Recap Kings Go Forth at the Majestic Theatre

The names popularly attached to the recent soul resurgence usually depend on powerful leads like Sharon Jones or more nebulous visionaries like Aloe Blacc. But maybe the most telling trait of Milwaukee’s Kings Go Forth is their ability to evade this list. They don’t depend on any one feature for their success—they’re a full-bodied group of inter-generational soul enthusiasts who have spent enough time studying old vinyls to know what constitutes an unimpeachable soul jam. The band’s full-length debut, The Outsiders Are Back, stands as a crowning achievement not just for its internally complex songwriting, but also for its ability to inject even the stiffest hips with the boogie-woogie disease.

The latter trait is the one most noticeable at the ten-piece’s live show, and it helped Kings Go Forth turn an otherwise chilly January night into a heated affair at the Majestic Theatre Saturday. Kings’ setlist drew heavily from the LP, highlighting the polyrhythmic jostling by drummer Jeremy Kuzniar and percussionist Cecilio Negron, Jr. Kings Go Forth are all about teamwork, and whereas most soul contemporaries would be content to leave their songs with just one or two hooks, the group’s three-part brass section often helped make use of at least three or four. Bassist Andy Noble’s furious fretwork held everything firm, but the call-and-response duo of vocalists Black Wolf and Dan Fernandez was the signature tandem that elevated the ensemble to a heightened purpose.

The members of Kings Go Forth are hyper-informed soul aficionados, so they know enough not to stray too far from the works of early soul luminaries. Even live, there’s a faint trace of vinyl hiss in their bombast brass; but they don’t just recite music history, they invigorate it with modern stressors that re-assert the source material’s timelessness. Their set was urgent, intense, and insatiable—and it made the dance floor hysteric.

That same floor was already getting scuffed up before the headliners took the stage, thanks to Chicago’s JC Brooks And The Uptown Sound. Brooks and his band showed a studied range from falsetto roller-skate jams to exclamatory funk—and what Brooks called “pussy-gettin’ music”—packing in a soul-infused cover of Wilco’s “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart” and reminding everyone of the funky original version of “Tainted Love” for good measure. The towering frontman grew more comfortable and charismatic as the crowd slowly warmed to the performance, but the Uptown Sound’s impressive array of solos and deep grooves was just as responsible as anything for the swelling dance floor.