Fans eagerly await band's 'Last Dispatch'
A movie premiere is vastly different from a rock concert, so no one knows how many Dispatch fans will show up to see the new documentary ''Last Dispatch" this weekend at Somerville Theatre. But all involved say they are preparing for big crowds -- just in case.
Dispatch, an indie-rock group that parlayed its grass-roots following into a college-rock phenomenon, called it quits with a farewell gig at the Hatch Shell last July. Dispatch manager Steve Bursky predicted 10,000-plus fans would attend, then watched as a crowd variously estimated between 60,000 and 110,000 arrived. As for the documentary, Bursky estimates that 5,000 to 10,000 diehards may converge on this weekend's screenings. The film premieres tonight at midnight.
''There could be some crowd issues, but hopefully we will keep them under control," Bursky says. ''And Dispatch fans are respectful fans."
Somerville Theatre plans midnight showings through Saturday and will have two screening rooms (each with a 200-person capacity) running the movie seven times a day.
''As long as they don't all come at once, we can handle it," says Caitlin Lewis, the theater's booking agent.
The band will introduce tonight's launch, then sell signed limited edition movie posters on Sunday from 10 to 11:30 a.m., with proceeds benefiting the Elias Fund, whose mission is to fund the college education of teenagers in Zimbabwe. Dispatch has roots in New England. Chad Urmston hails from Sherborn; the band formed at Middlebury College in Vermont.
About 2,000 movie tickets have been sold through dispatchmovie.com.
''There are movies that don't gross that in a whole week of a run -- and this is just in advance," says Kjehl Rasmussen, CEO of Fabrication Films, the distributor of ''Last Dispatch." The movie will run one week here unless it is held over. The film will then likely go to Chicago and New York.
Still, the local showings, timed to the anniversary of the farewell concert, which fills part of the documentary, are luring fans from all over.
''I'm catching the midnight premiere," says Kevin Gift, 17, a high school senior coming from Philadelphia. ''I wasn't able to go to the concert last year, so this is my redemption."
''I was in the front-row center at the Hatch Shell, but I'm also going to the [midnight] premiere," says Sarah Ward, a University of New Hampshire junior who is also a Dispatch ''rep." Her duties have included handing out fliers promoting the movie at recent local concerts by Ben Harper, Dave Matthews Band, and String Cheese Incident.
Spreading the word further is Shane Gilbert of Sodium Entertainment. Armed with money from the film's distributor, she has rented a house in Hyde Park for the past two months. She shares it with 10 Dispatch reps, and they've been reaching out to fans through websites myspace .com and thefacebook.com, which targets college students.
Other Dispatch-related events have been scheduled for this weekend. Urmston's new group State Radio performs at the Beachcomber in Wellfleet on Saturday, and Brad Corrigan's new band, Braddigan, is at the Saltwater Music Festival in Brunswick, Maine, on Sunday night.
But the big draw is the documentary.
Gilbert has alerted Somerville officials to the potential for large crowds. ''We may be wasting your time because we don't know how many people will be coming to the movie," she told them, ''but we wanted you to know about it." 