New fan here~ what soothing sounds to fill this Deadhead’s ears! I’ve known of them for a while and have no good excuse for never giving them a good listen ‘till now. But that is in the past- going to catch them this summer at the Wolf Trap here in DC.
So any fans out there? (Pirates?) Care to post your SCI essential listening list? Stories? Anything I should know before heading out to the show? Tnks.
Rhythmdvl
I particularly enjoy their country-ish cover of “Gin and Juice”.
I’ve never heard String Cheese Incident, and if they remind one of the Grateful Dead I don’t suppose I’ll be seeking them out, either.
However, it may interest y’all to know there was a flyer for a SCI show on the bulletin board of Willow’s dorm room in last week’s episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
The barefoot boys from Telluride just stopped in Chicago on Saturday. The concert was quite good. Very tight jams that segued beautifully.
I suggest you get up close to the stage. The fan vibe is the best, and if you aren’t close enough it is easy to detach from the music since it noodles around in the space-grace realm quite a bit. ‘Round The Wheel’ is a magnificent tune.
My only reservation is that the music is almost always happy. It’s nice when a jam band gets dark and edgy.
I would drive probably up to 3 hours to see one of their shows. I’m not sure I’m at the level of mini-touring with them (yet) like I would with the Dead or Phish.
They allow taping and trading of their shows, so like the Dead it isn’t hard to find high quality recordings on CD. Their soundman Jon O’Leary is very good. If you haven’t seen friendsofcheese.com yet, it’s a high end fan site you’ll want to check out.
On a summer touring note, I’m looking forward to the Trey band at Alpine Valley in July. You just gotta love a round of golf in the morning and a great concert in the evening.
I got turned on to SCI about two years ago, and I love 'em. Sadly, I haven’t gotten a chance to see them yet, but friends of mine tell me they put on a great show.
They play a nice mix of bluegrass, jammy rock, jazz and funk with a touch of spanish and reggae mixed in. However, they do occasionally blend in some edginess, in tunes like “Lonesome Fiddle Blues” and “Impressions”.
Everyone I know who likes the Dead likes SCI. You might also like Comotion, which features SCI’s Michael Kang.
There are two sites which have shows you can download, along with a lot of other great stuff: http://www.gdlive.com and http://nugs.net
(The gdlive shows are in shorten format. The 11/17/00 show is outstanding - I have it edited on mp3 to fit on 2 CDs. e-mail if you’re interested)
A hijack here, but I went to see Phil Lesh and Friends last night (4th row, center, 3,000 seat theater)and had a splendid time. Doin’ That Rag, Black Peter, Cosmic Charlie, New Potato Caboose, The Wheel, Terrapin, Crazy Fingers, Passenger, Soul Shine, Strawberry Fields Forever. I’m sure I’ve fogotten a few.
Thank you, for a real good time. Go if you get the chance.
Rhythmdvl, if you are a fan of the Dead and CSI, you may want to check out Big Wu (kind of Phish sounding) and Wide Spread Panic (more Dead/jam). WSP is often in the DC area. I saw them a couple of years ago at Nissan and was blown away. They played at a festival w/ Buckshot Lafonque, Steel Pulse and a no-name/start-up band called “Everything” (:e). Yeah, I got the hooch.