Features

String Cheese Incident: Untying The Knots

August 2007

The week and a half before Bonnaroo found all of those members together once more, starting rehearsals for what might well be its final summer run. One can imagine how other groups in a similar situation might not devote such energy to the process.

“I want to make clear to everybody that were taking this tour seriously,” Hollingsworth asserts, “just like any summer tour, we’ll find some great tasty covers and potentially bring in brand new original material. I’m really excited about it.”

That excitement translates, just after midnight on June 16, when the group huddles briefly before stepping onto the Which Stage for two late night sets at Bonnaroo. The audience stretches well past the horizon, and some of the 30,000 in attendance have staked out their territories for well over two hours.

Nershi certainly is animated, at one point running furious laps around the stage with a grin dominating his visage.

Travis’ snapshot of the night is “one moment in which Billy threw his body around and his head all the way down to his guitar and back up, giving himself whiplash with his hair flying around.”

As for Nershi, he offers, “I’m having fun now. A lot of things are resolving and changing now that we’re going to stop playing music for whatever period time that is. A lot of baggage got aired out and a lot of things that haven’t been said for years were said between people in the band and people in the band and management and it’s all making being together playing music better. My picture of Bonnaroo is a sea of people going as far as the eye could see really digging it and for me just hoping that in the future I’ll have a chance to play for that many people again.”