Sharon Jones at the Apollo
DJPrestige
1,710 Posts
one word: 
.props to the whole daptone stable for doing it right at the apollo. they put on one helluva a show. the james brown tribute medley with lee fields was 
.
.props to the whole daptone stable for doing it right at the apollo. they put on one helluva a show. the james brown tribute medley with lee fields was .
Comments
If I had to say one thing, I wish they'd played "This Land Is Your Land". But hands down one of the hottest shows I've seen in a minute, Homer is a monster...
if anyone has some pics, hit me up, i got busted with my camera early. i didn't want to get booted, so i stopped taking photos. really great show though. lee field's hometown dance called "the boweled leg" was
prestige, sorry we couldnt meet up - i ended up going downtown to the nokia theatre and hanging out with the guys from spearhead (random night, ask me later.)
when lee fields came i out, i was praaaying that he'd do "funky screw". that would have been crazy!
yeah man no worries, i was trying to pry my way out of the locked bathroom at the lenox lounge to make a train home when you called. next time dude for sure.
I'm not sure a single person from Harlem was actually in the house. Brooklyn hipsters had the place on lock. Ironic tattoos and beards for days.
Big bonus beat for Lee Fields. Dap-Kings were amazing, as usual.
My only complaint was that I got a copy of the new LP in the mail that morning and the box was dented. When I opened it up the record was crimped to death and basically unplayable. Boo ! Daptone! Buy some record boxes you cheapos !
Question: what was the racial breakdown of the crowd like?
I was wanting to know that too. As good as Jones & co. are, black audiences aren't exactly their bread & butter...
I'd say 95-98 percent white.
When Lee Fields asked everyone to waive their hands in the air, it was like thousands of albino eels leapt out of the seats.
It was a great show, but I'm definitely feeling some white guilt.
Get. The. Fuck. Out. Of. Here.
Damn.
The thing is too - I've noticed this from folks posting on my site but the most frequent comment is: "this was my first time to The Apollo." I'd be curious to know to what extent "this was my first time to Harlem" would have proven equally true.
Speaking as a black man, you should know that African-American audiences traditionally don't look back at older sounds. Especially when it's being played by younger or unknown acts. Just ask any blues artist. So the fact that Sharon Jones didn't attract much of a following in the 'hood is not a surprise. Not saying it's right, just saying that that's just the way it is. If they had much of a black following (and it would be a good thing if they did), they would have shown up at their other gigs as well, not just the Apollo.
No doubt, I get that. I was just talking about this very topic over the weekend with a reporter at Newsweek who's covering the Dap-Kings plus a friend of mine in musicology and we were discussing how the nostalgia for the '60s/'70s style of this music is much more pronounced amongst those who never actually lived through it, either as what they grew up with or their parents grew up with. Still, there's something - at best, intriguing, at worst, kind of sad - about the social and cultural distance implied here.
Then again, it's nothing new either...my musicology friend was pointing out how similar one could read this to the British Invasion guys being hung up on Robert Johnson at a time when few, similarly aged people in the Black community seemed all that nostalgic about the classic Blues. I suppose the layman's argument is that while Black people are busy creating new culture everyone else is about a generation behind, trying to catch up.
In other words: in about 10 years, we'll start seeing Xscape and Tevin Campbell tribute artists being all the rage.
I was wondering if there's any academic theories about why white's look back and blacks look ahead cultural wise.
Peace,
Dress
I did hear the african street vendors outside compaining about 'tourists' and gentrification and nobody buying anything. Definitely not a local crowd..
'Cause black people are busy already being black?
I'd hesitate to say it's that simple since it's not like all Whites look back and certainly, there are many African Americans invested in cultural preservation (especially when it comes to jazz, for example).
Also, it's not just that "whites look back" but it's what they're looking back at. After all, it's not like BK hipsters are patronizing retro-Pat Boone. It's all about seeking some kind of "authentic" cultural expression from the past as well as grouping around a subculture that doesn't have "mainstream" acceptance already. In other words, Motown nostalgia has been around for generations (hello Big Chill!) but you don't see a lot of 20-somethings turning out in droves for Temptations revues.
That's another thing, too: black audiences do look back...at the things they remember. And can be just as fickle as any teenager.
Bobby Womack? The Dells? Jerry Butler? The Stylistics? The O'Jays? My God, yes, (older) black audiences still attend their concerts on the regular.
But as far as relatively minor acts who somehow managed to stay in the game or make comebacks like Lee Fields (and Bettye LaVette, Irma Thomas, Hannibal, Swamp Dogg, Ralph "Soul" Jackson, Howard Tate, Andre Williams...)? Thank God for the white soul crowd, because, unfortunately, the black audience for these people just ain't there. Anymore.