Technically, you want to overpower a speaker with the amp, not underpower. When you underpower them you run the risk of pushing the amp into clipping just to get the speaker near it's potential, and clipping is a quick way to destroy a speaker.
Now as for chaining speakers together...this gets a little tricky. You really need to pay close attention to your impedances for this to work right. What impedance are those speakers rated for? If, for example, the speakers are 8 ohms (which is common) and you run them together in parallel, then you're actually running them at 4 ohms. Now if the amp can crank out 250 watts into 8 ohms, then it can do about 500 into 4 ohms. But, by decreasing the impedance, you're running the amp hotter, using up more power, and you need thicker speaker cables so you don't lose all the power your putting into these things.
Anytime you wire 2 speakers in parallel that are the same impedance, you cut the impedance of one speaker in half. If you wire them in series, you add the 2 impedances together. The output from the JBLs is likely a parallel connection.
And actually, it may be wiser to go this route..if the amp can handle it. The lower the impedance the more efficient the amp works. Plus using this plan you can either run the amp in bridged mono, or use the second channel for something else like monitors. But, that only works if the speakers are 8 ohms. If they're 4, then you're asking the amp to go down to 2 ohms, which not a lot can do. Some of the higher end ones can do this in bridged mono mode...but you do need to keep in mind this will eat up a lot more electricity and the amp will go thermal a lot sooner than it would if you were running a 8 ohm load.
Check the manual for the amp and the speakers to figure out what option would be best. And as for using the peavy or the JBLs...I'd go with the JBLs since it is better to overpower a speaker. Also, keep in mind that just because the peavys can handle more power, does not make them bigger or better. You need to read all the specs. Pay close attention to the sensitivity rating. Another thing to look at is coverage, and dynamic range.
And if all this sounds like gibberish to you...go read the live sound reinforcement handbook, and you'll get what I mean.
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