A female James Brown sounds disturbing to you, right? I would’ve agreed before this past Sunday. Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings deserve…well, daps! For some reason I pictured her standing still at the mic stand, a single spotlight on her, Dap-Kings in shadow providing background music to her soulful crooning. But they was like, “Naw!”
The evening began with The Heavy, and they were awesome! I missed the beginning, but I got to hear my favourite song of theirs, Colleen, so tantrums were averted. Also, I didn’t buy one, but they were selling shirts at the merch table, and they have the sickest logo ever. [I can't find a picture to link to, but, if I remember correctly, it's basically a silhouette of a scared cat, it's hair standing straight up, back arched, perched on the tips of it's paws, with The Heavy in a stylized font inside the cat. Begin tangent – As anyone who’s read my endless barrage of Public Enemy articles can attest, I’m exaggerating. I have no choice. I gotta give kudos to anything that mildly resembles the Restricted Cat from before R-Rated movies. That shit was the shit! End tangent.] My only complaint: frontman Kelvin Swaby‘s mic was too quiet. I mean, they’re called The Heavy. You must’ve known how dense the soundscape was gonna be, right soundman? The only way you could’ve buried that falsetto in the mix like that was on purpose. Not cool. Unless he humped your mom, sister and/or daughter. Oh? All of the above you say? In that case: totally called for.
The Dap-Kings filed out about 30 minutes later, ten members deep, and established that they were nobody’s second fiddles. After ripping through a few instrumentals with the damn fury, Binky (when your last name is Griptite, you can have whatever first name you want and it’s cool, y’dig?) introduced us to the woman of the hour. This may be the most difficult review I’ve written, because the words to describe how savagely she tore that stage up do not exist. Beaming smile, booming voice – she was a blur of the type of sound that has been processed and manufactured out of existence in the current musical climate. Not R&B. Rhythm & Blues. The main difference between yesterday’s soul and today’s? It had a soul. But before this turns into more of a “they don’t make ‘em like they used to” rant, let me reassure you: they do.
From the second Sharon took the stage, every eye and ear in the Commodore was glued to her every move. Considering the woman didn’t stay still for a second, that’s a lot of moves. Touching on all corners of her discography, from ‘Dap-Dippin’…’ to ‘I Learned The Hard Way,’ the fans were given a compact, though not-entirely linear, history of the group. She may have ‘Learned The Hard Way,’ but she sure made it look easy. Some highlights of the set were This Land Is Your Land, Money, Window Shopping and, for the encore, 100 Days, 100 Nights.
For How Do I Let A Good Man Down?, she brought a capital D ‘Dude’ up on stage to essentially act out the verse, and ‘Dude’ got a little… overenthusiastic. Both Binky and the equally cool afro/handlebar moustache combo known as Bosco Mann stepped forward ready to beat the tats off of him, but Sharon waved them off. She wasn’t going to let this guy’s douche-blood rain on the parade. There was still much getting down to do.
Get down she did. In one song, she got all the way down to hell. The Dap-Queen broke down her ancestry, as well as the accompanying dance (”The Shout”) and how each part of her body, from feet on up, contributed to this, The Devil’s Choreography. Her dancing was reminiscent of an exorcism, and she even spoke in tongues between verses in that creepy demonic yell-whisper that Voodoo practitioners always have in the movies. All that was missing was a priest being thrown out a window. Needless to say, I was exhausted watching her just one minute into the song.
Rest in peace, James Brown. And you can rest assured. The Hardest Working Woman In Show Business™ wears your crown well. The kingdom is in good hands.
– Nuv
[Editor's note: You'll never know what you missed without the sound, but that dink-bot Jay gained enough super-speed to keep up with Sharon Jones long enough to get some stills. Allow the fact that you missed an amazing show because you ignored Nuv's advice wash over you, then ogle them by clicking here.]
I’m a straight up dirtbag for missing this show. Your description alone of Miss Jones and her band make me want to do the watoosie.