This past weekend, some 60,000 plus college kids watched history being made as Dispatch became the first unsigned band to sell out New York City's famed Madison Square Garden. While one night of maximum capacity is an incredible feat (next week's White Stripes concert isn’t even sold out, to give you some perspective), the underground Boston-based jam-band managed to do it for three nights in a row with each concert selling out in under a half hour. While this is worthy of buzz all by itself, the band deserves additional applauds: all proceeds were donated to a charity cause for Zimbabwe, making this not only a coup for the band, but for those in need.
Consisting as a three piece, band members Chad Urmston, Peter Hemibold and Brad Corrigan, a.k.a.Braddigan, are all multi-talented and able to play each instrument. Forming in a dorm room in 1995, the group grew organically with little press hype and no major label. Instead they gained fans by word of mouth, concerts and Napster, making four studio albums and two live, selling over 600,000 copies.
I myself, discovered them through a friend back in 2000 while shuffling through list of songs on their computer and was instantly addicted to the highly catchy grooves. Mixed with influences of reggae, rock, ska, folk, pop and funk, this metaphorical casserole of style has been noted by many as to the reason their music spread so quickly amongst college age fans. It has no defined borders and was and still is enjoyed from the Greek houses on campus to the hippie haunts of any college town.
This broad fan base of youth was apparent in the crowd at MSG, where thousands of the 18-22 set converged together wearing everything from Abercrombie button ups to ripped jeans with peace sign appliqués, to shout the lyrics of the well known songs like “Bets in the Belfry" at the top of their lungs. What was surprising about the crowd however, was that even though the group has been broken up since 2004, they still attract so much attention from this age group especially when each band member has his own successful careers: Corrigan now plays as Braddigan, Heimbold as Pete Francsis, and Urmston is a member of State Radio. These Dispatch songs were the same I was singing back in college and to be honest, I thought that today's students would have moved on to something more current.
Well, I for one am glad they are not and I am positive that those benefiting from their philanthropic activities and initiatives are as well. While being eco and socially conscience is the new black lately, Dispatch is, or a least seems, genuine in respects to their various initiatives. Books for Kids, Rock for a Remedy and Musicians on Call all collected donations for a night and Crocs gave 10,000 sandals to the children of Zimbabwe. Dispatch founded the Elias fund, a non profit organization for Zimbabwe after Urmston spent some time living and teaching there. The concert series was subtitled “A Concert for Elias,” which is also the name of a song, and all proceeds were donated to it and local charities.
Article comments
1 - El Bicho
I just heard about these guys. Are their concerts available online anywhere?
2 - Tim
There is something up on their MySpace page and also on YouTube if you search Dispatch and MSG.
3 - Andrew
Hey i went to high school with Pete--First of all...the song is "BATS in the Belfry"....And one cant really call them "Boston based" since they formed at Middlebury and havent ever really been stationed everywhere...Dispatch was great at the Garden and definetly still have not lost their touch...its too bad they wont get back together..
4 - Mara
Thanks for the comment. "Bets" is a typo. If you read the whole article the song is mentioned again correctly as "Bats". Slippery fingers, ya know.
As for Boston-based you may want to call up the Boston Globe and correct them, as well as Newsday If you Google "Boston" and "Dispatch" there are a number of others that come up.
And yes, it is too bad.
5 - Will
yo... I am the biggest Dispatch fan out there, and you say youre favorite song is "Running". I have never heard of such song, I think you don't know the name to youre favorite song.... correct me if im wrong
6 - Mara
In response: the song is called "Out Loud," the chorus repeats "come running" and I guess I had just always refered to it that way. Duly noted.
I just a have few things to say however. I completely appreciate people who read this article and feel stongly enough to leave a comment, but here is the thing: The people who write on this site take their own time (and it does take time) and extol a lot of effort on what they are putting out there. No one gets paid even though some may have "real" jobs as writers. No one is fact checking or doing research for anyone, which is how it works at larger publications. And you know what? The larger publications still get things wrong. Another important thing to remember is that everyone picks their own topics and therefore chooses something they care about.
7 - Will
Mara my comment was not intented in any way to be an insult to you. I appreciate what you have wrote about my favorite band, and acknowledge the time you put into it. Don't worry about your typo's, for the Boston Globe said something about the Hatch Shell concert brought in over 30,000 fans... when in reality it was over 110,000 fans. And just for the record, "Out Loud" was SO tight at the concert!! I love when Chad sings those octaves and the crowd repeats them! I'm getting goosebumps thinking about it.
8 - Mara
Thanks Will. I guess, in retrospect, I was a tad to defesive. I totally appreciate your last coment. Thank you.