LISTINGS |  EDITOR'S PICKS |  NEWS |  MUSIC |  MOVIES |  DINING |  LIFE |  ARTS |  REC ROOM |  THE BEST |  CLASSIFIED

True believer

Dispatch reunite for a good cause
June 4, 2007 6:11:39 PM

070608_dispatch_main
NOT A BAND: But would Chad Urmston, Pete Heimbold, and Brad Corrigan have been able to book a three-night benefit for Zimbabwe relief at Madison Square Garden if they’d stayed together and signed to a major label?

Dispatch aren’t even supposed to be a band anymore. Indeed, they broke up three summers ago, with a farewell show at the Hatch Shell that drew more than 100,000 fans from around the world. “The Last Dispatch,” as it was dubbed, became the centerpiece of a documentary that detailed the trio’s rise over the course of eight years to become one of the dominant jam bands in the Northeast, if not in America. Like Phish, they did it without much help from press, radio, or even a label. They simply spread their particular jam-band gospel — a mix of light reggae and funk with long, dubby dance breakdowns — through word of mouth and self-released albums. And when they finally began to show up on the commercial radar by selling out venues like the Pavilion here in Boston, and a big major-label cash-in became a real prospect, Brad Corrigan, Pete Heimbold, and Chad Urmston realized that they’d grown too far apart as people to continue as a band.

It was a decision that baffled many, given the money that was at stake. But as artists they had never been an easy outfit to nail down. In fact, it’s three years later and Dispatch don’t sound broken up. I’m sitting with the three of them at the Willis family barn, a holy shrine in the tale of Dispatch. Situated about a half-hour outside of Boston in Sherborn, surrounded by grazing cows, this was Dispatch central for eight years. Urmston, who plays guitar and bass and sings and writes (so does Heimbold; Corrigan does drums and singing and writes), grew up down the road a bit. But his family have got just a horse and some chickens. No cows. And, it seems, no barn big enough to serve as a rehearsal space/clubhouse. The three have convened here to begin practicing for a reunion gig of sorts: “Dispatch: Zimbabwe,” on July 13, 14, and 15 at Madison Square Garden in New York. They had intended to do just one show to raise money for a foundation that’s being set up to alleviate suffering and spotlight the dire circumstances in the land of strongman Robert Mugabe. But that show sold out so quickly that a second and then a third were added. MSG offered them two more nights; being Dispatch, they had to say no.

“We didn’t think we could deliver what the crowd deserves for a fourth and fifth night,” explains Corrigan. Urmston goes on, “You know, we’re not the world’s best band, by any means. In some ways, the reason it’s important for Brad and me to have something behind what we’re doing — a cause of some kind — is because we’re not a band who are out touring or who are creating together on a regular basis. Most if not all of these tunes date back to 1995 or something. I feel like we sound like a high-school band. The songs are good, but some of them were written when we were 18. And we’re about to go into Madison Square Garden with songs that don’t feel that sophisticated to me. So I was getting a little insecure. I worry that someone’s going to come and see us and just think, ‘What’s the big deal.’ ”

“That’s just our own competitive psyches,” says Corrigan. “And that’s the cool thing: we come from that perspective, all three of us, where we’re always trying to be better. I feel like I’m not a conventional drummer. None of us knows who’s the lead singer. But when we come together, we’re a whole. I mean, three brothers want to be separate individuals. But they are still brothers. So in a way, we really haven’t broken up because, in a way, it goes on.”

Those are the words of a band who passed on signing a fat contract because it didn’t “feel right.” Corrigan continues, “I think what took precedence was that the success of the band couldn’t make us stay together just because we were successful. We wanted to stay together because it felt right. And it just didn’t for those last couple of years.”

“Looking back on it now,” Heimbold weighs in, “it was probably a healthier thing that we decided to stop playing together, because I don’t think events like ‘Dispatch: Zimbabwe’ would have happened. I think if we had gone to a major label, if we had gone that route, we would have broken up and maybe it could have been over — over for good.”

Not that there weren’t plenty of people advising them to cash in. “It was kind of a divided camp,” Corrigan recalls. “There were a lot of people on the outside who were telling us, ‘Maybe you should just fake it. Maybe you should sign the big record deal. You guys have earned it.’ If we had done that, I think all of us would have this weird bad feeling associated with the decision, there would be this tarnish on what was a beautiful thing and started in a really simple way.”


pages: 1 | 2
COMMENTS

That was a good article. More insightful than the usual story on this group. Although I'm a bit older than the usual Dispatch fan (58), I became an ardent fan when my teenage son left one of their CDs in the car. Urmston, like John Lennon, is the cutting edge creative force in this group, although all three are talented musicians and artists. But, like Lennon, Urmston won't have the widespread appeal without Corrigan and Francis because his sensibility is too far out on the spectrum. He needs his "frat boy" former band mates' harmonies and simplicity to bring his art back to the center where the audience is. I totally understand his need to break off on his own, however. His art is not to entertain, like Francis, but to change the world. The Bush Administration’s post 911 actions must have created in him an urgency to act. Like many who understood the direction Bush was taking our country, i.e., another Vietnam, slaughter of innocents, civil liberties lost, intimidation on the media and celebrities and lawmakers; Urmston could not ignore these dramatic developments. There’s a poignant moment in “The Last Dispatch” where Corrigan tells Chad he can’t wear his “No Bush” T-shirt to the final concert. Had Chad not already broken out on his own, he would have at that moment. But he is respectful and keeps his love for his old friend separate. Without raising his voice, he asked Brad, “Are you going to vote for Bush?” When it became apparent that Brad’s answer was yes, you could read Urmton’s first incredulous, then resigned expression. Later he tells the interviewer that despite the joy of reuniting with his band mates, events of that week reminded him of why he needed to go out on his own. The sad part for the fate of Dispatch and it’s fans is that, like many well intentioned people who supported Bush, Corrigan was probably less aware of the atrocities Bush supported and the damage to our republic, and focused more on the president’s religious faith, which Brad shared. But Urmston is well read, intellectual, and understands the whole Bush picture. He must address it in his art. That Francis had to be educated about Zimbawe before agreeing to the concert, speaks volumes about why Urmston could not work with these guys anymore. Yet what is sad is that Urmston could do so much more for his causes if he continued working with his old band mates. They bring to his art a universal appeal. They enable Urmston to reach a far greater audience and have many times the influence he will have with State Radio. Such was the way of Lennon, when separated from the more pop artist McCartney. That Dispatch’s songs now sound to Urmston like a high school band, speaks to the wider appeal of simple tunes. Urmston wants to change the world, but he also wants to make art, and the two goals may be mutually exclusive, the world being too simple-minded to get his art. My hope is that Urmston will find a way to reach the wider audience before he fades. As Vonnegut would say, “so it goes.”

POSTED BY mothermayell@verizon.net AT 07/20/07 11:19 AM

Login to add comments to this article
Email

Password




Register Now  |   Lost password

MOST POPULAR

 VIEWED   EMAILED 

ADVERTISEMENT

BY THIS AUTHOR

PHOENIX MEDIA GROUP
CLASSIFIEDS







TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
   
Copyright © 2007 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group