Review- Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings

Onstage at the Pabst Theater Saturday night, The Dap Kings looked a little like pieces on a game board. Perfectly aligned—two percussionists in the center, flanked by a row of three horns to one side and three guitars to the other—they looked like a soul version of Mount Rushmore, solid and implacable even as their music reached for deep grooves.
But when Sharon Jones entered (with much traditional R&B ceremony), it was clear why the group seemed rock-solid. When Jones gets going, you want to have a contained and well-demarcated area for a performance space. Forces of nature are like that.
Jones lead a show of rock-solid gems from her soul songbook, with meticulous arrangements by Dap Kings leader Gabriel Roth. Jones runs as hot as the Dap Kings are cool, prancing the stage like a combination of Mick Jagger and Tina Turner. Her voice isn’t as powerful as legends like Aretha, but her spirit is positively nuclear. She offered two lengthy tours of dance history: one from the boogaloo to The Jerk, and another—covering a bit more historical ground—explained the melding of African and Native American traditions. And she offered audience members several chances to strut their stuff as well, at one point inviting almost twenty women onstage and letting each of them exit with their own personal promenade.
More importantly, Jones also knows how to sell a classic soul song and its classic sentiments, the heart-on-sleeve moments when emotions burrow down only to explode into a wail or a well-placed rhythm. With decades of time in the soul trenches, Jones knows the feelings, and has the chops to make you feel them, too.
England’s The Heavy opened the show with its own hurricane, Kelvin Swaby, who worked the crowd like a master while taking his group through a set of its own guitar-heavy R&B.