Oct 232 min read

DISPATCH AMPLYING DEMOCRACY TOUR 2024: MGM MUSIC HALL AT FENWAY

Photos by: Joanna Gleason

Review by: Jean Senat Fluery

As a photographer, I went to many concerts and festivals during the summer and the beginning of the fall to shoot rock bands. However, I did not have a chance to meet a rock band from Boston.

Contrary to other cities like Nashville, Austin, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, New Orleans, Seattle, Los Angeles, etc. Boston has a few notorious bands in its history. Aerosmith, Pixies, Mission of Burma, are only the three all-time greatest rock bands from Boston.

Nevertheless, the city has the reputation of having the largest independent college contemporary music in the world. The Berklee College of Music which is known for the study of jazz and modern American music; offering college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including rock, hip hop, reggae, salsa, heavy metal and bluegrass.

The number of famous musicians who attended Berklee is exhaustive: John Mayer, Gustavo Borner, Gary Burton, Quincy Jones, Natalie Maines, Jay Newland, Matt Schaeffer, Todd Whitelock, etc.

Berklee alumni have won 310 Grammy Awards, more than any other college, and 108 Latin Grammy Awards.

That is being said, on October 18, 2024, I was so excited to see at least on stage one of the most successful bands from the Boston area: DISPATCH.

Led by multi-instrumentalist original members Chadwick Stokes (guitar, vocals) and Brad Corrigan (drums, vocals), Dispatch is an American indie/roots band from Middlebury, Vermont, U.S. but based in Boston.

Blending reggae and folky blues rock with some ska-ish horns (trumpet, saxophone), Dispatch at MGM MUSIC Hall at Fenway played a series of songs featured in different albums: A repertoire rich and varied.

In May 2011, the group released an EP containing six songs, their first all-new release since 2000. The same year, the band released their first studio album, Circles Around the Sun. On April 22, 2013, Dispatch announced a double-disc live album called "Ain't No Trip to Cleveland Vol. 1", released on June 4, 2013. After a long pause, the group returned with a new album, America, Location 12, released in June 2017. On February 25, 2021, Dispatch announced their eighth studio album, titled Break Our Fall, released on May 28, 2021.

In October 2024, they embarked on the Amplying Democracy Tour, including several stops in main battleground states before the 2024 election in an effort to encourage voter registration and participation. These shows also included the announcement of a new album and a preview of some of the songs, coming in early 2025.

When it comes to the band and its repertoire, the present is full of promises and achievements. But the challenge of the future is the highest. The hope is to see one day on stage the three band member's founder of Dispatch: Chadwick Stokes (piano), Brad Corrigan (guitar), and Pete Francis (guitar).