Dispatch is an American indie/roots band active between 1996-2002 and again since 2007. The band is composed of Chad Urmston (vocals and guitar), Pete Francis Heimbold (vocals and guitar), and Brad Corrigan (vocals and drums and percussion). Dispatch for the first 6 years of their existence was able to garner a fiercely loyal fan base while only occasionally crossing over into the mainstream. They became famous for their passionate performances and messages in their songs.
It was disbanded in 2002 and members of the band started doing solo performances. They also staged a concert in MSG in New York in 2007 that was also broadcast over the internet since it was sold out. This show proved that Dispatch still had a fan base even if it took them five years to get back together. After the reunion show in 2010, Dispatch continued to perform live from 2011 to 2019 with several concert tours.
2011 Dispatch Reunion Tour Dispatch was active only from 2001 to 2004 and then reunited in the summer of 2011 for a series of performances. They performed several shows including festival shows at the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre located near Denver. The shows were received with great reception, and within minutes of being posted, ticket sales were gone. A lot of fans had to endure long distances just to be able to watch these reunion concerts. It was a hit parade of songs, and longtime fans were rewarded with new performances of songs the bands had not played live in years. Local artists and friends like John Butler were invited to join them during their performance at the Red Rocks.
2012 Dispatch Tour Continuing the success of their comeback the previous year, Dispatch set off again in 2012 for another concert tour in the United States. They were able to keep on performing in even bigger venues, explaining that they had greatly gained in popularity compared to the time they first called it quit 10 years prior. They also had headline sets at venues such as Merriweather Post Pavilion and festivals including Gathering of the Vibes and the Firefly Music Festival. The interest of the fans was evident by the pace at which tickets for the shows were sold out.
2013-2014 Break and Solo Work Their musical careers remained active for a couple of years; however, the members of this band paid less attention to it in 2013 and 2014, preferring side projects instead. Chad Urmston was involved with his folk band State Radio in 2008. Brad Corrigan from Dispatch released a solo album known as Funnel Monster. Pete Francis recorded new songs and created a group known as The Lawsuits. Nevertheless, the guys occasionally reunited to perform a single Dispatch show including MidPoint Music Festival and Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
2015 Dispatch Summer Tour June 2015 saw the Dispatch back on the road, however, this was their first full-scale concert tour in the United States in three years. The 2-month long tour began at Red Rocks and other notable cities including Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, and Los Angeles among others. Most of the shows were sold out and this was due to tickets being sold in advance. Older fans went to more than one show on this tour, enthralled by the band's eclectic style of folk, rock reggae, and funk. The shows also featured a mixture of dispatch hits remixed into new songs and old deep cuts, as well as two new songs premiered on the tour which are “Skin the Drum” and “Painted Yellow Lines”.
2016-2018 Break from Touring Chad, Brad, and Pete continued to tour in the summer of ’93 but for the following couple of years, they focused on side projects and the occasional Dispatch EP. Pete Francis released another solo record titled The Feeling of It All. This was achieved when Chad concentrated on State Radio and produced Year of the Crow and the Water in the Well albums. A friend and fellow musician Brad Corrigan also released an album in 2018 entitled Dirty Urchin Man by Brad Corrigan and Friends.
For Dispatch, they performed at select festivals such as Mountain Jam and their first time in Hawaii at the Blue Note Festival and also their first time in Mexico at the Corona Capital Festival. Their stands at the festival continue to capture the insatiable fervor of fans who remained loyal to Dispatch, as well as extend the reach of the band’s happiness-inducing music to fresh listeners. People were able to cross international borders to watch these rare reunion performances in 2016, 2017 as well as 2018.
2019 Dispatch Break Our Fall Tour In March 2019, the band revealed that they are going back on the road for extended touring after largely being off the road for several years. Appropriately named the Break Our Fall Tour, it threatened more than 30 shows across the US that summer. Starting at the Red Rocks Amphitheater, which is very popular, it went through Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island, Chicago, and Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, among others.
As expected, most shows, and tickets were quickly snapped up by fans during pre-sales and general public on-sales. Dispatch was not wrong in boasting that the first leg of the tour was sold out. People reacted with joy online not only for the opportunity to see such a mystery performer on tour but also at them performing in familiar venues like Ryman Auditorium for the first time. People appreciated how the group played their instruments and interacted with the audience that was eager to sing along to the familiar words with their eyes closed.
Despite remaining directly in touch with the devotees using basic tools like email lists and file sharing, Dispatch was able to sustain its success through ticket sales and crowd enthusiasm with the help of the band constantly developing its members over long hiatuses to tour only occasionally. The saying that out of sight is out of mind can be disregarded here because the opposite is true; absence makes the heart grow fonder and seems to continually apply to the incredible relationship this band has built with its loyal supporters for over 20 years and counting.
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