BOSTON (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Dispatch has announced their first summer tour in nearly a decade.
The band drew more than 110,000 people to their most recent hometown appearance at Boston’s Hatch Shell and was the first independent band ever to sell out New York City’s Madison Square Garden, a feat they repeated for three consecutive nights.
Highlights on the tour will include the first ever concert at the 25,000 capacity, brand new Red Bull Arena soccer stadium in Harrison, NJ, the famed Red Rocks Amphitheater outside of Denver, the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA and a hometown stand at TD Garden in Boston.
Tickets go on sale to the general public at 12 Noon local time on January 28th at www.dispatchmusic.com, and have been set at $40 across the board. As of January 1st, fans who sign up at www.dispatchmusic.com starting have access to a pre-sale which begins at 12 Noon local time on January 21st and runs until the public onsale.
The band is offering free downloads of their entire studio album catalog to fans who help get the word out about the summer tour by using email, Facebook, and Twitter.
“Over these past few years we’ve really missed playing together, we’ve missed the road and we’ve missed our fans, and now we’re back like Halley’s Comet!,” said Dispatch according to the press release. “It’s going to be a great summer.”
This summer the band will also roll out their Amplifying Education campaign, which will focus on educational issues here in the United States. Fifty cents from each ticket sold will go to benefit education in each local market, and the band is planning additional programs to spotlight education in every market they visit.
The band’s career looked as if it would culminate in their show at Boston’s Hatch Shell, The Last Dispatch, which drew more than 110,000 people from 25 countries. Meant as the band’s farewell gig, the show was the largest independent music event in history.
Then in 2007, inspired to reunite to raise money for charity projects in Zimbabwe, Dispatch played three sold out shows at Madison Square Garden. As the New York Times said of Dispatch: Zimbabwe, “It’s a welcome reminder that the music industry isn’t reducible to the rather sad spectacle of multinational corporations trying to exchange CDs for cash.”
Dispatch members – Brad Corrigan, Pete Heimbold and Chad Urmston – released their albums on their own Bomber Records label and this month the band will enter the recording studio for the first time in 11 years to work on new material, some of which may appear in the set lists this summer and on a future release.
The band has not released a studio album since 2000’s Who Are We Living For?
Dispatch Tour 2011
6/4 – Red Rocks Amphitheatre -Morrison, CO
6/8 – Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park – Chicago, IL
6/11 – Greek Theatre – Berkeley, CA
6/18 – Red Bull Arena – Harrison, NJ
6/21 – Chastain Park Amphitheatre – Atlanta, GA
6/25 – TD Garden – Boston, MA
— Crystal Lynn Huntoon
