Dispatch: Zimbabwe (review)

[Mansin Humanity]

We got to the concert at about 730, it was a fucking zoo to get in. We got down to our seats which were about 3/4 of the way back, 2nd row (not floor.) They were great. The crowd was incredibly eager for the show to start. At about 820, the African Childrens Choir from zimbabwe came out and sang and danced for a few minutes, as this was a benefit for zimbabwe. There smiles couldve lit up the place, it was amazing to see. Then, Dispatch comes out. They open up with a favorite of mine, Here We Go. They went into Open Up right afterwords, another great song. After these two, they brought up the african kids again, and performed "Bang Bang," which was one of my favorites of the night, a great song and singalong. After bang bang was riddle. I could not believe my luck, as these are four of my favorite Dispatch songs, and they opened up with them. Next was Ride a Tear, which is a reggae type song which I am not crazy about, but it was good anyway. Following was Lightning, one that I had just recently warmed up to. I was disappointed however, because some guy took about 5 minutes to get one fuckin beer, so i missed my favorite part of it when i was in line for water. Oh well. "Elevators got you risin so high..." After lightning was a rocker, mission, which brought some great energy into the sold out arena. Next was prince of spades, which i wasnt so familiar with, but great nonetheless. Up after Prince was a new song, Carnival. It sounded great, and could this mean more dispatch albums in the future? That was followed by Cover This, another one of my favorites that provided a great singalong. Well, most songs everyone knew the words to, but this has long been a favorite of mine. After this was Passerby, which took me a while to recognize. It was a great performance of a great song. To close out what you might call the "first set" was fallin, which the drummer, braddigan, came down to sing, which was sweet. After this there was a brief pause, and a video about Zimbabwe, one of the many of the night. Other benefit concerts are like, yeah, stop global warming, whatever, give us money. But the band showed that they really cared about the cause that they were playing for. So, after the video, the band drove there old van out into the middle of the floor, and played an acoustic set on top of the van! 3 songs, with just acoustic guitars and a bongo. It was really great. When they got back up on stage, they played a song I didnt know, flying horses. I really liked it though, and for this song they brought out a bunch of african drummers. After FH was time served, one of my all time favorite songs by them. A great performance with some new flairs. Up next was even, another song I wasnt so familiar with but it was still a great performance. After even was mayday. During this song they showed a video of the hunger, poverty, and suffering in Zimbabwe. It was really moving, and a great song to back it up. Following this was past the falls. I found this song rather boring before, put i found myself looking forward to it, and loved it. Next was another new song, Customs, which sounded great. Again, hope for a new Dispatch album. After customs was a video of a zimbabwean man, elias, who was the lead singers friend when he lived there for a few years. They wrote a song about him, which was played after the video. Elias is one of there biggest hits, and this entire crowd was loving it. People, including me, were singing along even though alot of the words are in African. It was followed up by Two Coins, which was another song that everyone knew and sang. Up next was Cut it Match It. I had never heard this before, but now i love it. The song is just one guitar, played by pete francis, while braddigan and chad urmston rapped. It was awesome. During this song, they went out and walked around in the crowd. I hoped they would come over to my side, as did the entire section LOL, but sadly they didnt. After CIMI was bats in the belfry, a song i had been looking forward to, and it didnt disappoint. Following BITB, they left this stage for a couple minutes. No one left. Not a single person. They came back on and played a cover of a bob marley song, which was unexpected but great. After the cover, the african kids were brought back up (they were up there for elias as well), and outloud was played. I didnt recognize it at first, but once i did i loved it. Next was the most bittersweet song of the night: The General. Everyone knew this would end the night, and possibly, their career. At the beginning, my voice was already shot from singing the whole time, and then i SHREDDED my voice screaming at the start of the song, and then proceeded to sing the rest of the song. It was an amazing performance of an amazing song. The song ended, they took their final bows with all the african kids, and walked offstage to thunderous applause.

NOTES:

- All proceeds from the concerts went to charities in Zimbabwe.

- The videos made you very aware of what is going on in zimbabwe.

- However, they stayed away from the political side of the issues, which i think was a good idea.

- On at scale of 1-10: easy ten. Great crowd, great performances of every song.

- I was a the third night, so i got to hear the most songs (27) out of the three nights, and got to hear the last song of their short reunion.