Tour NewsJohn Brown's Body30th Anniversary
John Brown's Body Mark 30 Years With a State Theatre Homecoming
The Ithaca reggae band plays the State Theatre on October 25 with founding members back in the lineup and its first new music since 2016 released across the anniversary year.
by
Oct 24, 2025
John Brown’s Body plays the State Theatre of Ithaca on Saturday, October 25, 2025 at 7 p.m., a hometown headline closing out the band’s 30th anniversary year. The Campbell Brothers and Motherwort open.
The band formed in Ithaca in the mid-1990s and spent much of the last decade off the road. It reunited in 2024 after a six-year break, following a single 2022 performance, having gone on hiatus in 2017.
Tickets are $15 on the floor and $25 in the balcony.
Founding members back in the lineup
Founding members Kevin Kinsella on guitar and vocals, Lee Hamilton on saxophone and Tommy Benedetti on drums are all part of the 30th anniversary lineup. The current group also includes longtime members Nate Edgar on bass, Jon Petronzio on keyboards, TJ Schaper on trombone and Van Martin on guitar.
The band framed the return in a statement: “The torch has been relit! Featuring a group of long time JBB players, including founding members Kevin Kinsella, Tommy Benedetti, and Lee Hamilton, the undisputed OGs of the scene are fired up to hit the stage in 2025.”
The reassembled lineup first came back together for the run covered here when the band returned in 2024.
First new music since 2016
The anniversary year brought new recordings as well as shows. “Hard Fight” was released April 4, 2025, the band’s first new music since the 2016 album Fireflies. Two more tracks followed during the year, “40,000 Years” and “Little Bit of Some.”
“Hard Fight” was produced by John Brown’s Body and mixed and mastered by Matt Saccuci Morano at Moonbase Alphalfa Studio in Ithaca, keeping the record’s production inside the city where the band started.
A dub companion for every single
Each of the 2025 singles was paired with a dub companion, each handled by a different producer. “Hard Dub” came from I Grade, “40,000 Years of Dub” from Victor Rice and “Sword Of Sorrow Dub” from Prince Fatty.
The room
The State Theatre has operated since 1928 and, at 1,600 seats, is the largest venue of its kind in Ithaca.
The band’s ties to the surrounding Finger Lakes scene run through the region’s festival circuit as well, including the appearance covered here at GrassRoots’ 30th.
Sources: Jim Catalano, John Brown’s Body / Bandcamp, Motherwort.
Photo: Andre Carrotflower, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
