By ANTOINETTE C. NWANDU

CRimson staff writer

An unsuspecting visitor who happened upon Sanders Theater last Monday night would not have been able to detect that the treacherous midterm season has descended on the campus. The theater, usually reserved for sleepy-eyed Social Analysis 10 students and sedate Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra concert-goers, was filled to the brim with anxious fans awaiting the three rambunctious frontmen with Boston roots better known as Dispatch. Braddigan (Brad Corrigan), Chetro (Chad Urmston), and Repete (Pete Heimbold) turned what would have been a great opportunity to catch up on study and sleep into an energy-filled, dancing-in-the-isles, let’s-break-some-guitar-strings, sing-along fest that didn’t let out until a little before midnight.

Devoted Dispatch fans and first-timers alike could hardly stay in their seats as the band urged them to clap along to crowd pleasers like “Bang, Bang,” “Small Change,” “Bats in the Belfry” and “The General.” Chetro, donning a black Rage Against the Machine t-shirt and a head full of the happiest blond curls ever, enchanted listeners with his smooth reggae-influenced vocals, while Braddigan provided intricate drum solos à la The Who’s Keith Moon and Repete pounded out bass lines soulful enough to hold their own against some of funk’s greatest.

With a hectic tour schedule on the horizon and the Nov. 6 release of their latest album, Gut the Van, a live compilation of many popular Dispatch songs, Braddigon, Chetro and Repete are not looking to slow down any time soon. Armed with a growing fan base and the word-of-mouth popularity that landed them an opportunity to play the FleetBoston Pavilion last June, Dispatch are an up-and-coming phenomenon with enough pull to get students all too concerned with grades to stay out way past their bedtimes. Longtime Dispatch fan Kerry M. Houlihan ’05 said, “It was a little surreal to see Dispatch playing in Sanders because I’m used to seeing them in tiny venues in New York City. I had just seen the Glee Club performing in Sanders the other night, so having the Veritas symbols illuminated by the flashing lights was definitely a different experience.”

From the Ground Up

The boys from Dispatch are no strangers to the Boston music scene. After getting their start at Vermont’s Middlebury College as One Fell Swoop, the three returned home to Boston and began gigging at local venues like the Middle East and Avalon. “We started out playing in these tiny little rooms in Brookline,” said Repete, “and it’s great because the fans in places like that are so receptive.” Dispatch has gained a local following on many college campuses and regional bars, a start many liken to that of the Dave Matthews Band.

In the early days, Dispatch had to do it all themselves—drive from venue to venue in their trusty used van, “Wimpy,” and set up their own audio equipment in hopes that the shows in the Wetlands or the small local bars would grow into something bigger. As is usually the case with underground talent, the local fanbase began to grow strong and devout. “Sometimes before a show people will come up to us and tell us that they drove from Pennsylvania to see us. That kind of thing first started happening when we played the Middle East again and again” said Chetro. Though they remember the Central Square venue as being “like a dungeon and really gritty,” Chetro acknowledged that when trying to get the music to the people,“that’s just how you do it. We were psyched to get in there and psyched to get out.” And Dispatch did get out; as their songs spread via word of mouth and Internet music trading, the smaller venues simply couldn’t contain the demand for their unique brand of rock and roll.

In some respects, this little band would have been without a leg to stand on if not for the explosion of Internet music trading that reached a feverishly high pitch only a few months ago. With all of the hullabaloo over copyright laws and getting the music into the hands of the people, Dispatch stands outside of the whole corporate fight to stop Internet trading. As an unsigned band that has yet to positively acknowledge the offers from both Epic and Dreamworks, Dispatch “can’t not be cool with that [Internet trading] because of the way Napster’s helped us out so much,” said Repete. Repete feels that the impulse to trade songs freely online is a good one. He stated, “If bands would just give a song or two to Napster...then they could get their music out all over the place.”

Comenting on the turn that many Internet trading sites have begun taking, Chetro added, “It makes sense that they’re going towards some sort of subscription-based infrastructure. We got to know Napster really well and found that CD sales actually went up. It was a resurgence of our music and of independent music in general and not just the big poppy N’ Sync-to-Creed spectrum.”

In fact, the band’s success on Napster was cited as a major component to their being able to play FleetBoston this summer. Melis Sancaktar ’03, who has been listening to Dispatch for a little over a year, first learned about the band when she saw them in concert. “After that I was a Dispatch fan and started downloading all the mp3s I could find and eventually just bought all of their albums which now have a regular spot in my CD player,” she said.

Like many small, unsigned bands that have come before, Dispatch understand how important their connection to the fans is. Relying on listeners to do what a distribution team would for a larger band, Dispatch have created what they like to call their “D-Team.” ‘Reps’ across the country can log onto the Dispatch website and report on anything from ticket sales to album sales and the growth of the band’s local following. Chetro admits that the administration needed to maintain the D-Team on the band’s side of things have, at times, fallen by the wayside, which if nothing else is a testament to the loyalty of fans who have been following Dispatch since the mid-90s. “It’s not like [people] signed up to be reps, they’re just a part of our team. Everyone who followed us when we played the Wetlands for four years...just feels like they’re part of this whole movement and we’ve been really receptive to that,” said Chetro.

When faced with concepts like “stardom” and ‘fame,” Dispatch try to keep a collective level head. While they enjoy playing the bigger venues and reaching more people with their music, the guys don’t like to think of themselves as rockstars. Chetro explained, “As far as a level of stardom goes, that doesn’t really register.” Repete agreed, “It’s still for us all about the people and our show. All of a sudden we’re playing in a room that’s really big but that doesn’t mean we can be like, ‘Yeah now we’re a big deal.’” With their growing success, Dispatch now have a few amenities usually reserved for full-fledged rock acts, including a dedicated road team and stage manager, a new van affectionately named “Peggy” and plans to participate in a charity compilation album, Bands From America, that will include tracks from the String Cheese Incident, G-Love and the Special Sauce and Guster, among others.

In addition to participating in the compilation, Dispatch hope to add their name to other charity and relief efforts in the aftermath of Sept. 11. “We wanted to do something on Sept. 30,” said Braddigan, “but that was too soon, especially in New York. It’s kind of tricky By ANTOINETTE C. NWANDU

CRimson staff writer