While this weekend’s Sharon Jones and the Dapkings shows have attracted the attention of this paper, the Washington Post’s Going Out Gurus, and NBC4’s online self-proclaimed music snob, listeners to Saturday blues and soul programming on WPFW and to quiet storm sounds on WHUR are hearing about a different soul show.  The Mother’s Day Soul Jam Saturday night at the Showplace Arena in Upper Marlboro features five classic ‘70s era soul acts–the Stylistics, Dramatics, The Manhattans, The Chi-Lites, and Cuba Gooding, Sr. & the Main Ingredient.   I have seen them all in recent years at such locations as Constitution Hall, Fort Dupont, the Showplace Arena or Carter Barron, and my fave is the Stylistics.

Only two of the current members of this Philly combo may be original members, but in recent live appearances they still brilliantly captured the original outfit’s high notes lead with backing harmony technique. Expect the current incarnation to smoothly step back and forth onstage in cleverly choreographed fashion and wow the audience with versions of  such r’n’b hits of theirs as  “Stop, Look, Listen (to Your Heart),” “Break Up to Make Up,”  and “Betcha by Golly Wow.”  Their brightly colored, matching throwback suits will help capture the past as well.  While it may not be like hearing them in 1970, seeing them live even this many years later helps add to my appreciation of what they accomplished.  Less raucous than the late ’60s feel Sharon Jones goes for, but it still sounds good.

“Mother’s Day Soul Jam” Saturday May 9 at 8 p.m. at the Showplace Arena,14900 Pennsylvania Ave, Upper Marlboro, MD

American University’s WVAU is hosting its final fall installment of the student-run free concert series Capitol Punishment Saturday night. The show will be in AU’s Kay Spiritual Center. Doors at 6:30; show at 7; all ages; free.

The lineup includes:

Imperial China
Caverns
Solar Powered Sun Destroyer
Hammer No More The Fingers

Given that last night was filled with the kind of surreal once-in-a-lifetime revelry generally confined to History Channel photo-montages–dewy-eyed thug dudes randomly hugging in the street, liberals performing patriotic chants at a drum circle–it’s time to chill out a little bit.

Recently a friend of mine discovered this record, Sons of Ethiopia by Bethesda based group Admas, over at Som Records on 14th St. Really, you can’t get much more mellow. Recorded sometime around 1984, it’s all smooth chorus-pedal and synthesizer jams that sometimes strike an awesome/weird middle ground between Kraftwerk and Mahmoud Ahmed. My friend was kind enough to post a few tracks for download on his blog or just check out the footage below.