BOSTON, July 31 -- After eight years of performing as a group, the band Dispatch reunited Saturday for a final performance following their 2002 breakup. The concert, titled "Nectarfest," took place at 5 p.m. at Boston's Hatch Shell and lasted until sundown.
Staying true to their anti-mainstream label form, the concert was free and open to the general public, drawing between 50,000 and 100,000 fans, including several Dartmouth students.
"It was easily thousands. They blocked off multiple roads and the entire park was packed," concertgoer Jessica Magidson '06 said.
According to Magidson, the heavy crowd impeded the performance.
"It was way too crowded to actually enjoy the music, but everyone still really enjoyed the show just because the crowd was so fun. You really couldn't move anywhere, and all of the lines were ridiculously long. To get anywhere near the front, you had to have gotten there hours and hours prior to the concert," Magidson said, adding that she could barely see the stage.
The band performed all of its old classics and included some new songs off their solo efforts. The concert had two encores.
"After the first encore, everyone stood and chanted, 'General,'" Tracey Fung '06 said. "After a long while, the band came back and played it."
Reactions to the band's farewell differed. Despite "the ridiculous number of people who showed up, the length of the show, the constant chanting of 'Don't break up,' it was just another Dispatch concert," Fung said.
Magidson, however, disagreed.
"It didn't compare [to the group's other shows]. I felt like this concert was less about the music and more about the crowd and the atmosphere of the show. People were just so psyched to be there. I mean, I could barely hear or see from where I was," Magidson said.
The energy of the crowd, comprised mostly of high school and college students from as far away as South Africa, Spain and Australia, was raucous. Fung described the scene as crazy, and Magidson recalled a massive water bottle fight.
"Everyone just started throwing water bottles toward the stage, and it lasted for so long. I had never seen anything like this before, and people were walking off bleeding from being hit with plastic bottles flying everywhere," Magidson said.
Dispatch, known for its uplifting and infectious fusion of rock, reggae and funk genres, has sold more than 350,000 albums in total, all without the help of a major record label. They have produced five albums altogether, culminating with their live compilation collection "Gut the Van," released in 2001.
The band, consisting of Brad Corrigan, Chad Urmston and Pete Heimbold, formed while the three were students at Middlebury College in Vermont and they reportedly chose to have their last concert in Boston as a tribute to their roots.
"I think everyone was excited to hear Dispatch play such a long set, and although it was tiring to be standing for such a long time -- I bet it was even more draining for people who had been waiting since the night before -- the music got everyone pumped up," Fung mused. "It was great."
