John Brown’s Body + Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad - House of Blues (Boston, MA; Feb. 5, 2010)

If I were to give this show a one-word tweet-sized review, the word of the night would be WAI-YOOOOOO! Throughout the call-and-response filled evening, Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad and John Brown’s Body brought the glory of Jah to Landsdowne Street.

This was my first time seeing GPGDS, and they certainly had their beats and their pacing neatly packaged. They took the stage while I was still stuck in the long, cold line to get in. However, you could hear the band clearly from outside and they had the people in line rockin’ pretty good. This was particularly impressive given that the line consisted of 300 people whose mood ranged from annoyed at best to bitter at worst, so to rock a crowd like that definitely takes some big energy in your songs. Once inside, the sounds took full effect. The band’s thick beats and rock-reggae hybrids held sway over the bulk of the crowd as strongly as any opener I’ve seen in a long time. The most impressive part of their act was simply the range of tempos. Some songs had traditional reggae beats, some were faster rock and roll beats with a reggae feel, and one song featuring straight up double-time was essentially ska. They shifted gears effortlessly, and the pacing worked out great. A semantics geek might point out that for a band called “Dub Squad” they barely played any dub, but I don’t consider that to be important. Like Duke Ellington said, “If it sounds good, it is good.” And GPGDS music sounds great by any name.

Headlining the evening was the indefatigable John Brown’s Body. This was my second time seeing them since the band shook up their lineup and sound in 2006. I am happy to report that their songs and live show are as fresh and vibrant as ever. There’s something subtly reassuring about seeing a band you’ve been seeing for twelve years who haven’t lost a step at all and are possibly better than ever. Lead singer Eliot Martin kept the crowd engaged with call-and response throughout the night and had his trademark dreadlocks flying to all corners of the building. I really liked bass player Nate Edgar’s riffs, too. He clearly had a new idea going on each song even though the songs themselves weren’t too differentiated. The horn section was the other standout. Nothing too complicated, but they were crisp and engaged, and answered the bell come solo time. A lot of times in bands like this, where the horns are a sideshow, you can see them get lazy on stage, but not here.

The unsung hero of the night who definitely deserves some props was the sound engineer. He did a fantastic job adding all sorts of effects to everything, especially the horns and the vocals. A lot of well-timed reverb and delay effects on Martin’s vocals gave the songs an enticing dub-like character. He picked his spots and added the emphasis on the right lines as opposed to just leaving the effects switch on all night. On the second song of the night, “33 RPM,” he switched the vocals to a different effect that was something akin to a digital talk-box, and it worked great. Later on in the show, Martin mentioned that the engineer had some confidence issues and asked the crowd to give him some love to boost his confidence. This took me by surprise, since I had already made a note to mention how good he was.

The night proceeded on with many tunes off of the newest album Amplify, and the energy level stayed high right up until the last note. The coat check rush claimed half the crowd before the encore, but, oh well; more room for the rest of us to get down! I was psyched to see how many people JBB brought to what is by far the biggest club that I have ever seen them at. In addition to being a good club act, I have to say that JBB is the absolute ideal band to play at an outdoor festival between 3PM and 6PM. There’s something about JBB reggae and sunshine that makes them inextricable from each other. Seeing them tonight made me think about some of their daytime sets at Berkfest that were environmentally perfect. If you ever have the chance to see JBB outdoors, don’t miss it. For now while it’s winter, there is still no question that JBB can bring the much needed heat indoors as well.

DOWNLOAD: John Brown's Body - Give Yourself Over (MP3) or Follow us for more John Brown's Body MP3s (Twitter)

John Brown's Body review to your liking? You'll sweat:

John Brown’s Body - House of Blues (Boston, MA; Apr. 25, 2009)

Rebelution + SOJA + Zion I - Roseland Theater (Portland, OR; Jan 22, 2010)

Michael Franti & Spearhead + Cherine Anderson - Marymoor Park (Redmond, WA; Sept. 12, 2008)

Phish Festival 8, Day 2 (Indio, CA; Oct. 31, 2009)

1 comments thus far ...

melophobe sponsors

Connect To melophobe

1. melophobe
2. concert reviews
3. fifty-word reviews
4. articles
5. links
6.