Artist: Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
Venue: Beacon Theatre, New York
Date: Feb. 6
“It’s been hell these last few months,” Sharon Jones of throwback-soul specialists the Dap-Kings admitted during the lowest moment of a night otherwise full of triumphant highs. It was the band’s first show since May, when Jones’ cancer diagnosis forced the group to postpone its fifth album, “Give the People What They Want,” until January. But if not for her asides — thanking friends, fretting over chemotherapy’s effects on her skin — you’d never know. The recovery took its toll on Jones’ hair (she rocked a bold bald head), but her vocals remained from the gut. She shook her way through the set, conducting the band with her hips on “100 Days, 100 Nights.” “I’ve been away too long,” Jones wailed on “Tell Me You Love Me.” The sold-out crowd, on its feet throughout, obviously agreed.