On the opening night of her first solo tour, Hill killed them softly, funkily and every other way imaginable with her songs.

After garnering 10 Grammy Award nominations with the deeply personal statements of her solo album debut, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, she made the joy and pain of those songs an exuberantly shared experience in concert.

If she missed her Fugees mates Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel at all, she sure didn't show it. L-Boogie drank up the spotlight, flowing between mesmerizing vocals and free-wheeling raps as nimbly as she bounced about the stage.

She drew energy from a crowd that never sat down throughout the 90-minute set, and conjured sparkling individual moments — highlighted by a battle of one-upmanship between her 12-member band and DJ Leon Higgins — from her onstage entourage, also featuring three singers and a hype man (supporting rapper).

She delved deep into her repertoire for her most popular Fugees material and ran through a good chunk of the songs from her album. Hill showed a wide range of emotions, singing poignantly about her children in To Zion, and taking a defiant stance on Lost Ones. Thrown in the mix were riffs from the likes of Stevie Wonder and Bob Marley, but in Hill's hands there's no delineation between old school and new school, merely a seamless melding of good music.

Despite a 45-minute gap between opening act Outkast and Hill, buzz generated by the Grammy-nominated Atlanta duo hadn't died down when she arrived onstage. Big Boi and Andre turned the theater into a block party with their quirky, Southern-fried funk and lyrical acrobatics.

They left the stage to a thunderous ovation after provoking dancing in the aisles to Player's Ball, Elevators (Me & You), Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik and current hit Rosa Parks.

With the table thus set, Hill served up grooves by the plateful. Her studio wizardry has brought her much-deserved acclaim. Onstage, she's starting to work on mass affection.