Jill Scott- The Real Thing Tour: Birmingham Alabama
March 30, 2008
Nfared Reporting
Maybe is has something to do with the fact that her debut mantra was “Who Is Jill Scott? Maybe it’s got something to do with the fact that her first album which threw her into musical success was pushed more by word of mouth then by the marketing of her label. What ever it is, there is something about Jill Scott. Really, she doesn’t do much but stand there and sing, but when Jill Scott walked out on stage sporting a knee length black dress, gold heels, and a Mohawk, the Birmingham crowd in the Boutwell Auditorium jumped to their feet with a cheer that could surely be heard in the next city. Her presence alone is so strong that all she really needs to do is stand there. Then though, she opens her mouth to sing.
Jill started with “Let It Be” the first track from her latest release “The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Vol. 3”. An instant sing along broke out as the audience joined with Jill stopping only when the intro for the next song “The Real Thing”, began. The energy in the building, so high it could even be smelled, peaked and when Jill got to “turn off the water/drip drip” which was accompanied by flashing lights and a little extra play from the drummer, the crowd erupted as if she had walked out on the stage all over again. Jill then went back to the “Words and Sounds: Vol. 1” release with what seems like the perfect live song (horns and all), “It’s Love”. There was hardly a closed mouth in the crowd as she sang, “Do you want it on yo collard greens?” She slowed the pace slightly going to “Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2” with the sultry “Cross My Mind”, then to the Vol. 1 release with “Honey Molasses”. Not missing a beat, she went on to her current album with “Come See Me” and the sexy “Crown Royal” which is nice enough to be an entire song instead of just a hair shy of two minutes. Jill knows her audience and when she began the first few words of the hit “A Long Walk”, you could see her smile, not in arrogance, but in happiness and appreciation. That smile continued as she went into “Only You” from Vol. 3. When she finished “Whenever You’re Around” with it’s poignant revelation “Cause I’m lonely/whenever you’re around” from the Vol. 3 release, she said, “Now that’s some hard shit to say!” The women were pleased to sing along to “How It Make You Feel?” Jill then got really, really real and close to the audience on a human level when, while sharing some of the things she has been through, she said, “…and yes I have been the other woman, and I wrote a song about it, and I know some of you “other” women are in here tonight.” That intro was for the seductive, “My Love” where she explains, “My love is deeper/tighter/sweeter/higher/flyer/didn’t you know this/or didn’t you notice?” At the end of the next song, “Wanna Be Loved” (Vol. 3) the music breaks and she says, “Well we have gotten to that part in the show where I just can’t umm, I just can’t think straight…” Then she and her background singers began stingingly swiftly, “Pinky toe/pinky/toe/off shoes/off shoes…” As this chant continues, Jill is approached from both sides of the stage by two men who assist her in changing out of the heels she had been wearing since the beginning of the show and into a pair of the same colored shoes, this time as a flat version. In the way of breaks and wardrobe changes, this would be the only kind of the sort and she never left the stage as she went into “Epiphany” from Vol. 3 and then “Slowly Surely” from Vol. 1. Everyone was on their feet at the sound of the keys for the beginning of “Golden” and stayed on their feet as Jill powerfully delivered “Hate On Me”. Finished with that song, she then threw up her hands, bowed and said goodnight. Any true Jill Scott fan knew that she was not done though, and as she got out of sight, the bank cranked up “The Way” and those walking out of the door stopped in their tracks to sing with her “Is it the way/you love/me baby?” The band then easily slid into “He Loves Me” and as they rocked out the last few minutes of that song, Jill waved, said good night and then left the stage again, only to come back and say “Well the show is officially over and I know some of you all got things to do and gotta be at work in the morning, so if you gotta go it’s ok, but for those of us that are left, lets stop taking pictures and put your camera phones away and be here in this moment, here.” Jill then sang her last song of the night, a new venture she called “I Heard”. The band was introduced during the song, and this time you could tell the concert was ending as Jill thanked everyone for coming and proclaimed “I dreamed this yall”.
Jill asked that everyone sing the chorus with her “Do you understand/what you feel inside?” and as the audience, sensing the end of the show sang along, the lights began to come up, and the entire band and even those backstage came out singing and dancing in a line with Jill at the end if the line. Everyone took a final bow, and as quickly as Raheem Devaughn had started the concert two hours earlier with his hits including “Woman” from his current release, the show was over. As the crowd poured out onto the streets of Birmingham, the energy, that presence that Jill Scott has, the human connection that she shares with her fans not because she is a star but because she is human, was still in the building, lingering around as the cleanup immediately began. It could be said that “Jill Scott has left the building” but after witnessing her perform live though, she may physically leave, but her presence on a spiritual level never really goes anywhere.
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