Date: April 8th, 2011
Location: Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom. Denvery, CO.
Line-Up: John Browns Body, Katchafire, Tatanka
On Friday April 8th 2011 The Pier attended an evening full of dub, reggae and dancehall by way of Tatanka, Katchafire and John Browns Body in Denver, Colorado at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom. Each band playing that night brought a different element of sound to an excited crowd that, through the night, never grew tired of dancing.
The first band to play was Colorado’s dub champions Tatanka. Heavy in bass lines and synth’s rang through the ballroom to start the night off. These guys played a lot of their newer stuff like Rave Dance, Blue Floyd and Not Important that will be released on their sophomore album which is a follow up to their well received first album Sounds In Technicolor.
Next up was New Zealand’s roots reggae super-group “Katchafire”. Watching the five vocalist within the group of seven harmonize together as well as this band does is a real treat. These guys played songs from each of their 4 albums (Revival, Slow Burning, Say What You’re Thinking and On The Road Again). They played more of their songs from their latest release On The Road Again which is scheduled for an international release on April 12th. Closing out their set for the evening Katchafire played a crowd favorite cover of Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds, leaving the crowd wanting more.
John Browns Body closed this evening and took the crowd on a musical journey playing songs like Sky Juice and The Gold. This was the first time I had ever seen JBB and I was taken back by how much they sounded just like their studio recordings in a live show. Much respect to Jocko, JBB’s sound engineer for such an outstanding job. The horn section in this band is something special as well and in my opinion completes the band as a whole. Aside from Elliot Martins unique vocal range as my favorite member of the group, I was constantly focused on the bands keyboardist, Jon “JP” Petronzio and his amazing talent.
Written by: Chad Hillje
Photo & Video courtesy of: Dub Rock Syndicate