Three Nights Of Covers And Guests For String Cheese At Hulaween

From Thursday to Saturday, jam stalwarts the String Cheese Incident hosted a three-day festival dubbed Suwannee Hulaween at scenic Spirt of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, FL. SCI treated fans to three sets on Halloween and a pair of sets a piece on Friday and Saturday nights.

[Photo by Brian Spady]

On the 31st, the Cheese offered a second set filled with covers backed by the Antibalas horns and vocalists Rhonda Thomas and Tony White. The band dressed in voodoo-themed costumes. Large pumpkins were tossed into the audience, where they passed through a layer of cobwebs from the stage all the way through to the back of the crowd. More on-stage madness included fire dancers, voodoo dancers and “spiders” in the cobwebs that swung from the ceiling on silks. As far as the music, SCI’s covers featured “Spirits In The Material World” by The Police, AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells,” Fela Kuti’s “Zombie” and Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child,” among others. Later in the evening, String Cheese Incident was joined by the Antibalas horns for “Rosie” and “Miss Brown’s Teahouse.”

Check out SCI’s Halloween setlist:

Set 1: Desert Dawn, Rhythm of The Road > Lets Go Outside, Doin’ My Time, Betray the Dark > Valley of The Jig > Texas

Set 2 (w/ Antibalas Horns and Rhonda Thomas & Tony White on vocals): Hells Bells (AC/DC), Voodoo (Neville Bros), Zombie (Fela Kuti), Spirits in the Material World (The Police) , Monster (Kanye Rap by Jason), Voodoo Child (Jimi Hendrix) > Black Magic Woman (Fleetwood Mac)

Set 3: Rosie*, Black Clouds > Big Mon > Black Clouds, It Is What It Is, Spirit of Suwannee Jam > Joyful Sound > On The Road

Encore: Miss Brown’s Teahouse*, I Saw The Light (Hank Williams)*, Sledgehammer (Peter Gabriel)*

Notes: * with Antibalas horns

More guest spots were in the works for Saturday’s performance. Steve Kimock and Bernie Worrell sat in on Eddie Harris’s “Freedom Jazz Dance” towards the middle of the first set. Later in the evening, Dominic Lalli of Big Gigantic added sax to “Bumpin’ Reel.”

Here’s the SCI setlist from November 1:

Set 1: Daryl, Black And White > So Far From Home, Freedom Jazz Dance 1, Can’t Wait Another Day, Big Shoes, Just One Story

Set 2: Sirens > Way Back Home, Song In My Head, Give Me The Love > Piece Of Mine, Bumpin’ Reel2, Restless Wind

Encore: BollyMunster

Notes: 1 with Steve Kimock & Bernie Worrell, 2 with Dominic Lalli

For Saturday’s finale, String Cheese had even more guest spots and covers planned. The first set included a take on “Zombie Jamboree” with Leftover Salmon and saw Jeffrey Lerner of STS9 and Luke Quaranta of Toubab Krewe sit in on a drum segment that brought the opening stanza to a close. In the second set, Trey Anastasio Band members Jennifer Hartswick and Natalie Cressman added horns to a cover of The Jacksons’ 1978 hit “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground).”

Take a look at the setlist from Saturday’s finale:

Set One: Sometimes A River, Mouna Bowa, Cedar Laurels, One After 909**, Zombie Jamboree**, Windy Mountain > Shine > Colliding > Drums*

Set Two: Best Feeling > Howard, Pack It Up > Shake Your Body Down To The Ground#, Rivertrance > This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody), Outside and Inside

Encore: Kashmir

Notes: *with Jeffrey Lerner from STS9 and Luke Quaranta from Toubab Krewe, ** -with Leftover Salmon, # with Jen Hartswick & Natalie Cressman

Check out Steve Pearl’s fan-shot clip of “Miss Brown’s Teahouse” featuring the Antibalas Horns from Halloween:

[Setlists via Friends Of Cheese and SCI Facebook]