String Cheese Incident – July 15th & 16th – Red Rocks Amphitheatre

Photos by Tim Dwenger

The Scene: If you’ve ever been to a String Cheese Incident you know what the scene is like.  Sure, it’s changed a bit from when I started seeing the band back in 1999 but the good vibes that have always formed the foundation of the scene are still prevalent and kind souls with smiling faces abound.  Some are decked out in their best Steam Punk attire, others in fairy wings, and still others in sequined capes.  It’s a carnival for the senses and it’s one of the things I’ve always loved about SCI.

Another thing I’ve always loved about this band is their ability to pick amazing openers.  Over the years I’ve seen James Brown, Bootsy Collins, Del McCoury, Jack Johnson, Earl Scruggs, and so many more legendary musical names take the stage before The Barefoot Boys and this past weekend was no different as Nershi and company lined up three insanely talented openers to kick-off each night right – and boy, did they ever!

Opener (Night One): Tauk. The buzz leading into the weekend centered heavily around Tauk in my circles of friends.  This powerful Funk quartet from Brooklyn is making waves on the scene and, judging by their performance on Friday, the waves are 100% warranted.  Their brand of Funk is a little different from what you might be expecting as it is heavily influenced by electronic elements but it will get you moving, I personally guarantee it!

Their 60 minute set was chock full of original material that flirted with an Umphrey’s McGee like quality and kept the energy on the rocks at a fever pitch, but when they busted into Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” things got turned up another notch and they damn near blew the roof off the place.  It was a great set to witness and I can’t wait to catch these guys again when they are headlining!

Opener (Night Two): Kamasi Washington. I have been listening to Kamasi Washington’s album The Epic for several months now so I was primed for him to take the stage on Saturday and put on a Jazz clinic for the uninitiated in attendance.  From the moment Kamasi and his six piece band took the stage they owned it.  Featuring a powerhouse rhythm section highlighted by dueling drummers and Miles Mosley on bass, this is not your grandfather’s Jazz.

Kamasi made his mastery of the saxophone immediately apparent and even invited his father out to the stage for a take on the original composition “Henrietta Our Hero” which was written for his grandmother.  Throughout the set it was clear that each member of the band had nothing but mad respect for the others.  As solos were passed around, grins flashed across the stage and Kamasi even opened things up for Mosley to feature a fantastic song of his own that will show up on an album to be released this fall.

When it was all said and done it was clear that Kamasi Washington is one of the best things to happen to Jazz in a long time.  He is managing to appeal to both fans of traditional Jazz and fans of Jambands and Indie music, and that’s not easy to do.  Do yourself a favor and pick up The Epic, you’ll be glad you did.

String Cheese Incident: I’ve seen somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 String Cheese shows over the last 17 years and though they have had their low points as a band, I keep coming back for the high moments I know are just around the next corner.  They’ve always come, so I keep coming back.  While the two shows I caught this past weekend did certainly have their high points – That “Texas” opener on night one, and all four of the songs Kamasi Washington sat-in on night two – I was struck by something that I have not noticed before.  I think the band is intentionally going in a direction that I’m not really a fan of.  It’s not that they aren’t playing well – there were some fiery jams both nights; it’s not that they aren’t having fun and getting along as a band – I saw lots of smiles on the stage both nights; it’s not like the fan base is dwindling – 27,000 tickets sold over three nights is pretty impressive; but there are more and more “new songs” that I don’t particularly like and they are embedding themselves deeply into the rotation at the expense of the material that I fell in love with over the course of the 2000’s.

Of the four sets I saw this past weekend, the middle two (Friday’s second set and Saturday’s first) were far and away the best.  Was it because that’s where the “old songs” were dominant, maybe, but I think it’s also because the song placement decision were better.   Take “Just One Story” > “Way Back Home” > “Everybody Wants To Rule the World” > “Way Back Home” to open set two on Friday night.  That was powerful!  That was what I loved about this band all those years ago.  They were having fun and keeping the crowd moving.  After a mediocre “Seventh Step” they closed things out with “Black Clouds,” “Miss Brown’s Teahouse” > “Let’s Go Outside” and despite “Let’s Go Outside” being a pretty weak closer they redeemed themselves with “Rivertrance” to close out the night with a bang.

The energy seemed to carry over to Saturday’s first set and the band came out of the gates blazing with “Restless Wind” and “Best Feeling” to get the party started.  The middle sequence of “Rain,” “Until The Music’s Over,” and “You’ve Got The World” left something to be desired but when they brought Kamasi Washington out for the set closing “Impressions” and “I Want To Take You Higher” they blew their wad.  My wife turned to me as they left the stage and said “that’s it, they can’t top that.”  She was right.  Second set started off with “Sweet Spot” which wouldn’t have been so bad if they hadn’t followed it up with “Beautiful” and “45th of November.”  Those three songs sapped the energy that was coursing through the venue at the start of setbreak and despite and brilliant attempt by Kamasi Washington to get us all back to the heights of “Higher” during the jam out of “45th of November” that became “Bumpin’ Reel,” it never came back.  It just didn’t.  Without those 15 minutes of Kamasi and his horn, the second set on Saturday would have been a total write-off.

Bands change, they evolve, and, for better or worse, sometimes they lose fans in the process.  While I’m not saying I’ll never got to another String Cheese Incident show, I don’t think they are going to be the priority that they once were.