Acrpost: A Project of the Pacific Association of Artist Run Centres

Event Description

Fans who were lucky enough to catch John Brown’s Body’s most recent performance in Vancouver when they opened for Slightly Stoopid back in mid-January of 2006 were treated to something truly special.



Over the past 9 years John Brown’s Body has established itself as the premier American reggae band, through constant touring, four popular studio albums, and one live release with a reggae legend. The band has been called the most original reggae band in the U.S., a moniker it takes very seriously as it unleashes its most significant release yet: Pressure Points.

They say that out of trials come great rewards. In the case of John Brown’s Body, Tribulations indeed spawned this unique musical outfit. Born out of the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, JBB was the successor to Tribulations, an up-tempo reggae band that melded Island sounds to a harder edge. Tribulations enjoyed some modest international recognition, preceding the success of similarly conceived West Coast acts like Sublime and 311, before breaking up in 1994.

Kevin Kinsella, lead singer and chief songwriter of the group, formed John Brown’s Body out of the ashes of Tribulations a year later. Founding JBB members Tommy Benedetti, Lee Hamilton, Josh Neuman, and Sam Godin were all road-tested members of Tribulations, well versed in the sounds of Jamaica. “The goal was just to strip out the rock guitar of Tribulations and get back to the classic compositional elements of reggae,” says Benedetti.

Pressure Points, JBB’s latest effort, is the group’s most ambitious and creative yet, one that fulfills the belief of fans like Dave Matthews, Jurassic Five, Toots & the Maytals and Burning Spear (all of whom John Brown’s Body has opened for) and combines hard-edged classic reggae soul with modern sequencing. The idea of American reggae might sound a little strange at first, but by the end of the kind of celebratory show John Brown’s Body puts on you’ll wonder how you lived without it.