MULTIMEDIA

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings at the Vogue on Nov. 18.

Midway through Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings' live performance at the Vogue on Sunday night -- during which the 51-year-old Jones mash-potatoed, funky chickened, twisted and bopped until she was completely drenched in sweat -- a voice from another audience member echoed in my ear.

"She James. She James!"

The voice was referring, of course, to the late James Brown, whose reputation for electrifying, heart-stopping live performances has long gone unrivaled.

On stage, Jones bears some similarities to Brown: She dances like a woman possessed, exuding an almost supernatural love for performing. And she commands her excellent band, the Dap-Kings, like a natural born conductor, instructing it to slow down, speed up and stop with the ease most of us associate with getting dressed in the morning.

But Jones differs from Brown in one important way: While Brown was a notorious perfectionist who threatened mistake-prone band members with immediate firing -- and whose off-stage life revealed an undeniable dark side -- Jones quite literally glows with joy. Even when her songs tread dark thematic terrain (such as on the smoky, slinking ballad "How Do I Let A Good Man Down?"), Jones beams with life-affirming energy.

That energy transferred to the roughly 500 audience members at the Vogue on Sunday night -- a night on which concerts are typically a hard sell in our sleepy mid-sized burg. Predictably, the Vogue was far from full capacity, but in terms of energy and noise the audience rivaled most sold-out crowds I've ever seen.

The Dap-Kings -- composed of a drummer, a bongo player, two saxophonists, two guitarists, a bassist and a trumpet player -- stood workingman-like in the background while Jones lurched, bounded and bounced around the stage, repeatedly calling up audience members to join her. Pulling equally from their three albums -- "Dip-Dapping," "Naturally" and "100 Days, 100 Nights" -- the band also mixed it up with a couple of covers, including a slower, much funkier version of Janet Jackson's "What Have You Done For Me Lately."

When the band stopped and left the stage, the crowd was unfazed by the fact that it was both late and a school night. Rather than heading for the doors, it produced a rhythmic chorus of foot stomps that rattled the drinks on the tables of the seated spectators. Within a couple of minutes, the Dap-Kings returned to the stage to gleeful applause. After a brief funk jam, Jones herself emerged and addressed the crowd:

"Indianapolis, we didn't expect to come here and get this kind of reaction on a Sunday night!"

Then she launched into a full-tilt cover of -- what else -- James Brown's "It's A Man's Man's Man's World." The crowd yelped and hollered in delight. Meanwhile, Sharon Jones reminded us that, despite the words of the song she was singing, the world of classic R&B, funk and soul is clearly ruled by her.