Review: New Year’s with String Cheese

After jumpstarting this four-night New Year’s run with renowned funk front-man Bootsy Collins and the legendary space rock band, The Flaming Lips, a lot of fans were wondering if this would be a full-on bluegrass show. But by the start of SCI’s fourth song—“Birdland”—things were getting funky, as the band’s knack for improvisation took sway. It wasn’t long until Michael Kang was drifting back and forth between his electric mandolin and fiddle, while Kyle Hollingsworth tickled his ivories into an exploratory and trance-like “Valley of the Jig.” In many ways, the melding of traditional acoustic sounds, with experimental electronica, and unexpected improvisation that filled the first set almost epitomized the band’s two-decade-long evolution.

The high-energy electronic feel continued into the second set, with staples such as “Sirens” and a weirdly captivating “Las Vegas.” The set closed with a mind-blowing rendition of “Desert Dawn,” leaving listeners with goose bumps and a solid picture of just how much this band thrives off of live performances and the unspoken bond it shares with the audience.

With the start of the third set, the show had officially launched into full-blown “incident” mode. The audience sprang back to life as soon as the band began churning out the mesmerizing melodies of “Rivertrance”—a progressive take on the traditional Irish dance themes—melded with the dynamic sounds of Kang’s fiddle and the electronic grooves carried by Bill Nershi on guitar, Keith Moseley on bass, Michael Travis and Jason Hann on percussion, and of course Kyle Hollingsworth on the keyboard. Aerial dancers descended from the rafters, while three dancers, encased in giant clear balls, dispersed through the audience. The band carried fans into the New Year with fireworks and hundreds of multi-colored light tubes that fell from the ceiling.

The iridescent tubes were carried through the end of the show by avid audience members—symbolizing the importance of the communal experience that drives every SCI show. As put by Kang: “We [want] the Incidents to be something that people can really feel like they are involved in, and feel like they have a say in how it all went.”

There’s no doubt about it: SCI delivered a brilliant third set, where the solos were electrifying and the energy felt like it would build all night. From “Let’s Go Outside” to “Smile” and the always-satisfying “This Must Be The Place,” the band blew into 2014 with a bang. But alas, all great things do come to an end.

In fact, 2013, the four-night run, and SCI’s 20-year celebration came full circle with reprise of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”—the classic tune that SCI opened with on Saturday night. Nostalgia ran wild as the audience sang out with the band: “It was twenty years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play.”

For the members of the String Cheese Incident, it’s this communal experience that grounds every performance and keeps the band going. Sneaking in one last audience-to-stage connection with the encore, Nershi paid homage to Colorado by belting out the lyrics to “Colorado Bluebird Sky”—leaving concertgoers to speculate that the second home-state New Year’s run would not be the last.