STRING CHEESE INCIDENT | NORTHWEST

After a mellow, mainly instrumental show in Eugene on Monday, String Cheese Incident blew up the breathtakingly gorgeous Paramount Theater in Seattle last night, the first of a two-night stand. Although the show was not quite sold out, the crowd was amazingly fired up and kept the g/a floor hopping throughout the show. “We’re gonna have fun here the next couple days,” Kang assured the fans right before the band launched into "Way Back Home," to open the show.

The Cheese were feeling funky and wasted no time busting out “Miss Brown’s Teahouse” next, turning the crowd up one more notch with a fast infectious funk groove. Billy Nershi wowed the room with his first stellar solo of the night, manhandling his guitar neck and making some really excellent faces. Kyle Hollingsworth announced that the next song was part of the “Speed Racer opus, yet unfinished.” He called it “Spridle,” but later it was listed on Keith’s recommendation as “Chamber Maid.” It started out with a spacey organ line, and then went on an epic journey, warping through space funk and hard rock. “Sweet Melinda” got even bigger, going way out there with a psychedelic solo by Michael Kang, then coming all the way back for another chorus. The jam at the end of the song was simply rocking, with Kyle going nuts and taking the crowd along.

The second set opened with a loud, rocking version of happy jazz standard “Birdland,” with some funny tricks from Michael Travis on drums. Travis seems to come from the Animal the Muppet school of percussion, and totally went off, jumping up from his stool, shaking bells and keys and everything he had. As my friend hollered in delight, “he uses things to hit other things!” The set contained some long jams, as the band really stretched out on the songs and worked the crowd into a frenzy again and again. Keith treated us to his corny-bassman song “Joyful Sound,” which segued smoothly into a tight, rocking jam. Billy suddenly started picking out a familiar bluegrass lick and they slid into a beautiful rendition of “Old Home Place.” The music started to relax a little by the end of the set, which was capped by an amazingly played “Shaking the Tree,” with more great soloing by Kyle, Kang and Billy.

The Cheese will continue to feed Seattle’s hungry heads tonight before heading to Vancouver on Friday and Whistler, B.C. on Saturday and Sunday. Please, if you are anywhere near the Northwest, go, and if not, consider going to the Northwest. You won’t be disappointed...

Susie Ochs
JamBase Chicago Correspondent - On The Road

I: Way Back Home, Miss Brown’s Teahouse, Hobo Song, Chamber Maid*, Sweet Melinda > Jam > Rhum n’ Zouc, Close Your Eyes
II: Birdland > Howard, Joyful Sound > Jam > Old Home Place, Freedom Jazz Dance, Don’t Say > Jam > Shaking the Tree
E: Daryl
*first time played

It was raining in Seattle on Thursday (surprised?) but at the beautiful Paramount Theater things were warm and bright as the String Cheese Incident ended their two-night stand with a stellar show, including an opening band, a guest vocalist and a scorching first time played Hendrix cover.

Newfoundland natives Great Big Sea opened for The Cheese, serenading the crowd with sea chanties and energetic Celtic pop. The four-man ensemble used traditional instruments such as acoustic bass and guitar, accordion, fiddle, bouzouki and a handheld frame drum. Great Big Sea is touring to promote their new live album, Road Rage.

The Cheese kicked off their first set with “Born on the Wrong Planet,” hitting the crowd with a wall of sound and then slowly building it up sonic brick by sonic brick. Next came “Little Hands” with the instruments winding around each other in a rich tapestry of harmony underneath Michael Kang’s soaring vocals. The jam segued nicely into “Hold What Ya Got,” with the band showing its bluegrass chops and the crowd dancing like crazy and singing along. String Cheese can jam with the best of them, and showed it at the end of the set, taking “Cedar” into a thick and bouncy rock jam and then taking it right into the classic Hendrix song, “Fire.” The band’s first attempt at this cover was successful, loud and intense but still sounding like Cheese, with great vocals by Billy Nershi and a jaw-dropping guitar solo by Michael Kang.

The music stayed hot in the second set, opening with “Turn This Around,” featuring blistering guitar work and Michael Travis standing up to better beat on his drums. Later in the set the band was joined by Liza Oxnard, a young vocalist who Billy has been recording an album with, for “Take a Little Time,” a nice laid back country song. After she left the stage to warm applause, the music got wild and spacey, as Kyle Hollingsworth led the band through an epic jam of "Rollover > So What > Rollover", a high energy romp accompanied by jaw-dropping light work. “So What” was teased a couple times during the danceable space-funk jam and when it finally broke out, the crowd roared its approval. Keith Moseley laid down the bass line like a badass, and Kyle turned it out on the organ forever, whipping the crowd into a total frenzy before triumphantly returning to the catchy reggae/calypso hook of “Rollover.”

After a pretty encore of “Drifting Away” and “Round the Wheel,” the band wished everyone “good luck” in crossing the border as they head up to Vancouver tonight for the first of three Canadian shows that will end the Winter Carnival tour. Catch them tonight at The Queen Elizabeth Theater in Vancouver followed by two nights at the Whistler Convention Center in Whistler, B.C. See you there!

Susie Ochs
JamBase Chicago Correspondent - On The Road

1. Born on the Wrong Planet, Little Hands > Jam > Hold What Ya Got > Pygmy Pony, Cedar > Jam > Fire*
2. Turn This Around > Jam > Lonesome Road Blues, Take a Little Time**, On the Road, Rollover > So What > Rollover
E: Drifting Away, Round the Wheel
*first time played, Jimi Hendrix cover
**with Liza Oxnard on vocals