|
String Cheese Incident may be rocking Texas and gearing up for their first-ever Japan appearance (July 27, 28) at the 2002 Fuji Rock Festival, but just a couple of weeks ago, during Winter Carnival, the hard-working crew took the rare opportunity to look back at their Colorado roots instead of forward to international popularity.
During the nostalgic tour, which traced the bands early days in Telluride, Crested Butte and Vail, the Warren Miller Film crew was there on the sweaty stages and snowy slopes to capture the action for the one-hour documentary, Waiting for the Snow to Fall, due out early next winter.
“This is an up close and personal tour of the band,” says Gary Hines, producer and director of the film. He says the finished product will offer a retrospective tour that goes back to the towns SCI grew out of. The band and the Warren Miller crew hit the old haunts and venues and “gave the band an opportunity to reflect on what is important,” he says.
SCI guitarist Bill Nershi says getting the band’s first tour bus, Bussy (a former Crested Butte shuttle bus), out of retirement, while in Boulder, helped spark plenty of memories and intimate moments that were captured while driving the legendary bus through the Rockies.
Miller’s company may have built its reputation by making high-quality, cliff-jumping ski flicks, but SCI fans can expect a little more depth from this project than other adrenaline-packed movies. “This isn’t your typical Warren Miller film,” says Hines (who has also produced heart-felt documentaries for PBS and the Discovery Channel). “This is a true documentary about passion for playing music, skiing and living in Colorado.
“These guys are shockingly humble,” Hines says. “They’re out there playing their hearts out every night – they are borderline obsessed with their music.”
And that obsession for creativity should shine, as the producer calls SCI members “awesome human beings,” and the music they produce, “magical.”
Since both SCI and Warren Miller Films are based in Boulder, CO and share the passion for creativity and snow-riding, viewers can expect more raw intimacy than ever.
“These guys were so fun to work with,” Hines says, “they were willing to let us into their lives and that will show in the final product.”
That said, Hines clarifies that, “of course, everyplace we went, we went skiing.”
Before capturing on-stage footage each night, Miller’s crew was shooting back-country snow-riding (three members tele-mark, one snow-boards, while the last skis) from the headwalls of Crested Butte to Vail’s legendary East Vail chutes.
Filming more than 25 hours of on-snow footage for Waiting for the Snow to Fall wasn’t easy, according to Nershi. “I almost hit Bob (a Miller camera-man) a few times,” Nershi says. “We had some great wrecks.”
Beside mishaps, the Miller crew reports some, “pretty awesome skiing” from the SCI boys. After-all most of the band members spent more on time on the slopes growing up in Crested Butte and Telluride than they did on the stages they’ve become accustomed to over the last few years.
Nershi admits he dreamed since a child of being in ski flick, he’s just surprised that music not ski-ability would help him to make the cut.
“This was a funny way to finally get into a Warren Miller film,” Nershi says. “I used to think if I skied everyday for ten years I might make it. It’s funny how things work out.”
Erik Vienneau
Vienneau is a Colorado-based free-lance entertainment writer
and A&E editor for the Vail Trail Newspaper.
JamBase | Colorado
Go see live music!
| 
