I think that I know less about Dispatch and Jason Marz than before the festival. We did the Elephant Revival. Not sure that they could have done anything to make me not miss Leftover Salmon. About to make up for that with two nights of LoS in St. Paul and the Big Top followed by Dead Horses and Horseshoes and Hand Grenades in Summerfest.
I knew nothing about them going in, and I would say I was favorably impressed. Without going into the reason, I was listening from my campsite in Town Park, so I actually did not know what the songs were actually about. The impression I got was third world rhythms, maybe African, maybe South American, kinda rootsy sounding. I tend to like that.
I heard an interview on the radio that afternoon. One of their main members was not with them. Long story short, he suffers from depression and had to leave the tour. They were making no secret of it, because he wanted people to know what was going on to raise awareness re: depression. That also impressed me favorably.
Now that I think of it, I will amble over to Spotify and listen to some Dispatch.
They are a super chilled out band. Their music is extremely laid back in terms of the vibe. I think the biggest reason people were disappointed they were on the lineup is because they’d been here so recently and because their music tends to be highly repetitious. They definitely have some good songs (see “The General” and “Out Loud” for my favorites), but they lack the magic of someone like Leftover Salmon.
Still scratching my head over why Dispatch was given the late Saturday slot. Traditionally, going as far back as Chris Daniels, the late Saturday show has been a party set. All the dancing folks would take over the dance areas. At times PB would take most of the chairs out of the pit and let all the volunteers in to party and dance. So why the change? Did PB just want to try something different this year? Has the Friday Greensky show bedome the new party set? Expiring minds wish to know.