JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound, Nguzo and James Johnston and Friends Tonic Room Chicago, IL March 25, 2010

To my surprise, the place was packed, or perhaps intimate is a better word for it. People lined the walls and crowded the front. The place is small and cozy, easily able to warm you up on a cold night...at least with JC Brooks headlining, although the openers had much to contribute. As I said, James Johnston’s band filled the place up. Their sound was high energy and cleanly polished with animated six or seven-piece band. Their bass player caught my attention with creative lines driving the foundation. The audience was stuck to the floor, perhaps at that point in the night, they preferred to be stuck in the music, satisfied with just listening and watching.

Nguzo played next with a genre bending set filled with laid-back soul, disco and reggae. Their music was filled with simple hooks like, “Lover, Lover. I’m a Rocker, Rocker.” If there was ever a group that could be lazy and upbeat at the same time, this was it. And I have to mention Nguzo’s tight and smooth horn section with a fugal horn leading the way. The singer Zoe impressively switched to Spanish for one song, which at times seamlessly traveled between disco and samba grooves.

As Nguzo finished a long set, the crowd decongested and merged, everyone talked up JC Brooks. Before I decided to stake out a good spot, the crowd had already formed, so I found a ledge to stand on in the corner. Brooks was introduced by a dude in dreads who would later grab the mic and share an old school rap number with Brooks sounding along the lines of, “throw your hands up in the air, wave ‘em round like you just don’t care.”

When Brooks came to the front, you could hear his soul come out when he cocked his head in all different directions, reached his hands out, and gave you a range of facial expressions in a very James Brown sort of way! I was convinced. It’s clear that his personality carried the band. The music was well-rehearsed and simple enough to say just enough of what needed to be said, enough hits and not too much flash as it was clear they were there to compliment Brooks. Their sound was like James Brown meets Otis Redding in a Funk, 60s soul nostalgia type of way.

In the middle of songs, the band would ride the groove so Brooks could walk us through some of his stories. Like a preacher, he would say fresh, honest things you never really think about like, “you know when you meet that one who you think is that special someone. You brush your teeth twice a day.” Other quick one-liners stuck out in my memory like, “I was hoping we had a future together, but it turns out all we had was a past.”

The set ended with an encore song, starting out slow then building to a climax with the band losing it by the end of it. They wailed in every which direction on their instruments with Brooks standing beside them, his smiling teeth wide open before he jumped in screaming up until the final hit. At the end of it all, the fans cheering replaced the music as the band put their instruments down gasping for breath, and surprisingly enough, I realized some brave and rare Chicagoans who actually bust a move were doing the same.

I want to say that one of their hooks, “Get the fuck out of my life,” sums up what this band is about. They’re not as general as that though. Some songs are about finding and falling in love, and just gettin’ down, but I was most convinced with the energy in the songs about frustration and heartache especially with their ability to groove on it, dance it out, and move on!

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