Lo We Are Not So, We're on a MISSION

Let me preface this by saying, all of you who know me well, know that I am a huge Dispatch fan; have been since I first heard them in 7th or 8th grade. They are my favorite band of all time, ever, and it's not even close. They were so popular in my high school it seemed like we had cover bands of cover bands of Dispatch. Unfortunately, they disbanded right around the beginning of my concert-going phase. The last shows they played together live I was a mere 14 yr old freshman wandering around aimlessly through the halls of my high school, and was more concerned about trying not get lost. My senior year, they had one final show together, free, for everybody to celebrate, even though they had been broken up for over 2 years. They have no idea how many, but it was estimated that over 110,000 people attended that show in Boston. As timing (and my luck) would have it, I moved out of New England that summer and was somewhere in the Mid West, hating my life, when they came on stage for "the last time."

Nearly two summers ago, I checked my old email address to clear up some junk mail, and I came across something that peeked my interest. Why did I get something from Team Dispatch I though? They've been broken up for 3 years now and were all doing independent projects? Low and behold, it turns out that they were having a reunion concert in Madison Square Garden. Awesome, this was my chance. They had already sold out their initial concert, but they agreed to do one on Friday night as well. Bam, six tickets to Dispatch's Friday night concert. 400 level, but the first row so we were almost overlooking them. Over 2 hours of full scale jamming and the most memorable concert ever, I was satisfied. I had finally seen my favorite band in concert. My life was now complete and I could die in peace. Until yesterday...

After almost missing the reunion concert, I vividly remember adding one of my new email addresses to the Dispatch Team mailing list. If anything like this happened again, I was going to be on top of it. Yesterday morning, I get an email from Dispatch that can also be found on their home page. An "intimate acoustic concert" in Washington DC next Friday? Ticket sales start this Friday at 10 AM? Holy shit I think, I gotta get on this. So after a few phone calls everywhere (including the Kennedy Center itself for more information) leads us to this morning. My buddy JD and I remember MSG being sold out in under an hour, and wonder what kind of madhouse will ensue to fill an 1,100 seat area; I have 2 phones set up and my computer ready to go. 9:50 rolls around, time to start calling and hitting refresh. After hearing the response "the instant charge office is closed" about 14 bazillion times, it started ringing. I was so pumped I thought I had it. Until after 2 rings, I got a dead dial tone.... Calling and calling two different numbers and I all I could get was a dead dial. I got on the internet and it went through. Only to tell me that there were 250 people in line in front of me! Awesome. It was dropping to 170, when all of a sudden, it was over 1500. Great, I love glitches, they're totally awesome!

Done, screwed, toasted. Game over. JD texts me, he doesn't sound very positive. Dammit, well it was a nice try. Then JD gives me a call, sounds down, and all of a sudden yells "Dude it worked, I got 6 tickets, row T!!!"

Holy fucking shit. Sim Simma and I are flying to DC next weekend to see a live acoustic set with 1,100 people. DISPATCH!!!!!!!!!