AN L.A. INCIDENT | THE SCENE AT LARGE

Last year at the House of Blues, having played beyond the noise curfew, the band performed an acoustic encore as they walked through the crowd and out onto the patio deck outside of the venue. Audience members stood mesmerized beneath the stars on Sunset Boulevard looking questioningly into each other’s eyes with smiles and gazes that said, “Is this really happening?”

This summer at the John Anson Ford theatre, the sound went out in a harsh crash, killing the cloud that the band and audience members had been working up for the past two hours, but only for a split second. Michael Travis, as if he had been trained for exactly this emergency, springs out from behind his drum set, grabs a bongo, and lands front-and-center on the stage in what seemed to be one fluid motion. Wailing with every ounce of his soul, he single-handedly makes up for all of the energy lost in the confusion until everybody else can figure out what’s happening. The band joins in, the crowd goes nuts, and everybody in that theater feels special to have been a part of something so magical. The crowd is honored to be treated with this much respect by a man and a band that refuse to give anything less than 200% of themselves.

It is this magic that preceded this weekend and had everybody talking about the Wiltern Theatre shows ever since the Cheese’s Winter Carnival dates were announced. And after two months of painfully patient waiting, Friday, March 2nd, finally arrived.

The Wiltern Theatre, located near the heart of Hollywood, CA, is majestic. There is not a spot in the entire theatre that one can turn his or her attention towards without being amazed at the detail before them - beautiful etchings in the walls and ceiling, plush seats and pristine acoustics. It’s hard not to feel special when immersed in a space that so obviously represents the years of human effort that have gone into creating it.

While the music certainly played a key role in the weekend, the truth is that it’s only one of a number of factors that intertwine to make up an Incident. Even more important than the songs soaring off Michael Kang, Keith Moseley and Bill Nershi’s fret boards, Kyle Hollingsworth’s keyboard, and Travis’s drums, are the open minds and the positive attitudes that each member of the crowd brings along with him or her. Because it’s not just a band playing and singing and a crowd listening and dancing, it’s a society working together to reach a common goal – to share a little happiness. It’s a circular flow of energy, each person a vessel taking in their surroundings and putting out their own energy until it’s too difficult to tell where your own body ends and the room full of happiness and laughter and love begins, because there is no boundary. You are as much a part of it as the men behind the microphone, and I believe if you asked any one of these guys they would happily admit you’ve hit the nail right on the head.

So what is it that’s so special about this band? Why does the mood of every room they enter seem to lighten to the point that you forget you’ve got work on Monday morning and your credit cards are in terrible shape and you should really be getting more exercise? The answer is that this band attracts nice people who ‘get it.’ And those people bring their friends who they know also ‘get it.’ These people smile warmly and confidently at anyone who they can get their eyes on, knowing that it’s nice to see a smile. But these aren’t ordinary smiles. The Friends of the Cheese smile with their eyes and their noses and their cheeks and their shoulders. Each individual has a life and a story but for four hours, they are all the same. They are the Incident.

A couple was recently engaged and are getting married in Austin in April (coincidentally, the same weekend the Cheese happen to be opening their Spring tour at the Backyard, a spectacularly beautiful and comfortable venue in the hills outside of town.) At some point during Friday night’s show He kneeled and presented Her with her engagement ring, at the Cheese show, in L.A. And they didn’t even have tickets until that day, but for some reason nobody was worried.

Another couple brought their brand new baby girl along for her first three ‘out-of-the-womb’ shows, and she loved every second of it even through the cotton balls delicately taped over her precious little ears to protect her young hearing.

At one point the bass player, Keith, honestly admits he can’t remember the lyrics to Resume Man and asks if we mind if he starts from the beginning. Again, he gets a little confused, and Travis steps forward to pull an audience member onto the stage. This new addition to the band tears through the verse with the heart and enthusiasm of a true rock star. And the show goes on.

It was the kind of weekend after which you have to call and cancel hotel room reservations for the next weekend because with all the new friends you made, you now have your choice of places to stay. It was a three-day weekend, even though you had work on Monday morning... in Houston. Because how could you let this collection of beautiful souls dance their hearts out just an hour up the highway while you watch television and prepare for a good night’s rest?

Nershi said it best one night at the Wiltern when he said “You guys just have something figured out, out here.” The crowd responded with a roar that said “Yes we know, but thank you for noticing.” It was a similar roar to the one that erupted during Miss Brown’s Teahouse when the band sang “Just be sure the beach is always in reach.” “It is, we know,” thought the audience.

It was a love-fest. Friends wrapped around friends, making new friends because it’s Friday or Saturday night and what excuse is there in the world not to dance your heart out at every possible opportunity.

Sometimes we’re lucky enough to be a part of something that you can just tell is special. And as you jump and groove and funk, you recognize that you are living a dream. You are doing exactly what you love most in the world with the people who you love most, and everywhere you look you see somebody else feeling the exact same thing. And when they catch you looking at them, they look right back at you and stare deep into your heart, and Smile.

And you just know.

Adam Kaye
A Friend of Cheese
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