College Bands
Posted by No_Device9450@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 37 comments
I’m just stating a simple fact:
If you went to college in New England at the turn of the century, you definitely jammed OAR “Crazy Game of Poker” and Dispatch “The General,” and you probably remember when Dispatch went by One Fell Swoop.
You may also remember Pat McGee Band.
Take your Aleve today.
Opening-Dig-1125@reddit
I was listening to OAR yesterday. Crazy Game of Poker was great! Ladanday on that same album is probably my favorite song of theirs. Not only do we have similar taste in old school bands but I too take pain relievers when I hurt. Life is funny.
becauseineedone3@reddit
One of my roommates burned a power hour cd and every track was 60 seconds except the last one which was Crazy Game of Poker. I guess to celebrate if you made it to the end.
It also had those Budweiser Real Men of Genius commercials cut in.
ksqjohn@reddit
Nice, I'd love to get my hands on a few of our old power hour CDs. Such good times and usually a prelude to a crazy night!
Naive-Jello428@reddit
How about Red Wanting Blue?
deowolf@reddit
*shudders in Ohio University
DookieMcDookface@reddit
I went to college in TX in the late 90s/early 2000s, and we were catching Texas rock bands like Old 97s, Dexter Freebish, Cowboy Mouth, Spoon, and Burden Brothers/The Toadies whenever they came through town. We also were jamming out to H-town hip hop acts like Fat Pat, SPM, DJ Screw, Lil’ Troy, Paul Wall, and Mike Jones at parties. Man, those were the salad days…
bfjizzle@reddit
Omg, I can't stand OAR. That guy's voice is so annoying
-Benpachi-@reddit
Same. I went to WVU and you couldn't go anywhere without hearing that shit. Sandals, hair gel, backwards visors as far as the eye can see.
Allezgatta@reddit
Fellow Mountaineer! The song “Hooch” by Everything was also popular when I was there.
bfjizzle@reddit
In my area they wore the white hats with colleges that had mascots like "game cocks"
-Benpachi-@reddit
Yeah I remember seeing lots of those and UC Banana Slugs hats.
ShillinTheVillain@reddit
Same. And their saxophonist is never in tune. They suck so much ass. I had the displeasure of seeing them open for 311 in 2003 and they got booed.
UptownJunk802@reddit
New Englander here too. We had another Phish style band in VT called Strangefolk. By the early aughts no one could afford Phish shows especially college students so we had these guys. They probably played colleges in Burlington but also larger bars around the state, higher ground up near Burlington...Gathering of the Vibes festival stuff like that.
More-read-than-eddit@reddit
I dunno, my NE college used to get weekly appearances from Jeromes Dream
odin_the_wiggler@reddit
I must be one of the few who has never actually heard a song by OAR or Dispatch.
small___potatoes@reddit
I was all in on Phish for about 20 years
Ok-Chemist-6781@reddit
Went to high school in Denver and remember the day Jerry Garcia died. Magically the following days and weeks bumper stickers around town appeared saying "Jerry's dead, Phish sucks, get a job."
DenimChicken118@reddit
Man, I couldn’t stand that stuff.
UtProsim00@reddit
I was really into Everything
Extreme_Cheek_6168@reddit
Saw Dispatch last summer and it was a great show. Seeing Modest Mouse in a week and OAR in September. And I take fistfuls of Aleve
shornscrot@reddit
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I’ve seen Modest Mouse three times and only the Bonnaroo (05?) show was good. I hope this one’s better.
Extreme_Cheek_6168@reddit
Well, shornscrot, I'll hope for the best. Otherwise I'll just float on
jessendjames@reddit
I have distinct memories of making out with a girl to dispatch album lol
EagleEyezzzzz@reddit
Dispatch graduated from my small liberal arts college the year before I got there and would come play occasionally. Love that they sold out Madison square gardens for a couple nights recently!
TheLastBoat@reddit
Athenaeum and Sister Hazel
pinkrobotlala@reddit
I still listen to "Crazy Game of Poker" all the time
Puzzleheaded_Bag9063@reddit
In the late 90s, early 2000s I saw OAR a bunch of times at Irving Plaza, total capacity 1200. Some of the best concerts of my life. A couple of years later they were playing stadiums
GarciaWolf@reddit
Guster is another band around that time I remember being pretty popular on campus
walrus40@reddit
Yo! I saw Pat McGee a ton of time in VA. Check out state radio if you haven’t already
cmgww@reddit
The Why Store was a college band originally, formed at Ball State. They had a few national charting hits, the biggest being "lack of water." They would come back and play Allstate quite a bit, when I was a freshman they were still pretty popular nationally. Like mini bands, they broke up for a bit but reformed. They now played mostly bars and small venues around Indiana and the Midwest.
magsli@reddit
I went to college in DC. Spring of my sophomore year in April 2001, Dispatch was shilling hard for Napster because they were still in the lawsuit with Metallica.
Napster paid Dispatch to promote them and had them speak at a super big hearing on the Hill about downloaded music and how it was good for artists. Pretty sure it was a Senate Judiciary Committee.
They even drummed up a small "protest" for college kids in support of Napster outside one of the Senate offices.
The night of the hearing they also held a huge concert at the 930 for free. They were passing out flyers to all the colleges in the District.
I got tickets and went. I think I still have the concert flyer.
After that, I felt like Dispatch sold out and I stopped listening to them.
Here's a piece about it from then if anyone is interested: https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/napster-preps-for-hearing-with-promotions-80212/
barrymulvihill@reddit
Dave mathews v2.0 Flip flops and hemp necklaces
TheBrownCouchOfJoy@reddit
I went to Dispatch’s farewell show in 2003 at the Hatch Shell in Boston (along with 110,000 other fans). I also went to the documentary premier the following year in Somerville, and I won the license plate from their first touring van. The guys signed it, too. I sat in front of their parents at the movie, and didn’t realize it until it was over and I was like, oh, you were in that movie lol
fatkidscandystore@reddit
I saw oar WITH dispatch a couple years ago
beachbummeddd@reddit
OAR was up and down the east coast at festivals at the minimum. They were on the same fame level as Three Doors Down at the time who had their hit “Superman.”
jackfaire@reddit
I joined the Army in 2000. About a month after 9/11 my dad died and I went home for his funeral. My older brother gave me a Mix CD of stuff he thought I might like.
Facing a war, the loss of my dad and no idea what the future would hold I heard Dispatch 'The General' for the first time.
I don't know how everyone else felt hearing that song but I felt it in my bones.
BulimicMosquitos@reddit
Oh man, frat rock. Went to school in the Midwest, and it was cringe even out there.