Dispatch concerts 2026

After leaving a trail of dropped jaws and newly-converted hardcore fans in the wake of their first trip down under, three-time Grammy Award-winning Zac Brown Band are heading back to Australia in 2015 for their first headline tour. Chugg Entertainment and Rob Potts Entertainment Edge today confirmed a return tour to Australia for the seven million album-selling, genre-defying band whose incredible musical virtuosity and unerring ability to craft ear-catching hits have earned them accolades far and wide.

This welcomed return to Australia is announced after the release of Zac Brown Band's first ever career anthology, Greatest Hits So Far.... The album collects Zac Brown Band's momentous run of 11 #1 singles, from 2008's double-platinum debut, Chicken Fried to 2013's Sweet Annie. Further highlights include chart-topping classics like As She's Walking Away (Feat. Alan Jackson), Knee Deep (feat. Jimmy Buffett), and Goodbye In Her Eyes, as well as such fan favorites as Whatever It Is, No Hurry, and Jump Right In.

Special guests on all headline shows will be Dispatch, arguably the biggest independent rock band in US history. Their 2004 farewell show drew 110,000 fans and they almost instantly sold out a staggering three nights at Madison Square Garden in 2007. Back together full-time since 2012, the band is as strong as ever, with a new sense of unity between the three members as they deliver the gutsy storytelling, radiant harmonies, and good-time grooves that Dispatch have been loved for since their 1996 debut album Silent Steeples. This will be the all-American rock'n'roll trio's first time down under and a rare chance to see this beloved band in such intimate venues.

Already announced to warm the stage for Zac Brown Band on their headline dates, as well as appearing at Bluesfest in Byron Bay, it is now confirmed that US heroes, Dispatch, will be performing their own headline dates

The news comes just after they’ve confirmed another landmark show at NYC’s Madison Square Garden, teaming up with none other than our very own John Butler Trio for “Dispatch: Hunger” – an event geared to shine a light on the issue of hunger in the US.

The Boston three piece of Chad Stokes (vocals, guitar, bass), Brad Corrigan (vocals, drums, guitar) and Pete Francis (vocals, guitar, bass) formed in the early 90s as One Fell Swoop, but regrouped as Dispatch by 1996 and set the tone for the many jam bands that would follow them. Meeting in college and touting a breadth of musical skill, their music draws upon several influences, ranging from indie folk, roots rock, reggae, fusion to rock and ska. The culmination of this broad spectrum of genres is seen in the trio’s three-part harmonies and cheeky, college friendly acoustic pop and folk-rock, with some reggae and funk layered on top.

“We’ve been called the biggest band nobody’s ever heard of,” says Brad Corrigan, one of Dispatch’s three singers and multi-instrumentalists. “People either know everything about us or they know nothing. There never seems to be any middle ground.”

How Corrigan, Chad Stokes, and Pete Francis met in college, formed a band, and — with no radio airplay, major-label support, or significant press coverage — became one of the biggest draws on the live music scene, and arguably the biggest independent rock band in history, is a remarkable story.

Dispatch gained much recognition outside of New England, without any help from a label, and stuck together long enough to release seven albums, three of which were live performances. During concerts, the band had been known to improvise upon their album releases, often resulting in a song ending in twice the length of the original. The group was also fond of switching instruments and vocal duties when playing live.

Upon the announcement of their break-up in 2002, the band scheduled one final concert. The free show was performed at the Hatch Shell in Boston on July 31, 2004. “The Last Dispatch,” as it was referred, is said to be the largest concert in independent music history with fans flocking from Italy, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Mexico, New Zealand and Australia. In an unprecedented triumph, the band played to over 100,000 adoring fans that night.

Nearly a decade later, having repaired their friendships and reconciled the issues that led to their break-up, Dispatch regrouped for a sold-out U.S. tour in June 2011 that included three shows at Boston’s fabled TD Garden Arena, three shows at Red Rocks in Colorado, and the first-ever concert at New Jersey’s 25,000-seat Red Bull Arena. They also released a six-song EP and recommitted to touring and recording, honoring not only the alchemy that occurs whenever these three gather to make music together, but also the powerful bond they have forged with their fans over the last decade.

August 2012 saw the release of the band’s first full-length studio album in 12 years, Circles Around the Sun. Featuring cinematic, expansive production by Peter Katis (Interpol, Jonsi, The National), the album is an eclectic all-American rock and roll record that delivers the gutsy storytelling, radiant harmonies, and good-time grooves that Dispatch are loved for. Kicking things off is Stokes’ rootsy Circles Around the Sun, followed by the swaggering Not Messin’ (composed by all three members), the jangly Get Ready Boy, and the bluesy Josaphine before the album closes out with two down-tempo tracks, Corrigan’s We Hold A Gun and Francis’ Feels So Good.

Since their reformation only a few short years ago, they’ve played to sold out audiences as big as 59,000 people in the USA, including their incredible three night sold out residency at Madison Square Garden. This highly anticipated first visit to Australia has been a long time coming for Dispatch and they could not be more excited to finally bring their catalogue of new and old favourites our way.