The Justice

Media Credit: Courtesy of Reelbigfish.com Reel Big Fish and the Wailers will perform at the spring concert next month.

The ska band Reel Big Fish and The Wailers Band, Bob Marley's former backing musicians and now a popular touring reggae act, will headline Student Events' semesterly concert in the Gosman Athletics Center on April 12, the organization announced Monday.

This is the first concert for which Student Events will sell tickets online, assistant director of Concerts Melanie Felman '07 said, adding that tickets will still be available for purchase in the Shapiro Campus Center.

Doors will open at 6 p.m. and the show will begin at 7. Student Events has not yet booked an opening act, Felman said, and will pay the two headliners around $28,000.

When asked why Student Events chose Reel Big Fish and The Wailers, she said "because they're awesome."

"Reel Big Fish puts on a great college show," Felman said. "They're a lot of fun."

Felman said The Wailers Band is a "different and outstanding" group. "We've wanted to get the Wailers for a long time," she said.

Reel Big Fish formed during the early 1990s in Huntington Beach, Calif. around guitarist and lead singer Aaron Barret and bassist Matt Wong. The band combined a conventional rock sound with pop-metal leanings, and eventually added a horn section to develop its ska sound.

The band released Turn the Radio Off, its first album on a major label, in 1996 amid a popular ska revival, and its single "Sell Out" charted in the Billboard Top 100 and garnered airplay on MTV. Over the next decade, the band released three more albums, although none matched the success of Turn the Radio Off. After a host of lineup changes, the band currently features Barret, Wong, trombonist Dan Regan, trumpeters Scott Klopfenstein and John Christianson, and guitarist Ryland Steen.

After Bob Marley passed away in 1981, his backing band, the Wailers, stayed together and toured throughout subsequent decades.

The band currently includes bassist Aston Barret, singer and guitarist Junior Marvin, lead guitarist Al Anderson, keyboardist Keith Sterling and percussionist Drummie Zeb. Last year the band played on the Unity Tour with Pepper and 311.

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