DISPATCH
Pearl Street
February 3, 2001

Mixing musical genres can be a beautiful, or a dangerous, thing. At its best it can bring together diverse styles of music, melding them into one cohesive whole. At its worst, it can result in a disjointed collision of sounds in the midst of an aural identity crisis.

Dispatch is a band whose sound draws from a wide range of influences: the rhythmic sung/spoken lyrics of reggae, the gentle guitar-driven lilt of ska, the distorted guitar hooks of hardcore and the extended roller-coaster ride solos of modern jam bands. The band, formerly known as One Fell Swoop, got its start at Middlebury College in 1995. Since then they have experienced increasing popularity, gaining a huge boost from Napster and other electronic forms of distribution.

Their show at Pearl Street last Saturday drew a capacity crowd of area college and high school students. The opening band, Dr. Awkward (the name is a palindrome, and can be read either backwards or forwards), gave a decent warm-up performance that was marred mostly by the exaggerated stage antics of their lead singer. Dispatch received a warm welcome and then delved into songs from their recent release Who Are We Living For?

The audience was enthusiastic about ‘Open Up,’ the band’s second song. The lyrics take the first person perspective of a prisoner on his final journey from the cell to the gallows. Although it seems to send a loose anti-death penalty message, the song is more focused on conveying the persona of a man on the run from, well… ‘the Man.’ The idea seems to be a common one throughout Dispatch’s lyrics. Lines like ‘They were looking for me when I came to / They were looking for me when I came back / said hey you, you’re looking very suspicious / I said relax man get off my back’ could either evoke images of a lonely vigilante road warrior, or of the neo-nineties Hippie.

Midway in the band’s set they paused to let frontmen Chad Urmston and Pete Heimbold, affectionately called ‘Chetro’ and ‘Repete’ by their fans, swap places. What I thought would be a momentary switch; a quick interlude to display the bands versatility, turned out to be a central part of Dispatch’s act. Urmston and Heimbold possess equally impressive skills as guitarists, singers, soloists and bassists. Urmston delivered most of the band’s reggae influenced numbers in a sharp, articulate voice while Heimbold had a more soulful, crooning style, reminiscent for a few moments of the Chili Peppers’ Anthony Keidis. Brad Corrigan (or ‘Braddigan’), despite being stuck behind the drum set most of the time, also lent some nice upper harmonies throughout the show.

A few songs later, another personal swap brought drummer Corrigan out front to play acoustic guitar and sing while Urmston played hand percussion. Corrigan took a harmonica solo, and the overall folk sound gave the set a nice sense of variety. All three members stayed out front for ‘Cut It ‘ Match It,’ a hip-hop number with only a bare-bones acoustic guitar accompaniment that freed up the other band members for some stage antics. The song’s rough-around-the-edges mentality succeeded in riling up the crowd before the show’s homestretch. The band closed with ‘The General,’ a rock anthem describing a disillusioned general pardoning his soldiers, saying ‘I have seen the other side / and this war is not worth fighting.’ The sing along chorus of ‘Go now you are forgiven’ seemed to be directed not only at a fictitious group of soldiers, but also at a cheering, crowd-surfing audience that had come to forget the outside world with the help of their favorite band.

Before leaving the stage, Chet Urmston thanked his family for attending the show, and Pete Hiembold asked the crowd, ‘We want to take the country by storm; we’re for independent music, are you with us?’ It’s this endearing humbleness and desire to stay close to their fans that has helped launch this young band’s career. They also wield their hybrid style of reggae and rock well, with an energy and liveliness that many lesser rock bands, struggling for success, might have lost along the way. If their growing fan base is any indication, Dispatch may have a chance at attaining their lofty goals.