Features

The String Cheese Incident : Retying The Knot

Photo by Jay Blakesberg

While driving into the hills northwest of Portland, Ore. Small, wooden signs greet travelers with apropos String Cheese Incident sayings like “You’ve just stepped thru the looking glass” and “Slow… nice & cheesy.” At the entrance to Horning’s Hideout in North Plains, a giant purple banner depicting one of the venue’s famed peacocks, reads “Welcome home!”—perhaps the perfect greeting for fans who’ve journeyed to see the band’s second weekend of reunion shows this summer. A pair of peacocks struts across the dusty dirt road that leads to the campgrounds. The male ceremoniously squawks and spreads its feathers to reveal a plume of eye patterns cast in bold indigo and emerald hues. The four-day festival of ritual, art, nature, dance and—most important—community, is officially underway.

Fans, vendors, artists, musicians and production crews are camped side-by-side in the woods—including each member of The String Cheese Incident. Percussionist Jason Hann pops out of a tent near Everyone Orchestra conductor Matt Butler’s campsite and mandolin player/fiddler Michael Kang cruises by on a golf cart—off to help with art and production needs. Bassist Keith Moseley walks by with his two young children, one of whom is dressed as a fairy and will accompany the band onstage later that night to dance during “Emma’s Song.” Guitarist Bill Nershi is backstage regaling a group of people with tales and pickin’ with a few friends.

Though the Horning’s Hideout festival is the second of the band’s “reunion” weekend events this summer—the group played three shows a week earlier at Morrison, Colo.’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre—the four-day festival offers a summation of what String Cheese and its creative partners have been up to during the band’s three-year hiatus.

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On Thursday, the band members perform with their other projects: Michael Travis (drums) and Hann in the electronic duo EOTO, Nershi with guest Moseley in the jamgrass outfit Emmitt-Nershi Band, Kang with the African-music influenced CB3 and Kyle Hollingsworth (keyboards) in his own Kyle Hollingsworth Band, which offers a String Cheese-like amalgamation of funk, rock and world music. “You can really see where everyone’s stretching in their own direction,” says Moseley.

Friday is filled with performances by various acts associated with String Cheese and the band’s longtime management company Madison House, including the Liza Oxnard Family Show, a drum workshop led by Toubab Krewe, an afternoon set by The Pimps of Joytime and late night performances by Beats Antique and DJ Aaron of The Brazilian Girls. During the evening’s headlining set by String Cheese, Nershi exclaims how happy the band is to be “in the woods and camping” and cites the venue as “at the top of our list” when they decided to return to playing. Venue owner Bob Horning’s mother Jane follows with a few welcoming remarks and, later, New Orleans’ Soul Rebels Brass Band joins the group.

The band’s Saturday performance is the weekend’s centerpiece featuring a “rant” by longtime SCI muse Lester “Boom Boom” Babbitt, a sit in from legendary jazz guitarist Bill Frisell and one of the band’s famed “ritual sets,” which Nershi refers to as “the big shebang.” After the band’s first set, the members clear the pit area in front of the stage, send fans onto the surrounding hills and open the second set with a nearly 30-minute version of “Rivertrance.” The experimental trance jam is accompanied by a slew of Cirque du Soleil¬-like theatrics ranging from fire-dancers to daredevil acrobatics to psychedelic flying saucers and professional hula hoop troop The Spinsterz. Kang first encountered many of the performance artists through his longstanding association with the Burning Man festival, while others are fans who took their love of String Cheese to the next level.

As if to emphasize the band’s diversity, their Sunday show is heavy on roots and jam music, including some traditional bluegrass with Travelin’ McCourys, a cameo by Col. Bruce Hampton and an “Eyes of the World” tribute to Jerry Garcia on his birthday featuring regular collaborator Scott Law. At times, all of this seems like a distraction from the festival’s yoga workshops, performances by tribal jewelers/masked fire dancers Liquid Fire Mantra, greening discussions and lectures like “Being Honest with Your Kids” presented by John Perry Barlow and Mountain Girl.

“A lot of energy went into all that stuff, and to see it get pulled off is really satisfying,” Kang says. “We’ve been talking about this shit for months, having conference calls every week. I think we’ve always had an open mind to wanting to create that kind of experience and make the music in a greater theatrical presentation.”

Though String Cheese is six shows into one of the most successful comebacks in jamband history—each of the band’s summer shows swiftly sold out—now, more than ever, the band’s performances feel like just part of the community event, a lynchpin supporting art, creativity, social responsibility, learning and music. And, after an extended period of internal struggle and a three-year hiatus, that community might just be what holds String Cheese together.