Nine years ago this week I took my then-girlfriend to see one of her favorite musicians, Pete Francis. He played in a band she loved called Dispatch. They were a late-’90s early-’00s wannabe-hippie college kid’s answer to Phish. A little bit more rock, a little less jammy, but I swear the reaction from 18-22 year olds at the time was about equal to that of Phish almost a decade earlier. The feverishness of the band’s fanbase and their general aesthetic were nearly identical. Simply because my girlfriend at the time liked them, I saw Dispatch play a show in Vermont in 2001. I went on my own even though she was 300 miles away at a different college. I also saw Pete Francis that year on his first solo tour. I think I went because it gave me bragging rights to see her favorite band and one of its members before she did. I didn’t even like the music.
In the summer of 2002 I transferred from Vermont to Muhlenberg, and during the break between schools I took her to see Pete Francis at the Knitting Factory, and Dispatch at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park. They filmed the Stone Pony show for a a DVD/CD called Under The Radar and if I remember correctly (it’s been a decade — yikes) during the performances from that show you can see us make out like a bunch of animals in the front row, totally oblivious to what’s happening on stage. Funny stuff. Ah, youth.
A year later when I was working for the Muhlenberg college newspaper I elected to interview Francis before a show he played at the college. I remember it being really awkward because his second album, Untold, was really bad and I wanted to pick his brain about it. Also I wanted to bang a friend’s roommate, and she was a big Dispatch fan I asked her if she had a question for me to pass on to her hero Pete Francis. Her question was, “What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?” Oh the things we’ll say to embarrass ourselves to hopefully get laid. It didn’t happen.
The show at the Knitting Factory was an opening slot for Matt Nathanson. It was pretty unmemorable, but I found some photos of the show and I’m reminded of how goofy the lead guitarist was. His “rock face” was out of this world. Out of all the terrible singer/songwriters that girlfriend made me listen to, I liked Matt Nathanson the most. He had a sense of humor on stage, was self-deprecating, and he wrote a few really good acoustic pop songs. I interviewed him in 2003 or 2004 when he played a show at Muhlenberg too and he was a really nice guy. Maybe if I can find the recording of that show I’ll post it with the interview. Until then, this is literally the only music file on my laptop that I haven’t shared yet, so you have to endure it until tomorrow or Thursday when I can get something cooler and more Swan Fungus-ian off one of my hard drives.
Pete Francis
Knitting Factory; New York, NY (2002-06-27)
MegaUpload DL Link
01. One Train
02. Burning The River
03. Train Window
04. Stones
05. Father Rose
06. Carry You
07. Julie
08. Auburndale
09. Hudson Dream
10. Motion
11. Coal Miner
12. Untold
