Photos by Tim Dwenger
The Scene: Last Friday The String Cheese Incident returned to Red Rocks after skipping last summer and though the afternoon storms that have plagued Red Rocks all year long threatened to let loose once again, Mother Nature kept the rainfall to a minimum with only the occasional drizzle and never the soaking deluge that the sky seemed to threaten for much of the early part of the night.
While of course the SCI faithful were out in droves, opener Twiddle had quite a turnout to catch their opening set and, from where I sat, it seemed like the whole state of Vermont came out to support them. It was great to see so much support for a young and talented band that have been working their asses off for the last ten years to finally end up on that stage
Opener: Twiddle. I had stumbled into a Twiddle show a few years back at Cervantes’ Other Side and I’ve got to say that I wasn’t all that impressed, but on Friday, at Red Rocks, they converted me. These Vermonters have a talent for tight jamming and well developed songs that left me convinced they deserved all the buzz that’s been surrounding them recently. On top of that, they were a great choice as an opener for SCI as their sunny sound broke through the drizzle and got the early crowd dancing. My buddy compared their sound to a loose combination of String Cheese and Phish and while in a lot of ways I had to agree, don’t let that fool you into thinking their sound is purely derivative because it’s not.
As a newbie to the Twiddle universe it’s to fairly evaluate their performance, but I can tell you that they were having a blast, sounded very tight, and won over a bunch of new fans in the crowd, myself included.
Twiddle Setlist: Gatsby the Great, Big Country, Gatsby the Great, Hattibagen McRat, Jamflowman (Reprise), Lost in the Cold->STOOPS->Lost in the Cold, Syncopated Healing, Hatti’s Jam->When it Rains it Poors
The String Cheese Incident: After a seven month absence from Colorado stages, the Barefoot Boys came out of the gates blazing on Friday night with a screaming take on “Dudley’s Kitchen” that proved from the get-go that they had come to play. Nershi’s flat-picking was spot on as Kyle’s fingers danced on the keys and the band was tight, tight, tight. In all honesty, I hadn’t heard them play together that well in a long time and it was only the first song of the show.
There was passion and energy on the stage and all six members of SCI looked to be having fun as they traded solos and built jams to dizzying peaks that sent the faithful spilling out onto the stairs to dance. An early set “Climb” pushed the 20 minute mark before it yielded to a well jammed “Outside and Inside” that kept energy high on The Rocks. While the loping “Look At Where We Are” and a 20 minute “Big Shoes” may have sapped some of the energy from the crowd, the band countered with an unfinished “Just One Story” and the ripping Bluegrass of “Whiskey Before Breakfast” to the delight of longtime fans. Again, Nershi’s playing was impeccable as he tore through the classic while Travis and Hann pushed the pace and Kang’s fiddle whipped the crowd into a frenzy. The set closed with “Can’t Wait Another Day” and I used the time to head to the bathroom before the set-break crowds descended.
The second set took a hold of the energy that the band had flirted with so many times during the first set and ran with it. A surprise opener in “Sympathy For The Devil” was welcomed and Keith nailed the vocals on The Stones hit in his own smooth way. With an obligatory Red Rocks cover out of the way early, the band slipped into a personal favorite of mine “On The Road.” The crowd went bonkers, exploding with “HEY, HEY WE’RE OUT ON THE ROAD,” and while the composed parts of the song were solid, Kyle really took hold during the jam and pushed things to another level on the organ as he built the jam to a swirling peak that left us all breathless. There was no time to slow down as the band pushed us right into the “Valley of the Jig” and the electronically influenced Reel had dancing feet pounding the Red Rocks bleachers as the band went deep into Irish flavored space.
“Windy Mountain” gave us all a breather and appropriately the wind swirled around us as Nershi sang. Kyle’s funky, key driven, “Way That It Goes” got the energy up a little bit before the band dropped “Best Feeling” from their 1999 collaboration with Keller Williams and let loose with a 20 minute version that bubbled and slithered over The Rocks. While “It Is What It Is” is one of my least favorite SCI songs, I do appreciate it’s jam and the band stretched this one out for nearly twenty minutes before rewarding me with a set ending “Black Clouds” that, while not as jammed out as the last few tunes, had all the energy you could ask for in the Cheesey favorite.
The band returned for a single song encore; a well placed “Smile” that left me with exactly that on my face as I headed down the stairs with the still buzzing masses. It was a great return to Red Rocks for one of Colorado’s favorite bands and exactly the right way to begin a three day run.
The String Cheese Incident 07-24-2015
Set One: Dudley’s Kitchen, Let’s Go Outside, Climb > Outside And Inside, Look At Where We Are, Big Shoes > Just One Story > Whiskey Before Breakfast > Can’t Wait Another Day
Set Two: Sympathy For The Devil, On The Road, Valley Of The Jig, Windy Mountain, Way That It Goes, Best Feeling > It Is What It Is > Black Clouds
Encore: Smile
Energy: A
Musicianship: A
Sound: A
Stage Presence: A-
Set/Light Show: A
Overall: A-
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