The String Cheese Incident turns in an Incredible Performance over Three Nights that Culminates in an Amazing New Year's Eve Masterpiece. Words by Kevin Long Photos by: Emily Takacs
The String Cheese Incident performed masterfully as they welcomed the New Year with three hometown shows. In what has become a holiday tradition for S.C.I and their fans, the band has played at the 1stBank Center in Broomfield, Colorado for five years running.. This run, to my ears’ delight, sounded far superior than years past and the music has not shined this bright in a decade. They blended covers, new material and treasured gems beautifully to produce three amazing, albeit different, shows.
The boys kicked off the festivities with an adventurous “Round the Wheel”. The majority of hesitation anybody had about Kyle’s broken wrist disappeared has the music did not leave another option.
Beside the light-hearted version of “Master Blaster” with Jason on lead vocals the entire first set was the stuff of legend. The “Miss Brown’s Teahouse” into “Rollover” that concluded the initial set of music was mesmerizing. The music bled into a full fledged Star Wars jam honoring the passing of Carrie Fisher.
The second set was a Big Gigantic Incident as the boys were joined by familiar faces Dominic Lalli and Jeremy Salken of “Big Gigantic”. This led to adventurous versions of Cheese classics as the majority of tunes were woven together by Big Gigantic musical hooks. The rollercoaster started on “Bam” and stopped nearly two hours later with an epic “Desert Dawn” that had the tired faithful dancing to the end of a rousing triple encore that began with “Rosie”. S.C.I. made a profound musical statement on the first night of the run and what followed was joyous every bit as genius.
The second night began with an aggressive ”One Step Closer” and the night unfolded like magical 12-30th shows from the past. It had Bust-outs like “When the music over”, “Land’s End” and “Shaking the Tree”. It had a surprising debut in the form of “Nothing but Flowers” by The Talking Heads. Most importantly the band played flawlessly whether Michael Kang shined while delivering his classics or Billy picked his acoustic during “Restless Wind”.
The entire band practiced patience the entire run which led to inspiring improvisation by every member which in turn produced authentic jams. This was on full display during the explosive show the boys delivered on this, the second evening. The crowd piled out of the arena with shit eating grins also knowing we still had another show of our band firing on every cylinder the following evening.
Nobody in the sold out arena had any doubt that the hometown boys would not deliver anything short of a spectacle for New Year's Eve. Whatever brought you to the 1st Bank Center on N.Y.E, S.C.I produced it in spades. The music was breathtaking for three sets, the special effects were explosive, daring and original. Some moments are best seen than explained, so enjoy the official video of the physodelic ball drop.
It was a perfect evening. The elusive “San Jose” started off the holiday in a fitting manner. Over the course of the next five hours the String Cheese Incident delivered a special performance and nothing has sounded sweeter in the new year in a long time. They will be in Mexico in a few weeks and have already announced a spring tour full of intimate venues. The future has not looked this bright for this band in a long time. Happy New Year? Damn Right!
Set One
Round the Wheel, Lost > Black Clouds, Master Blaster, Sweet Spot, Miss Brown's Teahouse > Rollover
The Big Gigantic Incident: Bam!, Joyful Sound, Black Market > Can't Wait Another Day, Jellyfish > C'Mon > Jellyfish, BollyMunster, I've Gotta Know > BollyMunster
Rosie > Touch the Sky > Desert Dawn
Set One
One Step Closer, Hi-Ho No Show, Until The Music's Over, These Waves, Nothing But Flowers, Shine
Valley Of The Jig, Come As You Are, Sing A New Song, Falling Through The Cracks, Land's End, Let's Go Outside, Restless Wind
Shakin' The Tree
SETLIST 12/31/16 New Year's Eve
SET 1San Jose, Song In My Head, MLT, Who Am I, Outside and Inside > Hot 'Lanta > Deal
Close Your Eyes, Looking Glass > Orange Blossom Special, Get Tight, Best Feeling > Walking On The Moon, Howard, You've Got The World, Just One Story
Don't It Make You Wanna Dance, Rivertrance, Sirens, Beautiful
The Mighty Quinn, Sitting On Top Of The World
© 2017 Grateful Music LLC
