
On the 15th of February, 2008, New York's Beacon Theater played host to a Daptone Super Soul Review: a sold out evening of rhythm and blues, soul and funk, featuring The Budos Band, the Bushwick Philharmonic,
After a solid opening set from The Budos Band, the Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings portion of the evening got started with The Dap Kings (recently receiving tons more attention as a result of their standout work backing Amy Winehouse) taking to the stage without Sharon to warm up the audience for a few songs. The musical foreplay worked like a charm - by the time Sharon Jones finally took to the stage the audience was collectively quivering with anticipation, wide to receive whatever funky soul goodness that might be thrown our way. It came, at first, in the form of 2004's little-known gem "Genuine (parts 1 & 2)". Wasting no time, mid-song, Sharon beckoned to the crowd "I need me a man up here on stage" as she pulled the biggest, whitest, baseball hat wearing, frat boy guy she could find out of the audience and onto the stage with her. He "danced" with her and I considered myself lucky to be seated in the balcony: no chance of me making a fool of myself on this night.
The show continued with a stompingly strutty version of "Nobody's Baby". Sharon did her best to work through her new shoe blues (complaining aloud that her shoes weren't yet broken in before ditching them to dance and strut around barefoot) as the band behind her seamlessly, and perfectly, handled each note and personnel change. More than a few times I wondered to myself if The Dap Kings (et al.) weren't perhaps the best backing band on the planet. Working in their favor in this regard was the fact that the Beacon's sound was literally perfect. This allowed the band to dominate the evening from the shadows just exactly as they should have and added to the intangible "we're seeing something very special" feeling that was in the air all night.

I believe the next song was "What If We All Stopped Paying Taxes" which then gave way to Sharon's cover of "This Land Is Your Land". By this point, nearly every stiff audience member in the balcony with me was up out of their seats and dancing. The floor bounced, a couple next to me nearly made a baby as they danced/felt each other up in the aisle, and Sharon decided to give three ladies a shot at dancing with her on stage during "Tell Me".

After all of this, after nearly two hours of Daptone Super Soul Review goodness, what did the band have left in the tank for an encore? Why, Sharon on piano for "Answer Me" and a faithfully spot-on cover of the James Brown classic "This Is A Man's World", naturally. But clearly, on this night, it was Sharon's world.
It struck me late in the course of the concert that, though it was a real shame to have taken so many years for her to finally find her audience, Sharon couldn't very well have reached so many people at any other time. Like a fine wine uncorked at the perfect moment, Sharon Jones (turning 52 in May) & the Dap Kings delivered the kind of performance that positively wowed all 2,800 people in attendance and converted even the least malleable of old white people into dancing soul freaks. We were but putty in the hands of a group of master craftsmen/women; and though I've not seen every concert of 2008, I submit that there's been no finer concert in all of New York City so far this year. There's just no way any other evening anywhere else was "better" than the concert I saw last Friday night at the Beacon Theater. I can't wait until the next time - I'll be on the floor.
Listen:
"100 Days, 100 Nights"
Watch:
"How Long Do I Have To Wait For You?" (live from this show)
Visit Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings on MySpace.
Also there: BrooklynVegan | Intelligent Rectum | Fresh Bread | The Music Slut
*above photos from HERE and HERE.
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