Photos by Jim Mimna
The Scene: It was a great afternoon for some Cheese on the Rocks. The golden summer sun slanted down from the West with no hint of rain, and a cool breeze swept over the storied amphitheater. The whole of Red Rocks had a backyard barbeque vibe; someone even brought potato salad. Adding to the BBQ vibe, Colorado’s own Bluegrass masters Hot Rize came out with SCI for what they dubbed “Hot Cheese Rizing.”
The String Cheese Incident: Hot Cheese Rizing. Sounds delicious, and it was. SCI with Hot Rize members Tim O’Brien, Pete Wernick, Bryan Sutton, and Nick Forster opened up the show with Willie Nelson’s “On The Road Again” and it really looked like Cheese was having a blast making music with their friends – as the song goes. The band then launched into the classic “Land’s End,” which really got the crowd moving. Billy took some time to address the crowd about how much they loved playing acoustic music, which may have assuaged some recent fears from Cheese purists, before jumping into Peter Rowan’s “Panama Red” which got another big reaction from the crowd. The pickers closed out Hot Cheese Rizing with a rowdy “Nine Pound Hammer.”
The rest of the first set was a mixed bag that really showed off every member of SCI’s talents. After the Bluegrass explosion, the band got right into the jams with “These Waves” into “Djibouti Bump.” The crowd was all smiles whilst bumping up and down for “Don’t It Make You Wanna Dance.” Then things got funky with the new Kyle number “Falling Through The Cracks,” which has an almost Supertramp “Bloody Well Right” feel. “FTTC” certainly got Billy dancing, which he continued to do for “Rhum ‘n’ Zouc” (first time played since 2007), which saw Rhythm Devils Michael Travis and Jason Hahn trading off drum fills with Michael Kang joining in as well. “Rhum ‘n’ Zouc” lead into a monstrous “Colliding” to close out the first set.
Cheese opened up the second set with the danceable, always electrifying “Rosie,” but the band seemed to be knocking off a little rust from the long set break. They were still knocking off a bit of that rust on “Turn This Around” but as the song says, they quickly tuned it around. The jam coming out of “TTA” sounded a little Pink Floydish and sure enough they slipped into “Breathe,” with Travis taking lead singing duties. After what sounded like an “On The Run” jam, Cheese jumped back into “Turn This Around” to top off a tasty sandwich.
Things got super funky with “Stop Drop Roll” and the vibe turned electric, literally, with a spectacular lightning storm flashing in the distance. Cheese got back to the grassy stuff with “Love Is Like a Train,” which contained some nice solos from Billy, Kang, and Kyle. The band (especially Billy) seemed to be in high spirits. We got the obligatory “ahhh wooo” from Billy before “Joyful Sound,” and a rollicking, fiddle driven “BollyMunster” to close out the second set, but not before Keith Mosley extolled the virtues of Colorado crowds, touting “the best fans in the world.” With the delightfully schizophrenic sets, encore was anybody’s guess.
We got a respite from the mayhem when the band came back out and Billy announced “Down a River,” a song he wrote while living near Telluride and one that has only been played 11 times, four of those coming this year. Cheese then jumped right into the African tinged classic “Round the Wheel,” before leaving the stage again. After a round of raucous applause the boys came back out and did a fitting “Ramble On” (Led Zeppelin) to close out one of the best Cheese weekends at Red Rocks in recent memory.
Energy: A
Musicianship: A+
Sound: B+
Stage Presence: A
Set/Light Show: A
Overall: A
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