Post by fugees-online on Dec 16, 2005 9:36:54 GMT 1
Pop: The Fugees
Lisa Verrico at the Hammersmith Apollo, W6
It was loud, chaotic and unpredictable. At times it was tense, inventive and on the verge of falling apart. The Fugees’ long-awaited reunion — eight years after an acrimonious split — was certainly a spectacle, if not always for the right reasons. Having cancelled much of their comeback tour, the biggest surprise was that the trio not only turned up but turned up on time. The second was that two hours later they were still there, sharing a stage, even if they made a point of not standing next to each other.
Early in the set it looked as if unresolved issues might fell the Fugees at the first hurdle. With all three trying to out-rap each other over a six-piece backing band that included two DJs, the result was a sonic scrap from which it was hard to make out much of a tune. Only on How Many Mics, from the band’s 17 million-selling epic The Score, did the ice between them begin to melt and the music start to gel. Then they lost it again.
Wyclef Jean, always the group’s most outgoing member, was intent on stealing the limelight, and he had umpteen tricks up several sleeves. When he wasn’t changing his top (five times during the show), he was grabbing guitars, being carried aloft by the crowd, making an appearance up on the balcony and reeling off poetry about politics, the paparazzi and Diana, Princess of Wales.
Yet it was Lauryn Hill who made the most impact. With an afro so large and a body so slim that she looked like an elegant tree, the Fugees’ frontwoman saved a so-so Zealots with some superb singing and easily outshone her sidekicks on the night’s first highlight, a fabulous Fu-gee-La.
With the crowd on her side, she grabbed her long skirt and did some high kicks before taking over entirely for Lost Ones, a song from her solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill on which she takes sideswipes at her fellow Fugees.
Both Wyclef and Pras got solo spots, but it was when all three were on stage that the crowd went crazy. A reworked Ready or Not was worthy of its ovation, Killing Me Softly was toughened up to terrific effect, and even the recent single Take It Easy, hardly a return to their finest form, went down a storm. A new Fugees album is expected next year and if the trio can tame their tensions, it might just be worth the wait.
source: entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,14936-1933274,00.html
