Kings Go Forth at Turner Hall
The Milwaukee band delivers a dance party, but no record
CJ Foeckler
Kings Go Forth's Danny Fernandez (left) and Andy Noble.
Fans awaiting the full-length, self-titled debut by Milwaukee soul masters Kings Go Forth will need to wait a bit longer. The record wasn’t ready for Friday’s album-release party at Turner Hall; the band’s label Luaka Bop handed postcards to concertgoers explaining “the album isn’t done yet,” and offered instructions for getting a free download of the “One Day” single. No other information was given regarding the timeline of the release, just that the label “will let you know when the album is done and offer it to you at a special price.”
Not being able to buy the record was a letdown, but nonetheless, Kings Go Forth showed why it’s the biggest band in Milwaukee, with one of the city’s most diverse followings. Parents brought their kids, and white-haired folks mingled beside twenty- and thirtysomethings. This is a solid indication that Kings Go Forth is doing justice to the artists and genre that it pays homage to, something that Andy Noble and company reaffirmed once again Friday night.
The show was a dance party from the get-go, from the high-energy opener “You’re The One,” a showcase for the band’s signature three-part male vocals, right on through the closing number “One Day.” Judging from the smell, some of the audience members took the ballad “High On Your Love” literally, getting down on some pungent buds during one of the few down-tempo moments of the show. Perhaps some herbal enhancement would have helped make sense out of the band’s choice for visual accompaniment—a screening of the 1967 Lee Marvin thriller Point Blank—and definitely explains the abundance of noodle-dancing during the raucous back half of the set, which included the driving disco stomp “Don’t Take My Shadow” and a cover of “Maybe So, Maybe No” by The New Holidays.
Some of the set’s best moments were excursions into Latin soul and reggae in songs not featured on the band’s website. If nothing else, the show indicates Kings Go Forth is sitting on a plethora of hot new tracks that remain, at least for the moment, unreleased.
