2017 release, the first album from the U.S. band in five years. Dispatch, which is based in the Boston area, was originally active from 1996 until 2002. The members then announced a hiatus, which would ultimately last for almost a decade. The hiatus ended in the beginning of 2011, when the band announced a national tour. In May of the same year, Dispatch released an EP containing six new songs, their first all-new release since 2000. The band released both their first studio album in over a decade, Circles Around the Sun, and an iTunes session in 2012 and toured North America that summer in support of the album. Heralded as one of the biggest independent rock bands in history, one of Dispatch's most memorable performances included a show in Boston that drew 110,000 people, and was dubbed the largest independent music event in history. Three years later, the band performed three consecutive shows at Madison Square Garden in ties to their philanthropic work in Zimbabwe, becoming the first independent band to sell out the historic venue. In 2011, the band officially reunited to release new material and have since embarked on multiple sold out arena tours across the globe. Dispatch is set to release their most ambitious musical effort to date this summer.