Colorado’s own The String Cheese Incident continued their March Madness tour, coming down from the snowy Sierra’s to the legendary Fox Theater in downtown Oakland for two nights of jammy hooping tunes, Friday & Saturday, March 11th & 12th! The El Niño rain was coming down but it didn’t stop fans from packing the house and getting down with walls lined in raincoats. Blessing the start of the event last night was Jack Mento from the band’s team and a moment of recognition for Evan Kimble, a rail-riding staple of the String Cheese Incident family to start the show. Beginning with some new an old, “Colliding” and “Born on the Wrong Side of the Planet” got us all up moving fast. Covers of Newgrass Revival’s “Can’t Stop Now” and KC & The Sunshine band’s “Get Down Tonight” topped of highlights of the first set and into a “Wheel of Life” to close out the first set.
Second set winded us into some oldies with “It Is What It Is” and “Rhythm of the Road”, but quickly rose into space then back down to love with “Rivertrance” and onto “Jellyfish > Sirens > Just One Story”. The boys brought the heat last night and when the encore came around and fan guessing swirling around us. When mandolin and fiddle player Michael Kang came out with his acoustic mandolin, expectations a softer end mounted into the cheese ballad of “Barstool” as our first closer. Then onto a cover, typically known to me with the Jerry’s Garcia Band’s version of “Don’t let go” closed down the night down.
Tonight marks my 30th String Cheese Incident Show. I took one of my best friends for his first show and the guy next to me was at his first show as well, but a “long time listener.” Some remarks from those guys:
“The flow and change from one style (of music) into another into another, and then being so good at each style is incredible.”
“Are they always this tight and bringing this energy?”
“The reggae breakdown into a dubstep-y mash up mid jam was a nice surprise.”
“Do they ever play Grateful Dead songs?”
For me, this being my 30th show since 2005, the band appears to be performing as great as ever. An even balance of all things cheese has their sound and energy aging like a fine and punching harder and harder, night after night. The guys head to Santa Barbara to continue their March Madness tour on the West Coast. I hope these two night runs keep continuing into the future in the Bar Area and the two-year show drought, after their 2008 break, never happens again.
-Benjamin Wallen
