Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings @ The Black Cat (Washington DC), 1/17/08
Posted by Val in Concert Reviews
I’ll admit I didn’t know much about Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings when they announced their original December date. However, when an act gets nods of approval from discerning friends and one of my favorite writers, I tend to pay attention. And I agree – 100 Days, 100 Nights is a good album, but the recorded material really doesn’t hold a candle to the live experience, which I count among one of the best I’ve ever seen.
The Daptone diva has certainly brought together a wide fan base. Sure, the regular Black Cat patrons had arrived to see the show, but I’m pretty sure that a large fraction of the crowd hadn’t been to the Black Cat since it switched locations a few years ago – if at all. So I guess it seemed appropriate to have Ivan Milev as the opener as I feel like he would’ve been a huge hit at someone’s wedding.
Ivan Milev, an accordion player from Bulgaria, apparently has a full band but on Thursday night, it was just him and his violinist playing traditional and original gypsy tunes from the Balkans. It’s not terribly clear where the link exists between Ivan Milev and The Dap-Kings but the large, intense and joyful Bulgarian kind of moved the audience from a state of “wtf?” to “well…yeah…this is alright…yeah!” Very good music for head-nodding and although the novelty wore off a few songs in and everyone started their side-bar conversations, I had the feeling that the full band would’ve had our full attention.
The Dap-Kings didn’t have that problem. The eight piece band (including a toe-tapping, hip-swinging three piece horn section) came out smart in their suits and skinny ties and they started playing some soul songs that made me feel like I’d been taken on a time warp into the heyday of Motown, James Brown and Aretha Franklin – and that was before Jones even took the stage.
So once they’d warmed up the crowd, Jones made her entrance and immediately wrapped the audience around her finger. She started the show by telling us to go watch The Great Debaters, where she’d been cast and excitedly informed the ladies in the audience on how great it was to take direction from Denzel Washington.
However, she was the one giving most of the directions that night. If she wasn’t asking the audience to sing along or telling her band to start showing us what they had then she was inviting people up onstage to inject some interpersonal drama into her songs. She told one man off, let one good man crawl across the stage in submission and even invited four of us up onstage to dance as she gave us some advice. Yes – us. I was in the front of the audience so unlike the writer from The Washington Post, I could actually see what was going on and so when she asked me to come up onstage and dance…despite my deficiency…you think I’m going to say no? Later on, she outdanced even the best among us onstage as she played the roles of her African and Native American ancestors.
Although I was particularly excited to see her material from 100 Days, 100 Nights – she proved that she was just as good at covering other peoples’ material as performing her own. The encore consisted of James Brown’s “This is a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” and Janet Jackson’s “What Have You Done For Me Lately?” – two tunes which she really made her own. Nobody was asking that question of her when she got off the stage…we were all busy trying to catch our breath. I felt that I had just seen a real woman let me know what life was all about and that through all the pain, there was something sweet and beautiful. Thank you, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings – you have just set the benchmark for every show I’ll see for the remainder of the year.
“100 Days, 100 Nights” :: Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
All photos by Laura.
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Sharon Jones is the lady I want to be when I grow up. Such energy and honesty adds so much to her wonderful show. Sounds like she is rocking every single city she has been to in the U.S. Her show in Atlanta was fantastic. It’s amazing how she put a whole crowd to dance non-stop for almost two hours. Renditions were supreme. I ran out of breath but kept dancing…that music live grows big! She is a true entertainer, an endangered species in the music world.
Thanks Val, great review!
Very nice! I miss hearing the real soulful singers who belt out like this.