Photos by Jim Mimna
The Scene: Saturday night was the third and final night of the String Cheese Incident’s annual New Year’s run at Broomfield’s 1stBank Center. For the first time since the tradition started, however, New Year’s Eve landed on a Thursday, and so the NYE celebration would fall on the first night of the run, rather than the last like previous years. Typically, the final night and NYE combination would mean that the run would end in a bang.
This year, however, the tricky thing would be for the band to ring in the New Year with that bang, and then keep the energy up and the music going strong through the next two nights. And though many fans were thrown off with this new schedule and the unexpected course of their three-night New Year’s Eve run with their favorite band, I think we can all agree that our weekend went something like this: BANG, BANG, and BANG!
String Cheese Incident: The energy upon arriving at the venue was that of giddy excitement. Everyone knew something good was going to happen throughout the next several hours, and we were ready to relive the bliss of the previous two nights. Though NYE was sold-out, and not all of purchased tickets were scanned on New Year’s Day, the attendance on Saturday was somewhere in-between meaning we had plenty of room to groove, but it was still a huge gathering of friends, family, and fellow fans.
As the lights went down for the third night at just before 9 o’clock, the band went into a track off of the band’s most recent album and led by Bill Nershi, “So Far From Home.” An ironic way to start a hometown show, considering the considers the nearby town of Boulder home. Nevertheless, the crowd got right into the music and this newer tune was an upbeat start to the evening. Next up was a song often performed with fellow musician Keller Williams, “Best Feeling.” Though there had been rumors that Keller might join the band at some point during the run, he didn’t appear. SCI still jammed the song out, with Kang taking over on vocals and the crowd was obviously pleased.
At some point during the first set, fans grabbed their 3D glasses that were handed out on NYE and danced to the music that was accompanied by 3D visuals. On NYE, the visuals had seemed to almost upstage the band at some points as they seemed a bit distracting to both the band and the audience. However, played on the giant screen behind the band, the visuals were a sweet addition to the third night, and fit well into the music of the first set. As the 3D show continued, the instrumental “Mouna Bowa” came next. As it was the only instrumental of the evening, the song was a nice break from the more Rock and Jam-heavy instrumentals of the three-night run. “Stop Drop Roll” moved smoothly into “Looking Glass” – which was clearly a crowd favorite – as several thousand fans sang along with Nershi on lead vocals.
The first of two classic covers of the evening came with The Allman Brothers’ “Hot’Lanta,” which seems to be one of the band’s favorite cover to play during their recent shows. “Close Your Eyes” was the last song of the first set, another classic SCI tune and a crowd-pleasing sing-along. It was also the only song of the first set that Hollingsworth had the full lead on, so Kyle-lovers rejoiced over this finale of the first set.
The New Year’s Day show the previous night boasted a collaboration with members of Chicago-based rock-jam band Umphrey’s McGee and expectations were predictably high for Saturday night’s predicted guest appearance, and what better way to end the weekend than with a sit-in by Big Gigantic’s Dominic Lalli and Jeremy Salken. The six Cheesers plus the two guys of Big G kicked off the second set with a drum-filled jam. As Travis, Hann and Salken guided the rest of the guys through the set’s opener, Lalli (and saxophone) took his place beside Kang and Moseley.
The second set would turn out to have many extremely funky moments, the first of which was Hollingsworth’s “Rosie.” Kang took over the vocals on “Give Me the Love” and the whole band poured their hearts into a high-energy, fast-paced “On The Road.” The two tunes were sandwiched between the second of Kyle’s groovy tracks, “You’ve Got the World.” Though “World” was written and performed solely by Hollingsworth and his other band, it was awesome to see SCI performing and bringing the song to its greatest potential.
“Sweet Spot” was another crowd favorite that lead into “Desert Dawn,” which took the prize for the highest energy tune of the night. The guitars were screaming as Kang belted out the lyrics, and the audience simultaneously threw up their hands to and sang along with Kang’s words. “Dawn” brought the second set to a close, though the night was not nearly over.
This past summer, the String Cheese Incident joined forces with the Doobie Brothers at the Lockn’ Festival, where they collaborated on originals from both bands’ catalogues. As Moseley told this story to the crowd, the band went into a rendition of the Doobie Brothers’ “Listen To the Music,” an old-school classic that every single fan sang and danced along to. Those that missed the festival were able to experience what those who made it to Lockn’ were able to relive, six months later.
Just one encore is never enough for the final night of this band’s 3-night run, so Nershi took over the lead again for “Miss Brown’s Teahouse” before bringing the evening full circle. The opening song of the first set of the New Year’s Eve show was an unfinished “Just One Story,” and the final song of the second set of this last show was, finally, the ending to the song. Deja Vu filled my mind as we sang and danced one last time to the String Cheese Incident, bringing the New Year’s 2015-2016 weekend to a close, and leaving us with anticipation for the year (and spring tour) to come.
Energy: A
Musicianship: A
Sound: A-
Stage Presence: A-
Set/Light Show: A
Overall: A
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