Wednesday night, July 20th, Dispatch, O.A.R. and G. Love made their San Francisco Bay Area stop at the SOMO Center in Rohnert Park, CA. Each act brought with them career spanning catalogues and touring histories of a combined 60+ years.
Garrett Dutton, a.k.a. G. Love, minus The Sauce, opened the evening with a wide range of songs from his catalogue. He even sprinkled in crowd favorites such as “Cold Beverage”off his 1994 album G. Love and Special Sauce. Garrett also shared some behind the scene stories about recording with Jack Johnson for his next hit, “Rodeo Clowns”from his 1999 record Philadelphonic. Garrett also performed songs off his new album, Philadelphia Mississippi, which came out just last month.
O.A.R. (Of A Revolution) was up next. The band opened their set with “I Go Through”off the 2016 album XX. The songs’ lyrics definitely choked up the crowd, when lead singer Marc Roberge sang, “My kid, he asked me / ‘Daddy, when you coming home to me from work?’ / If I’m being honest, man, that hurt.” Knowing that the band is from Maryland and their families are across the country was definitely a sobering moment.
The band then switched gears and got the crowd moving with heavy bass from Benj Gershman and saxophone by Jerry DePizzo, when they dug deeper into their discography and busted out “52-50”from their 2005 record, Stories of a Stranger. Mid-set, the group treated the crowd to a live performance debut song, “What in the World”, from this year’s new The Arcade.
Multiple decks of playing cards took to the sky when the band played one of their oldest songs “That Was A Crazy Game of Poker”from 1997’s The Wanderer. The band closed out their set with “Hey Girl”off of 1999’s Soul’s Aflame. Roberge amused to the crowd that the song was their first ever music video some twelve years ago. Joining them on “Hey Girl”was Nicholas Radina on the Cuatro.
Dispatch closed out the night at the SOMO Center. Notably absent was founding member Pete Francis Heimbold, who departed the band in 2019. The band started their set off with the opening track, “Be Gone”, to their 2017 album America, Location 12. Next up, which brought a roar from the crowd, was “Open Up”, from 2000’s “Who Are We Living For?”.
Another highlight of the bands set was a crowd favorite, “The General”, off of 1997’s Bang Bang. For their encore, Dispatch brought out O.A.R. and G. Love for a crowd jubilant cover of R.E.M.’s classic “It’s The End of The World As We Known It”.
The bands continue their tour up the West Coast and then tour the rest of the USA into September.
