LAST DISPATCH CONCERT! JULY 31 @ the Hatch Shell in Boston! Aug 10 '04 (Updated Sep 24 '04)    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Music The Dirtchamber Sessions, Vol. 1 by The Prodigy From $11 Jersey Boys [Original Broadway Cast Recording] by Original Broadway Cast From $8 The Bottom Line While it was a free concert, it was nothing special and I wouldn't mind avoiding the drive next time... Well well... where to start? I guess the best place is from the beginning... as that usually is the case... Surroundings - If you're not familiar with Boson and the Hatch Shell then let me give you a quick breakdown of the situation. The Hatch Shell is just like it sounds... sort of like a shell... it's essentially half a sphere with a stage in the middle. In front there's a massive field. Looking out from the stage, to the right there's the Charles River and to the left is a pretty busy road. The T stops pretty close to the Hatch Shell (maybe a 5 minute walk), which makes parking a lot easier because you can park outside the city and take the T in. If you are feeling very adventurous, you can even Amtrak it up and take the T from South Station... but I digress... It so happened that the weather for the day was sunny and beautiful. Usually this would be an absolutely amazing thing, except that when there are so many people there that you can't stand without inevitably touching someone's sweaty back it gets to be a little gross. So 85 degrees and sunny made for a nice afternoon as the concert started at five. Unfortunately, I forgot my sunblock. There were so many people camped out for this even that you were literally smushed together like sardeens in a can... a big, wide-open field of a can... There were so many people there that they closed down the surrounding roads so that people could overflow onto them. Basically, a lot of people showed up for Dispatch's last concert... which also happened to be free. Sound System - One of the things that bothered me about the concert was that you couldn't hear anything. There were way too many people there and the area was too big for the speakers that they brought. It was essentially a guessing game between friends with song everyone should sing along to. I also want to mention that I was about three-quarters of the way to the stage, so I cannot imagine what it must have sounded like in the back. Performance - Well, now it's onto the good stuff, the performance. As you may or may not be aware, Dispatch broke up a few years ago because of different musical incentives. They all wanted to go their own way and do their own things. However, no member of the band has been overly successful on his own. They started the concert out by proclaiming "We're making a CD and DVD out of this!" Pretty much, everybody's struggling and they want to milk the Dispatch cow for all it's worth. It was supposed to be a special event of them getting back together for one final hurrah. Unfortunately, it sounded like they hadn't played together since they broke up. The flow just wasn't there. They sounded more like a cover band than Dispatch themselves. Overall - All in all, while it was a free concert for a band that at one point was in my top ten, I felt almost let down. They didn't flow together well, and when they did, it was lost amidst a sea of screaming fans overpowering a sub-par sound system. It was fun, but if given a second chance, I probably wouldn't drive from Manhattan to see them again. If you want to check out some more info on Dispatch check out their website at http://www.dispatchmusic.com Oh. And my car broke down on the way home. (c) Ryan Brennan 2004 All Rights Reserved

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