The Forthrights go to the roots of reggae

By John Benson

The quintet is gearing up for its first extensive tour.

These are exciting times for Brooklyn, N.Y.-based reggae act The Forthrights.

Not only is the band currently working on its full-length debut, but the quintet is gearing up for its first extensive tour, which brings The Forthrights to Warren for a Wednesday show at the Dive Bar.

“We’re getting our van inspected so we can do this tour,” said guitarist Sammy Kay, calling from the Department of Motor Vehicles office somewhere in Brooklyn. “We’re heading out in a minivan that I bought off my mother. I paid $1,200. We’re leaving with 168,000 miles on the van.”

Hmm, perhaps the group could have turned the vehicle in for the government’s Cash for Clunkers deal?

“It’s a Toyota, so they won’t let me because it gets good gas mileage,” Kay laughed. “But it’s one of those things where it’s a junker. I have a half a bumper. I’m like a cop’s worst enemy right now. I got pulled over three times last week because I had one light out.”

Similar to Kay’s estimated pedal-to-the-metal van speed of 0 to 60 in 10 minutes, The Forthrights are slowly coming together. Formed a few years ago, the five-piece has spent the last year-and-a-half in the studio recording new tunes and also honing its sound, which is decidedly old-school reggae.

“We’re a bunch of white kids from New Jersey, New York playing traditional Jamaican music on stolen guitars,” Kay said. “Not to bash our friends, but all of these bands are coming out in nice suits and we’re the guys wearing jeans and ripped T-shirts. But nothing like that dirty reggae stuff coming out of the West Coast.

“We all go straight to the roots of reggae. We listen to guys like Toots and the Maytals. Their album ‘From the Roots,’ if I don’t listen to that record once a day, I’m lost.”

Lost no more and helping others find their way is the unofficial theme behind The Forthrights, which often finds Sublime-centric audiences who need some island-music edifying.

“I met some kids recently who thought ska started with Reel Big Fish and No Doubt and Sublime,” Kay said. “Another kid I met was probably 13 and didn’t know who the Skatalites were. So I bought him their CD and I hope he comes back and says, ‘Oh my God, you changed my life.’”

Among the new Forthrights tracks that, so far, have changed Kay’s life are the up-tempo “Other People” and the reggae-meets-ska “Abilene.” Granted, The Forthrights are still new to the game, but you can sense Kay’s enthusiasm about the group’s future.

“This will be our first time in Ohio as a band,” Kay said. “I feel really good about the Youngstown show. I think it’s going to be one that we remember for a long time because it’s our first out-of-the-East Coast-headed-to-the-Midwest show we’ve ever played. It’ll be the farthest from home we ever played. It’s going to be one for the books. I think it’s going to be a good one.”