Queen of Soul?

When a performer gets on stage and proclaims to be the female James Brown, you know you’re in for either the best of the best or the worst of the worst. Luckily, Sharon Jones backed up her claim as the heir apparent when she played the Elbo Room on Saturday. Backed by the Dap-Kings, Sharon made a case that she should be included in the pantheon of soul royalty. Getting into the Elbo Room proved to be the only rough part of the night: after waiting for over an hour, we finally made our way into the club and then we got to wait some more. Some things, it turns out, are worth waiting for.

DJ Motion Potion did a nice job warming up the crowd with a 'Soul Sisters' set that ranged from the Jefferson’s theme song to more standard soul fair like Aretha and Diana. Warmed up though we were, nothing could have prepared the crowd for the DapKings. With their three-horns, drums, two guitars, and Bosco-on- the base line up, the DapKings took the crowd back to a mid ‘60’s soul and funk groove all of their own for a few songs before they brought out Sharon. Once Sharon hit the stage it was all over—even her struggles getting the sound just right demonstrated a level of musicality that we’re sure the Elbo Room has never seen before. Highlights of the set were a cover of "This Land is My Land",and "NBL" (natural born lover). One dapper fan even had a necklace of NBL in place for the song. How dap is that?