Southern strummer Marcus King swung between moods and sounds in a superb ninety-minute set Saturday night at the Landmark Theater. King’s nine-piece band took the stage just before 9 p.m.
as the theme from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly played over the speakers. The band launched into a jam as King stepped out on the stage, before sharply shifting right into the slow ballad “Beautiful Stranger.” After a steady build that peaked with a killer guitar solo, the band went straight into the bumping, upbeat “It’s Too Late.
” King is touring to support the new album Mood Swings , released in April of this year, and the setlist lived up to the album’s title. With a horn section, a backup vocalist, and percussionist to compliment a drummer, bassist, keyboardist – and King’s right hand man, lead guitarist Drew Smithers – this band displayed remarkable cohesion as they followed their leader through abrupt tempo changes and sonic segues. Decked out in his usual white ten-gallon hat, red-lensed glasses, and black Western shirt, King embodied his modern take on a rock and roll-infused country-Western sound.
The singer and guitarist has the old-school wardrobe and sensibilities of a rambling cowboy in a 19th century saloon, but this cowboy is a electric six-stringer rather than a six-shooter. King is known for his booming, soulful vocals, which seemed to shake the Landmark itself with their reverberations as he belted ballads and blues numbers, complimented by his own wa.