A savvy concertgoer knows Chicago street festivals can offer some of the best music bargains around town. For a mere $5, West Fest attendees had the chance to see two top-shelf acts, Syl Johnson and Those Darlins. Neither was shy about expressing themselves, though they went about it in different ways.

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Johnson has been enjoying a late career renaissance thanks to the deluxe box set, Syl Johnson: Complete Mythology, that The Numero Group issued last year. The 75-year-old  Chicago blues and soul man has given some exciting performances around town in its wake. Add Sunday’s performance to the list.

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Johnson was introduced as “one of the legends of soul music” and then showed why. He may never have broken out nationally, but his talent is undeniable. To hear a compact set of his hits is a powerful display of old school soul. He opened with “That’s Why,” “Straight Love, No Chaser” and “Try Me” in setlist order, then started calling off songs to his 10-piece band, which included four horns. It was funky and loose, just like its leader.

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Johnson’s wild side came out during “Come On Sock It to Me.” He asked the band to hit him one time, then two, three, four and…21 times, shaking and thrusting to the count. He didn’t stop there, asking the band to hit him 100 times. As the crowd counted, Johnson reveled in the funky climb. It was the work of a veteran showman who knows how to up the ante to make a performance come alive.

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Wearing a t-shirt asking “Is It Because I’m Black?”, Johnson played the socially conscious song of the same name that’s one of his trademarks. He said it will be in an upcoming documentary about baseball player Curt Flood, who refused to accept his trade from the St. Louis Cardinals to the Philadelphia Phillies in 1969. While Flood lost a subsequent court case that reached the U.S. Supreme Court, he set the stage for free agency. “We’ve got a change going on,” Johnson sang in “Same Kind of Thing.” Then came “Take Me to the River,” the Al Green song that Johnson covered when he recorded for Green’s label, Hi Records, in Memphis in the ‘70s.

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Johnson played harmonica during his set, and even rapped in the funky closer “Ms. Fine Brown Frame.” His songs visit a number of different genres, but, as the West Fest crowd witnessed, Johnson is a classic soul man who can still deliver on a stage.

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Syl Johnson setlist:

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That's Why

Straight Love, No Chaser

Try Me

Anyway The Wind Blows

Different Strokes

Come On Sock It to Me

Is It Because I’m Black?

Same Kind of Thing

Take Me to the River

Ms. Fine Brown Frame

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Start: 7:03 p.m./Finish: 7:53 p.m.

Totals: 10 songs, 50 minutes

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“I’ll bring the pussy, you bring the dick,” Jessi Darlin sang in her band’s opener, “Funstix Party.” “I’ll bring the beer, you bring the drugs.” And with that, Those Darlins announced from the stage at the intersection of Chicago and Damen avenues how serious they are about having a good time.

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Despite the raunchy opener, the show turned out to be, for them, low key compared to the previous two times I’ve seen Those Darlins. That was understandable. The road warriors have been touring for most of the last three years, and played the night before in their hometown of Nashville been piling in their van and driving to Chicago for the early evening gig. They’ve been known to venture into the crowd, but a sturdy barrier in front of the stage negated that possibility. Nikki Darlin in particular has been a wild presence at the previous shows I’ve seen. However, Nikki was the least animated of her fellow Darlins lined across the front of the stage, though she did drop to her knees while singing. Jessi was close to her feisty self at center stage, while Kelley was the most animated I’ve seen her on the right. Drummer Linwood Regensburg kept an eye on the scene from the back and propelled the beat with insistence.

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Those Darlins showcased their sophomore effort, Screws Get Loose, playing nine of the 11 songs from the well-received album. No less an authority than the dean of rock critics, Robert Christgau, gave Screws Get Loose an A-. Those Darlins mix country, rock and punk to form a sound of their own. When I first saw them at Schubas in early 2010, I thought they were most effective when they veered from country into rock and punk. That indeed has been where their music has progressed. This performance sounded like it sanded off some of the country and punk extremes and played out more in the rock middle, but the modest sound system was partially responsible for that. The set came alive when Nikki sang “Night Jogger” and “Prank Call.” The security barrier may have restrained Nikki, but she still wound up singing on her knees in front of Regensburg’s kit. Meanwhile, Jessi and Kelley showed how the road can whip a band into shape. Their guitar playing and interplay were a highlight, certainly more interesting than most of what Music Row is producing these days. They also revealed themselves as classic songwriters on Jessi's "Waste Away" and Kelley's "Boy."  

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Their epic cover of “Shakin’ All Over” was missed, but they smartly stuck to their own material during the truncated fest set. Jessi sang “Mystic Mind” with zoned-out, bugged eyes as she wandered around the stage, and Kelley invoked the look, too. Such left-field extreme, just like with “Funstix Party,” is where Those Darlins become particularly compelling and separate themselves from the pack. That's where the fun is, and they know it.

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Those Darlins setlist:

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Funstix Party

Red Light Love

Hives

Screws Get Loose

Night Jogger

Prank Call

Fatty Needs a Fix

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Burn Me Up

Tina Said

Waste Away

Mystic Mind

Boy

Be Your Bro

Start: 5:33 p.m./Finish: 6:15 p.m.

Totals: 14 songs, 42 minutes

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Editors note: Those Darlins return to town as co-headliners with Peelander-Z on Oct. 5 at Empty Bottle and Oct. 6 at Schubas.

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