A band that has already built a devoted Mobile following returns to Dauphin Street on Thursday, Sept. 1, when the Marcus King Band headlines Soul Kitchen, 219 Dauphin St. Doors open at 8:30 p.m., and tickets are $8 in advance or $10 at the door, available through the venue and its website.
The young outfit is carving out its place in the Southern rock tradition by looking backward to move forward: rather than piling on modern gloss, the group leans hard into the blues roots of rock, with frontman and guitarist Marcus King’s fretboard command at the center of the sound. His playing has become the band’s calling card, drawing comparisons to the guitar greats who shaped the genre.
New Music on the Way
Local fans — many of whom already keep the band’s 2015 debut, “Soul Insight,” in heavy rotation — can expect a preview of what comes next. The group’s self-titled sophomore album is due Oct. 7, and the tour setlist is expected to draw from the new material.
The first taste of that record, the single “Ain’t Nothing Wrong with That,” hints at another side of King. The track trades guitar heroics for deep soul: driving drum work, bright horn lines and an alto vocal turn from King himself that suggests the band’s ambitions stretch well beyond standard Southern rock.
For downtown Mobile music fans, it is a chance to catch a fast-rising act in a small room before the rooms get much bigger.