7/19/01 String Cheese Incident
Filene Center, Wolftrap Farm Park Vienna, VA
Leave Your Expectations At The Door
Click For Setlist
I broke down and finally made it to my first String Cheese Incident last week and brought my wife along to share the newness. I went in with mixed feelings about the band based on the recordings I'd heard and I did my best not to bring any preconceived opinions into play. I think I managed to do that but, I don't think I've formed any solid opinions since, either. Four days gone by and I'm still as unsure about the band as I was before I left work last Thursday.
Caught the Metro out to Vienna from D.C. and met the wife. She'd picked up sandwiches and brought a small cooler with a couple of beers for our dinner. We drove to the venue, arrived and parked with no problem. The lots were mellow with many folks simply relaxing, eating, playing Frisbee, etc. or simply picking up and heading into the venue.
The beauty part of Wolftrap - for those who don't know- is that you can bring in food and coolers with beverages- including beer. No search is performed at the door and good vibes persist. However I would caution anyone against breaking any prohibition laws... This is a National Park, after all.
The other beauty part is the venue itself. Built in a natural amphitheater, the Filene Center -the actual name of the venue- is constructed of wood and reeks of style something sorely missing from your run-of-the-mill SFX shed. Also, no ticketmaster.
We picked up out tix at will-call, found a shady spot outside the venue to eat dinner then strolled in to catch up with friends before show time. This lawn was packed but the pavilion had plenty of seats available- enough so that folks could trade in their lawn seats and, for two more dollars move into excellent pavilion seats. Ours were inside and, as the set got underway, we moved inside.
The set opened with Cedar, a song which sounds to my ear exactly like String Cheese always has- jammy, bluegrassy, a little predictable but, at the same time, rather enjoyable. So much for withholding preconceived notions. This evening would still be an adventure, though. I didn't know most of the song titles (thanks to Friendsofcheese.com) and, perhaps due to my seat location I couldn't make out but a few words all night.
Close Your Eyes followed and left little impression. The band seemed to be excited and so did the crowd. I couldn't help but smile but I still felt puzzlement. ("Was this a good String Cheese set or do they just cheer for anything?")
Inspiration stuck me nicely with its latin-ish funky groove. Kang and Kyle each took nice solos and Kang's vocals impressed me. Honestly I hadn't realized that he was a singer. Billy had always struck me as the lead vocalist (remember, I'd never actually seen them before).
Next came some stirring country music by the name of Trail Of Tears. this is a song I'd like to hear the words to but, either due to a muddy mix or a dead spot in the pavilion, I couldn't. The band played it nicely, however and continued to impress.
After that brief country break (only four minutes or so), they turned back to funk with a strong performance of Parker's Blues. This had the feel of some serious seventies funk along the lines of Booker T. & the MG's colliding with The Headhunters. Kang stepped on his envelope filter (Does he use a Mutron or the newer flavor: the Qutron?) and Kyle leaned into the clavinet. Really groovy but not overdone; this tune only ran about seven minutes.
Shantytown began with a ska-shuffle which gave way to a spacey-feeling dubby ska before shifting speeds again and picking up the pace. Here it morphed into a rocked out tension and release jam which had the crowd jumping giddily. This soon mellowed and transitioned into a more straight-ahead upbeat hillbilly/rock number called How Mountain Girls Can Love. A pleasant tune with nice vocals and instrumentation this one further shows their bluegrass roots and makes me wonder what those days were like.
Mountain Girls turned out to be the set closer leaving me checking my watch and scratching my head at the short-seeming set. After fewer than sixty minutes and only seven songs, I found myself impressed but looking for more. Fortunately, more was yet to come.
Set two began after a forty minute break, as the sun faded into the horizon and the sky drew purple. Blackberry Blossom opened and soon Kang took us out with a great mandolin solo. Billy followed that with a terrific turn before making way for Kyle. The next solo came back around to Kang who'd switched to his fiddle for a most impressive bit of bowing. The tune soon morphed into another jacked up rock jam. Those rock jams really get the audience pumped and; after another the twenty minute Blossom opener, they turned to more rock jams on Way Back Home. The lyric snippets I picked up from the refrain hinted at the title and brought to mind the long drive home which lay ahead. I won't say that I was bored; but its not a good thing when my mind heads to the car so early.
Fortunately, they brought me quickly back to the moment at hand. Looking at my "setlist" ("Can one keep a setlist without song titles? How can you guess the song titles without discerning the lyrics? I wonder if the Loge is rockin'?") I wrote that Way Back Home was "cool". The rock jam wound back to a reprise of the theme into which they tucked an intense, Other One-ish, heavy jam before nailing the reprise with a Skynyrd-ish flair. Yes, I said Skynyrd. As in tight, composed, country-flavored, electri-fried rock. Not drunken mayhem. Drunken mayhem was to be found aplenty in the audience.
The permissiveness regarding coolers and their contents had wreaked a wild effect upon the crowd. Juiced up liberally with various libations and other intoxicants; the outdoor, mellow vibe had been supplanted largely by that of an oversized kegger. Make no mistake, however, despite this, things were certainly still "All Good".
Next, I found myself a bit befuddled by their arrangement of Voodoo Chile and titled it on my setlist as "Voodoo-Uh-Mtn.-Chile-d". While this twenty-minute excursion was certainly expansive and fascinating, most of the soul one expects of this song seemed sorely absent. But there go those preconceptions again. All that aside, I found myself focused and curious, intrigued by the unusual shape of the song and its jams. At one point, things broke down to a mellow bubbling groove and Kyle tried to go to his Hammond but appeared to have technical difficulties. Some crew members examined things while Kyle turned back to face Nershi and Kang.
The lights played brightly above the stage, leaving the players obscured and making themselves most unhelpful. I strained to see when someone (I think it was Kyle) began producing a horn or reed instrument sound. Through the darkness, however, I couldn't locate the source. The jam stepped back up for a "slight return" before jumping into Windy Mountain. Folks seemed pretty pumped around us and down front. ("I wonder if the Loge is rockin?") We were certainly digging but the band kept turning to the rock jams. ("Is this normal? Do I really mind? Do I even care?") I like rock jams and these were definitely doing it for me. ("Wow, I actually got two song titles in a row!")
Little Hands came on like meeting someone for the first time but feeling like you've known forever. Familiar in a style that I call 'hippy song' with nice peaks, vocals and solos. Kyle turned in a notable piano solo early on. The jam took an odd turn however, when Nershi and Keith left the stage. ("Is this normal?") Kang, Travis and, Kyle looked at one another, took a breath and adapted beautifully.
This newgrass-rock band just turned into a jazz trio ala Jimmy Smith and Kenny Burrell cookin in a night club right before my eyes- 'cept this is no nightclub and that's not a guitar. Kang stood out over Kyle's keys and Travis' tight percussion, leading the way through Charlie Parker's Au Privave. I'm told that Kyle is the band's head jazzbo so, I suppose he may have been driving the tune but, Kang's the one who stood out. This jazz turn continued as Nershi and Bill returned to the stage for what may have been Black and White 1
I recall an uptempo groove and Kang vocalizing along with his solo before Nershi started leading the band down another road. I picked up on it at first from Nershi's playing but was surprised at how quickly and completely the band joined him on 25 or 6 to 4. Billy even took a stab at singing a couple of lines from the old Chicago tune before things continued on towards Search.
Search wrapped things up on a high note and left the crowd wanting more; badly. Folks were stomping their feet and drumming on the seats as wave upon wave of the Drunken Mayhem effect washed over the crowd. The drumming and general rowdiness continued even after the band returned to the stage and prepared to play. Long Gone was the encore. A hopping little number that had folks swinging about in their best hillbilly shuffle. ("The Loge is rockin'!") We smiled and boogied one last time before picking up our cooler and heading for the car.
Normally, this would be where I'd draw some sort of conclusion or gush giddily about what I've seen. However, for better or for worse, I can't honestly do much of either after seeing this show. String Cheese is a talented group of musicians who listen and react superbly to one another to one another as well as the energy of the audience. At Wolf Trap last week, they hinted at many things (psychedelia, country, be-bop, blues), drove home a few (funk, fusion, groove-jazz), and showed mastery of fewer (bluegrass, rock jams (tension & release)). This is not to say that these genres are all that they have mastered. This is simply what one show has demonstrated. I suspect that there is much more to this band than any one night will fairly reveal and, for that reason- to start with- I'll see them again.
Another reason I'd see them again is that everything they showed me was good- delicious even- and mighty fun. I love rock jams. I'm down with the funk. I dig on bluegrass. The fusion of these is intriguing, potentially hot-or-miss and, groovy. And groovy is all right with me.
1Note: How does one keep a setlist without song titles? Very carefully. And with a watch. I take notes at shows; marking when the songs begin, moments when the songs seem to have been forgotten, who's singing/soloing, etc. I try, based on the lyric, to guess at song titles and, failing that, I note styles and other characteristics. That's how I keep a setlist without song titles. That's also how I comfortably differ from setlist listings on sites such as Friends Of Cheese from time to time - the tapes will reveal the true sequencing anyway. And, before anyone asks about the "Drunken Mayhem Effect", let me just note that, after the show, I drove the fifty mile drive home. Sober.
©2001- jmh
About the Author jmh is a family man who is thankfull for beer, LPs, and extra guitar strings. Donations of any of these things or cash for their purchase will be happily accepted.