lhskarka | Concert Last Night!

gmskarka and myself attended the Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings concert at the Granada last night. It was probably not as transformative as attending a Barack Obama speech would have been, but it was a damn good show.

The evening started off collllddddddd! As in Brrrrr, FUCK! We forgot the primary rule of going to shows in Lawrence, that when the ticket says Doors Open at Eight, it really means eight-thirty. So we stood outside in the freezing air with a growing line of people, waiting while the band did their sound check. Right around the time that I decided it's good that I look good in blue, they finally let us in. But at least we got a good parking spot. :) And seats inside. Yay.

The opening act was The Ivan Milev Band. The version of the band we saw had 2 members; Entcho Todorov, who falls into the skinny-guy-with-curly-hair-violinist type category (What, you didn't know that was a category? Well, now you do.), and Ivan himself, a heavyset guy with a buzz-cut who plays one of those monster accordians with the keyboard and all those little round buttons down the side. They're from Bulgaria by way of Brooklyn, and they play Bulgarian folk music. Which is apparently meant to be played really fast! It was very good, and a lot of fun, but I think they covered as many songs in 30 minutes as the Dap Kings did in 90. Wow. Watching college girls try to dance to it was an added source of amusement. Hell, I'm not sure how native Bulgarian folk dancers would be able to dance to it. It's just that fast.

The main event was brilliant! The Dap Kings are all experienced session musicians, most of whom head up bands of their own when they're not on tour or recording with each other, so there was musical virtuosity (and suits) in abundance. And what's not to love about a really tight brass section? Nothin'. Sharon Jones is about 3-feet tall, with a voice that blows the idea of Amy Winehouse (who also records with Dap muscians) off the stage. She practiced singing as a kid by doing James Brown impressions for her family, and it shows - in a really good way.

My favorite number from the set was "Got a Thing on My Mind", where Sharon pulls from her African and Native American heritage and demonstrates how the two tribal dance styles combined to become the dance of Southern Baptist church revivals. It was only the third or fourth song in, and I think she must pass out right after she leaves the stage, simply because she expends so much energy on that one song and then just keeps going. The crowd was great, too. Really responsive to the music and hard to keep off the stage - every time Ms. Jones asked for a dance partner she had to turn several others away, but she never lost control of the crowd. The Dap Kings even commented on how surprised they were by the engergy level for a mid-week show. Cool.

The encore pieces were "It's a Shame" with baritone sax covering the lead vocals, and "It's a Man's World", with Sharon out front, which takes on a whole different meaning when sung by a woman. Both of the encore songs were excellent, and the closing set is still playing in my head - right now.

They've apparently been through Lawrence 3 or 4 times before, so we're kind of late to the party since Gareth only discovered them about three months ago, but I'm glad we did. You should, too. As encouragment, here's a video of the title track from Sharon's most recent album "100 Days, 100 Nights".

Watch and enjoy.