lauryn’s energy never seemed to wane.  She danced and strut as though she were as much James Brown as Lauryn Hill.  She was a band leader, above all else (although her skills directing such a huge ensemble are still obviously lacking).  And she was an artist.  Her new music, although a little bit too reminiscent of Erykah Badu to be truly original, is certainly solid, and her band is nothing short of amazing.  Her arrangements were also a highlight for me.  An artist needs to be allowed to create their art.  After all these years, Lauryn did not want to play her hits verbatim.  We have CD players for that.  She wanted to reinvent, revisualize her music, to communicate the changes that have happened to her during the past decade since she became a superstar.

That said, her diva-like behavior (it is unacceptable to be hours late to every single performance you do!) and her shaky vocals still tempered the performance.  The difference between her show last night and her performances earlier this year is key—this show was free.  What I witnessed last night was indeed powerful and amazing.  However, had I paid upwards of $80 for a ticket, as did most of the attendees to her Oakland and European performances, I would likely have been much more disappointed.

Lauryn’s second-to-last song—which she said was “a very important question” she had for us—was an adorable cover of “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” by the Shirelles.  Having finally redeemed herself, playing for over 2 hours, the crowd’s answer seemed to be—get your act together a little bit, and yes, we will still love you.