Sea of Dreams '07
I have to start out with a nod to San Francisco.
I hadn’t been back to the City by the Bay since 10/31/04 (STS9 at the Fillmore) and had kind of forgotten how much fun SF really is, especially Union Square on New Year’s Eve (NYE). I had spent two previous NYE’s there seeing STS9 at the Regency Center (12/31/02) and Galactic with Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe at the Warfield (12/31/01).
Ahh, good times.
Anyway, it’s a close call for me as to which city is my favorite spot to cut loose in, but I’ll say Las Vegas is 1A and San Fran in 1B.
Ok, on to the business at hand.
This was my second go around on NYE with the Bay Area production company Anon Salon. The STS9 event I saw on 12/30+31/02 was dubbed “Fanta-See”. This year it was “7 Heavens”. So the deal is each NYE they pick a theme and then deck out the venue accordingly.
And man did they ever do a fine job on the Concourse Exhibition Center (CEC).
The place was top to bottom a complete feast for the senses. If I could ever figure out how to post pictures to this blog you could all see what I mean. Performances took place on three stages, a mezzanine and a Circularium. There was also an art gallery, a vendor’s village and all kinds of hands on type exhibits to get involved with.
Basically, there was always something going on.
Probably the smartest thing they had set up though was the outside smoking area that had a plethora of port-a-johns. Why certain people were waiting in those long lines inside to use the facilities (when there was absolutely no waiting outside, ever) I’ll never know.
It was $10 dollar cab ride (with tip) from Union Square to the CEC. When we first arrived there a small lot scene happening, but not much else. Luckily we found the Mars Bar one block away. Nice place, good atmosphere and not crowded in the least.
We ended up taking to these dudes that had flown in from England to see String Cheese Incident (SCI), their favorite band. Man were there every d-r-u-n-k drunk, and it was only 7 o’clock. We chatted about football (soccer) and music, but the most important thing we imparted on them was to get in early to see the opening act.
Lotus on the LunaSea Stage 8:00-9:15 (3rd show)
One Last Hurrah, Kesey Seed, Greet the Mind, Hammerstrike, Spiritualize, It's All Clear to Me Now > Shimmer and Out
Upon entering the venue (around 7:50) we were kind of taken aback by the lack of people in attendance for my boys from Philadelphia. Oh well, more room for us to boogie. We sauntered right up to the rail and almost couldn’t believe where we were and how easy we got there.
They came on right at 8:00 sharp and broke into my favorite new song ‘One Last Hurrah’. OLH starts out slow but drops into this very catchy hook (like a lot of their songs do). The difference in this one from all of the other versions I had heard on archive.org is that the closing jam was absolutely monstrous.
They already had the crowd in the palm of their hand, but went into ‘Kesey Seed’ next. This proved to be the only really *down-tempo* portion of the show. I’m very good on KS myself, but the cool thing about it was that we were so close we could literally feel puffs of air shooting from the speakers during any and all bass bombs.
‘Greet the Mind’ was next and is always welcome in my book. About mid-way through it I turned around and noticed that the floor was filling in nicely, and that everyone was grooving their behinds off.
‘Hammerstrike’ is another new tune that I had heard in Eugene at my first show and didn’t love. I don’t think they re-worked it, but there was something slightly different about this version. I’m not sure if it was the tempo or the steadily building energy inside the venue or what, but this time around ‘Hammerstrike’ did not disappoint.
By the time ‘Spiritualize’ started we had to move off the rail because we are far too old to deal with the jostling that comes with being front row. So we moved back from dead center up front to about the 4th-6th row slightly off to the left. Still not too shabby at all. About 10 seconds into the song I leaned over to Teri and said “They’ve got this entire crowd, and are going to take us wherever they want to.” And boy did they ever.
I don’t know what it looked like from the stage, but the band had to see the steadily growing crowd the entire time. I know they could feel the energy level rising and rising, that’s for damn sure. This is the great thing about Lotus, especially as the opener of a big show. If you want to take it higher and boogie until you drop, they have more then enough tunes to oblige.
What came next was the icing on the cake for me. Since I had already heard ‘Flower Sermon’ and ‘Intro to a Cell’ at my first two shows, the only thing left on my top 3 was ‘It’s all Clear to Me Now’. As soon as I heard the opening riff I again turned to Teri and said “This tune is going to blow the roof off the place.” Yep yep. I had no time to do anything but dance my arse off at this point, but I imagine the rest of the crowd was doing the same.
(Sidebar: the ‘All Clear > Intro Cell’ on NYE in Pittsburgh to end set II must have been completely off the chain. Yes, they played Pitts on 12/31. After playing SF on 12/30 and Denver on 12/28+29. Oh, to be young again.)
The transition into ‘Shimmer and Out’ was flawless and took the crowd up even another notch, higher then I’m sure anyone ever expected the opening act to.
When it was all over and the house lights came on I turned around and the entire place was 100% packed, including the mezzanine. They put their instruments down to thunderous applause and were all smiles as they left the stage.
I guarantee Lotus made a ton of new fans with that performance. To me they are kind of like a cross between theNEWDEAL (for their non-stop four on floor dance party energy) and Sound Tribe Sector 9 (for their capacity to layer ambient jams while building them up to a frenzy inducing crescendo).
In a first for the NBA-Jam blog, we are going to have a guest writer inside one of my own columns. Teri, take it away…
“Lotus!
They were incredible, nonstop. They just kept coming at you, full force.
There we were, riding the fence in front of the stage, hovering between the first and third "rows" - sweet! Plenty of room on the floor to get your groove on surrounded by the sound & lights, with the band right up in your grill.
I was a prisoner, albeit a happy one, unable to do anything but conform. I could have literally crawled inside the set, built a motha f'*&%!n' house right there in the front, it was just that right.
They had us and they knew it.
I am sure they added to the Lotus fan base that night. The crowd just kept growing as their set went on. They delivered with confidence, and they knew they were delivering. It snowballed . They pushed themselves, and the energy of the crowd fed their journey.
Lotus is the new "I should've seen them when..." band of the jam scene, at the top of their game. (Think back to moe. '97 or Leftover Salmon of the early 90's for reference.)
Do not miss opportunities to check them out. They are young and not as polished as STS9, but boy, can they deliver.”
SCI on the GalaxSea Stage 9:30-1:30 (10th show)
I: Looking Glass > Just One Story, Doin' My Time, Tinder Box > This Must be the Place (Naive Melody) > Drums > Valley of the Jig, Way Back Home > Across the Universe > Way Back Home
II: Samba DeGreeley > Come as You Are, Restless Wind, On the Road, The Road Home, Galactic > 100 Year Flood > MLT, Got What He Wanted > Round the Wheel
E: Good Times Around the Bend, I Wish
I suppose I have to start out by saying that I’m not a huge SCI fan at all, and am familiar with only a fraction of their deep song catalog. That said, this was really, by happenstance more or less, the third New Year’s run of theirs that I’ve been a part of (12/31/00 & 12/29/02).
I’m also probably the type of person that most hardcore Cheese fans despise. Reason being, I actually like their new direction and harbor no agita toward them whatsoever. I like the change their sound has undergone from a more bluegrassy type style to the techno-jamming odysseys that they are now capable of.
That’s why there’s chocolate and vanilla ice cream I guess.
As for the music, I thought the first set of four fell pretty flat. It could have been because I didn’t know many tunes, or that we were in the mass of people on the floor for the start of it, or that we had just had our minds blown by Lotus. The lone highlight being The Talking Heads’ ‘This Must Be the Place’. I don’t get the big deal, but Cheese people go nuts for this song (as I learned on 8/4/06).
By the end of the first set we had found the perfect place to stand and never left that vicinity again when SCI was playing. Off to the right, a step up from the floor, there was a set of speakers that rang out crystal clear. Now you couldn’t see the stage from there (my eyes are closed 70% of the time anyway), but who cares? The sound was fantastic, and unlike many of the people at these events, I’m there for the music. That’s not to say there wasn’t plenty of sights to see though, because the people watching was mighty fine from our vantage point.
The second set was much improved and a forecast of things to come the next day. I had no clue that the entire set and encore (not including ‘I Wish’) was a complete rendering of their album ‘Round the Wheel in order. That was probably a huge treat for the hardcores in attendance.
I really liked the opener of ‘Samba DeGreeley’, complete with the band parading through the audience on various drums. It was very peppy and got things off to a fine start. Other highlights for me were the back to back ‘Restless Wind & On the Road’ combo, as well as ‘Galactic’.
Being that Billy Nershi has already announced he is leaving the band after summer 2007, it was nice to hear him singing one of his classics in ‘Restless Wind’. ‘On the Road’ is hands down one of my favorite Cheese tunes and they ripped the holy hell out of this one. I had never heard ‘Galactic’ before 8/6/06, but I really like the low down funky vibe it puts off.
We left during 'Got What He Wanted'. We had nothing left. Seriously, that’s how hard we got down during Lotus. Out the door, caught a cab, bought a slice a pizza and went to bed.
After some pre-gaming on Union Square we were off to night two.
Animal Liberation Orchestra on the GalaxSea Stage 8:15-9:30 (4th show)
Waiting for Jaden > Kolomana, Plastic Bubble, Ophelia, Sweetheart*, Walls of Jericho, Possibly Drown, Barbeque, Yes We Can, Shapeshifter, Maria
*w/ Bill Nershi
I’ll admit, I was psyched to see ALO again being that my last time was 10/30/05. I don’t think I was alone either, as the floor was pretty packed (compared to Lotus) for the boys from Santa Barbara.
Unfortunately, they did not deliver.
This was easily the low point of the weekend for both of us. For some reason ALO is still in that “we-have-to-play-our-hits-to-impress-everybody” mode. Even though it was very apparent that the majority of the crowd was quite familiar with their stand-bys.
The ‘Waiting for Jaden’ opener seemed an odd choice, but the segue into ‘Kolomana’ raged and was one of the few highlights of this lackluster set. I had been hoping for a ‘Kolomana’ and this version was rock solid.
I thought the show was going to take off from there, but the flight was grounded, and we found ourselves actually not dancing way too much.
The other highlight was ‘Sweetheart’ complete with a Nershi sit in. ‘Sweetheart’ is a pseudo-bluegrass number, and the jam featured Nershi and Dan Lebowitz having a dueling guitar battle where they went back and forth exchanging licks. Very nice indeed.
The cover of The Band’s ‘Ophelia’ was pretty cool, and the set closing ‘Maria’ from their upcoming album was nice, but the rest of the set was mailed in. Did they have their mind on Jam Cruise already? We’ll never know, but they did come on late AND finish early. Teri and I both walked away let down.
SCI on the GalaxSea Stage 10:00-2:00 (11th show)
I: Can't Stop Now, These Waves, BAM! > Rockit > BAM!, Pretty Polly, Rhum 'n' Zouc, Close Your Eyes > Rocket Man > Close Your Eyes, Desert Dawn
II: Miss Brown's Teahouse > Sex Machine > Miss Brown's Teahouse > Star Treck Theme+ > Rollover > Ziggy Stardust, Rain, Farther, Dub Jam* > It Is What It Is, Bumpin' Reel, Black Clouds
E: Joyful Sound, Birdland** > Wheel Hoss > Birdland > Rollover
+w/ NYE countdown
*w/ Bassnectar on turntables
**w/ Soul Eye rapping
You could tell SCI meant business right off the bat. ‘Can’t Stop Now’ is high energy bluegrass number (Newgrass Revival cover) that tells an amusing story. However, the ‘BAM! > Rockit > BAM!’ really let you know they had something special planned.
‘BAM!’ is another one of my favorite Cheese ditties, but the jam that led to Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit’? I mean, are you serious? I can’t explain just how great it was and where they took it, but if you remember ‘Rockit’ from your youth, and know anything about SCI’s ability, you can imagine.
The next highlight was Elton John’s ‘Rocket Man’ sung by keyboardist Kyle Hollingsworth. Out of nowhere says what? ‘Rocket Man’ was just an absolutely perfect change of pace song. After the initial shock-turned-to-joy wore off, the entire crowd was singing along too.
Yes, it was one of *those* moments.
The ‘Desert Dawn’ closer did not let up either, and is yet another one of my favorite tunes BTW. I was looking forward to the jam in the middle that usually goes disco-dance-party-insane, but this version kind of rocked out instead.
Dare I say it was Phish-esque?
Well, according to Teri (and I’m paraphrasing here) it took her to that place where Phish used to. As in there’s a big time jam going on where the whole band doing their own thing, yet still in sync as a unit, but there’s this other jam happening on top of all that.
And that sums up this ‘Desert Dawn’ perfectly.
The set break was complete mayhem. Just masses of people milling about enjoying the surroundings. We were actually late to the start of the second set, but for good reason. We had to stop and see a young lady wearing nothing but a half top get escorted out of the venue. That’s right, she had no bottoms on at all. Priceless.
As we walked into the main stage area ‘Miss Brown’s Teahouse’ was already playing, and even though this is without a doubt my #1 favorite SCI song, I didn’t care that I missed the beginning. I think we arrived on the tail end of the ‘Sex Machine’ tease with Nershi shouting “James Brown’s Teahouse!” So great.
The ‘Star Trek Theme’ may look lame on paper, but it was unreal live. Just like ‘Rockit’ they took this thing where only Cheese could. It went way out there, in a good way. The ‘Rollover’ after the countdown was to be expected I guess. Yet another thing Cheese fans gripe about that I don’t get. Anyway, I thought ‘Rollover’ was fantastic and fit the mood of the place just right with the balloon drop and all.
Then, in the out of nowhere category again, came David Bowie’s ‘Ziggy Stardust’ sung by drummer Michael Travis. He was in full on rock star mode clutching the mic stand and all. Comedy, but he still pulled it off nicely.
The ‘Rain’ that came next was sick. I had never had heard this song before, but the funky somewhat African groove was just right. ‘Rain’ really took it out of us. We had been dancing non-stop for who knows how long, so we kind of chilled in the background for a while (i.e. sat down). Until the closing ‘Black Clouds’ (favorite song alert…again) got us to at least stand up.
We were flagging big time by this point, but did manage to throw out a few last moves to ‘Joyful Sound’, but when the rapper came out during ‘Birdland’, that was it, and we were out. No Pnuma Trio (2:15-3:30) for us. The only problem being there was not a cab to be found anywhere (by us, or anyone else). So we had a nice 45 minute walk back to the hotel after dancing all night. Ugh.
Although I will say that the city was still pretty lively for after 2 AM. We saw at least three people puking on the sidewalk (one woman in a full on evening gown with what seemed like her entire hand down her throat), and every restaurant on Union Square had a line stretching out of it. Silly us, we thought we had left the freak show behind. I swear, straight people need to handle their business better. Lightweights!
Overall, this was easily the best “Incident” I had ever seen. From reading the message boards afterwards though, it seems like my view may not be universal, which is very surprising to me. I’m not sure how anyone could complain?
The music was great, the venue was done up to the nine’s and the vibe inside was so positive it was almost a little surprising (to me anyway). I don’t know what more these Cheese people wanted out of a NYE experience? For it to be 1998 again? Whatever. Get over it already.
As for me, I was as happy as Trey Anastasio with the keys to a pharmacy. I really want this to be my last experience with String Cheese before they retire, because I don’t see how anything they could ever do would top this. In spite of that, if they play the Cuthbert again this summer, I’ll probably be there.
COMING SOON! My top 10 shows of 2006…..
I hadn’t been back to the City by the Bay since 10/31/04 (STS9 at the Fillmore) and had kind of forgotten how much fun SF really is, especially Union Square on New Year’s Eve (NYE). I had spent two previous NYE’s there seeing STS9 at the Regency Center (12/31/02) and Galactic with Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe at the Warfield (12/31/01).
Ahh, good times.
Anyway, it’s a close call for me as to which city is my favorite spot to cut loose in, but I’ll say Las Vegas is 1A and San Fran in 1B.
Ok, on to the business at hand.
This was my second go around on NYE with the Bay Area production company Anon Salon. The STS9 event I saw on 12/30+31/02 was dubbed “Fanta-See”. This year it was “7 Heavens”. So the deal is each NYE they pick a theme and then deck out the venue accordingly.
And man did they ever do a fine job on the Concourse Exhibition Center (CEC).
The place was top to bottom a complete feast for the senses. If I could ever figure out how to post pictures to this blog you could all see what I mean. Performances took place on three stages, a mezzanine and a Circularium. There was also an art gallery, a vendor’s village and all kinds of hands on type exhibits to get involved with.
Basically, there was always something going on.
Probably the smartest thing they had set up though was the outside smoking area that had a plethora of port-a-johns. Why certain people were waiting in those long lines inside to use the facilities (when there was absolutely no waiting outside, ever) I’ll never know.
It was $10 dollar cab ride (with tip) from Union Square to the CEC. When we first arrived there a small lot scene happening, but not much else. Luckily we found the Mars Bar one block away. Nice place, good atmosphere and not crowded in the least.
We ended up taking to these dudes that had flown in from England to see String Cheese Incident (SCI), their favorite band. Man were there every d-r-u-n-k drunk, and it was only 7 o’clock. We chatted about football (soccer) and music, but the most important thing we imparted on them was to get in early to see the opening act.
Lotus on the LunaSea Stage 8:00-9:15 (3rd show)
One Last Hurrah, Kesey Seed, Greet the Mind, Hammerstrike, Spiritualize, It's All Clear to Me Now > Shimmer and Out
Upon entering the venue (around 7:50) we were kind of taken aback by the lack of people in attendance for my boys from Philadelphia. Oh well, more room for us to boogie. We sauntered right up to the rail and almost couldn’t believe where we were and how easy we got there.
They came on right at 8:00 sharp and broke into my favorite new song ‘One Last Hurrah’. OLH starts out slow but drops into this very catchy hook (like a lot of their songs do). The difference in this one from all of the other versions I had heard on archive.org is that the closing jam was absolutely monstrous.
They already had the crowd in the palm of their hand, but went into ‘Kesey Seed’ next. This proved to be the only really *down-tempo* portion of the show. I’m very good on KS myself, but the cool thing about it was that we were so close we could literally feel puffs of air shooting from the speakers during any and all bass bombs.
‘Greet the Mind’ was next and is always welcome in my book. About mid-way through it I turned around and noticed that the floor was filling in nicely, and that everyone was grooving their behinds off.
‘Hammerstrike’ is another new tune that I had heard in Eugene at my first show and didn’t love. I don’t think they re-worked it, but there was something slightly different about this version. I’m not sure if it was the tempo or the steadily building energy inside the venue or what, but this time around ‘Hammerstrike’ did not disappoint.
By the time ‘Spiritualize’ started we had to move off the rail because we are far too old to deal with the jostling that comes with being front row. So we moved back from dead center up front to about the 4th-6th row slightly off to the left. Still not too shabby at all. About 10 seconds into the song I leaned over to Teri and said “They’ve got this entire crowd, and are going to take us wherever they want to.” And boy did they ever.
I don’t know what it looked like from the stage, but the band had to see the steadily growing crowd the entire time. I know they could feel the energy level rising and rising, that’s for damn sure. This is the great thing about Lotus, especially as the opener of a big show. If you want to take it higher and boogie until you drop, they have more then enough tunes to oblige.
What came next was the icing on the cake for me. Since I had already heard ‘Flower Sermon’ and ‘Intro to a Cell’ at my first two shows, the only thing left on my top 3 was ‘It’s all Clear to Me Now’. As soon as I heard the opening riff I again turned to Teri and said “This tune is going to blow the roof off the place.” Yep yep. I had no time to do anything but dance my arse off at this point, but I imagine the rest of the crowd was doing the same.
(Sidebar: the ‘All Clear > Intro Cell’ on NYE in Pittsburgh to end set II must have been completely off the chain. Yes, they played Pitts on 12/31. After playing SF on 12/30 and Denver on 12/28+29. Oh, to be young again.)
The transition into ‘Shimmer and Out’ was flawless and took the crowd up even another notch, higher then I’m sure anyone ever expected the opening act to.
When it was all over and the house lights came on I turned around and the entire place was 100% packed, including the mezzanine. They put their instruments down to thunderous applause and were all smiles as they left the stage.
I guarantee Lotus made a ton of new fans with that performance. To me they are kind of like a cross between theNEWDEAL (for their non-stop four on floor dance party energy) and Sound Tribe Sector 9 (for their capacity to layer ambient jams while building them up to a frenzy inducing crescendo).
In a first for the NBA-Jam blog, we are going to have a guest writer inside one of my own columns. Teri, take it away…
“Lotus!
They were incredible, nonstop. They just kept coming at you, full force.
There we were, riding the fence in front of the stage, hovering between the first and third "rows" - sweet! Plenty of room on the floor to get your groove on surrounded by the sound & lights, with the band right up in your grill.
I was a prisoner, albeit a happy one, unable to do anything but conform. I could have literally crawled inside the set, built a motha f'*&%!n' house right there in the front, it was just that right.
They had us and they knew it.
I am sure they added to the Lotus fan base that night. The crowd just kept growing as their set went on. They delivered with confidence, and they knew they were delivering. It snowballed . They pushed themselves, and the energy of the crowd fed their journey.
Lotus is the new "I should've seen them when..." band of the jam scene, at the top of their game. (Think back to moe. '97 or Leftover Salmon of the early 90's for reference.)
Do not miss opportunities to check them out. They are young and not as polished as STS9, but boy, can they deliver.”
SCI on the GalaxSea Stage 9:30-1:30 (10th show)
I: Looking Glass > Just One Story, Doin' My Time, Tinder Box > This Must be the Place (Naive Melody) > Drums > Valley of the Jig, Way Back Home > Across the Universe > Way Back Home
II: Samba DeGreeley > Come as You Are, Restless Wind, On the Road, The Road Home, Galactic > 100 Year Flood > MLT, Got What He Wanted > Round the Wheel
E: Good Times Around the Bend, I Wish
I suppose I have to start out by saying that I’m not a huge SCI fan at all, and am familiar with only a fraction of their deep song catalog. That said, this was really, by happenstance more or less, the third New Year’s run of theirs that I’ve been a part of (12/31/00 & 12/29/02).
I’m also probably the type of person that most hardcore Cheese fans despise. Reason being, I actually like their new direction and harbor no agita toward them whatsoever. I like the change their sound has undergone from a more bluegrassy type style to the techno-jamming odysseys that they are now capable of.
That’s why there’s chocolate and vanilla ice cream I guess.
As for the music, I thought the first set of four fell pretty flat. It could have been because I didn’t know many tunes, or that we were in the mass of people on the floor for the start of it, or that we had just had our minds blown by Lotus. The lone highlight being The Talking Heads’ ‘This Must Be the Place’. I don’t get the big deal, but Cheese people go nuts for this song (as I learned on 8/4/06).
By the end of the first set we had found the perfect place to stand and never left that vicinity again when SCI was playing. Off to the right, a step up from the floor, there was a set of speakers that rang out crystal clear. Now you couldn’t see the stage from there (my eyes are closed 70% of the time anyway), but who cares? The sound was fantastic, and unlike many of the people at these events, I’m there for the music. That’s not to say there wasn’t plenty of sights to see though, because the people watching was mighty fine from our vantage point.
The second set was much improved and a forecast of things to come the next day. I had no clue that the entire set and encore (not including ‘I Wish’) was a complete rendering of their album ‘Round the Wheel in order. That was probably a huge treat for the hardcores in attendance.
I really liked the opener of ‘Samba DeGreeley’, complete with the band parading through the audience on various drums. It was very peppy and got things off to a fine start. Other highlights for me were the back to back ‘Restless Wind & On the Road’ combo, as well as ‘Galactic’.
Being that Billy Nershi has already announced he is leaving the band after summer 2007, it was nice to hear him singing one of his classics in ‘Restless Wind’. ‘On the Road’ is hands down one of my favorite Cheese tunes and they ripped the holy hell out of this one. I had never heard ‘Galactic’ before 8/6/06, but I really like the low down funky vibe it puts off.
We left during 'Got What He Wanted'. We had nothing left. Seriously, that’s how hard we got down during Lotus. Out the door, caught a cab, bought a slice a pizza and went to bed.
After some pre-gaming on Union Square we were off to night two.
Animal Liberation Orchestra on the GalaxSea Stage 8:15-9:30 (4th show)
Waiting for Jaden > Kolomana, Plastic Bubble, Ophelia, Sweetheart*, Walls of Jericho, Possibly Drown, Barbeque, Yes We Can, Shapeshifter, Maria
*w/ Bill Nershi
I’ll admit, I was psyched to see ALO again being that my last time was 10/30/05. I don’t think I was alone either, as the floor was pretty packed (compared to Lotus) for the boys from Santa Barbara.
Unfortunately, they did not deliver.
This was easily the low point of the weekend for both of us. For some reason ALO is still in that “we-have-to-play-our-hits-to-impress-everybody” mode. Even though it was very apparent that the majority of the crowd was quite familiar with their stand-bys.
The ‘Waiting for Jaden’ opener seemed an odd choice, but the segue into ‘Kolomana’ raged and was one of the few highlights of this lackluster set. I had been hoping for a ‘Kolomana’ and this version was rock solid.
I thought the show was going to take off from there, but the flight was grounded, and we found ourselves actually not dancing way too much.
The other highlight was ‘Sweetheart’ complete with a Nershi sit in. ‘Sweetheart’ is a pseudo-bluegrass number, and the jam featured Nershi and Dan Lebowitz having a dueling guitar battle where they went back and forth exchanging licks. Very nice indeed.
The cover of The Band’s ‘Ophelia’ was pretty cool, and the set closing ‘Maria’ from their upcoming album was nice, but the rest of the set was mailed in. Did they have their mind on Jam Cruise already? We’ll never know, but they did come on late AND finish early. Teri and I both walked away let down.
SCI on the GalaxSea Stage 10:00-2:00 (11th show)
I: Can't Stop Now, These Waves, BAM! > Rockit > BAM!, Pretty Polly, Rhum 'n' Zouc, Close Your Eyes > Rocket Man > Close Your Eyes, Desert Dawn
II: Miss Brown's Teahouse > Sex Machine > Miss Brown's Teahouse > Star Treck Theme+ > Rollover > Ziggy Stardust, Rain, Farther, Dub Jam* > It Is What It Is, Bumpin' Reel, Black Clouds
E: Joyful Sound, Birdland** > Wheel Hoss > Birdland > Rollover
+w/ NYE countdown
*w/ Bassnectar on turntables
**w/ Soul Eye rapping
You could tell SCI meant business right off the bat. ‘Can’t Stop Now’ is high energy bluegrass number (Newgrass Revival cover) that tells an amusing story. However, the ‘BAM! > Rockit > BAM!’ really let you know they had something special planned.
‘BAM!’ is another one of my favorite Cheese ditties, but the jam that led to Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit’? I mean, are you serious? I can’t explain just how great it was and where they took it, but if you remember ‘Rockit’ from your youth, and know anything about SCI’s ability, you can imagine.
The next highlight was Elton John’s ‘Rocket Man’ sung by keyboardist Kyle Hollingsworth. Out of nowhere says what? ‘Rocket Man’ was just an absolutely perfect change of pace song. After the initial shock-turned-to-joy wore off, the entire crowd was singing along too.
Yes, it was one of *those* moments.
The ‘Desert Dawn’ closer did not let up either, and is yet another one of my favorite tunes BTW. I was looking forward to the jam in the middle that usually goes disco-dance-party-insane, but this version kind of rocked out instead.
Dare I say it was Phish-esque?
Well, according to Teri (and I’m paraphrasing here) it took her to that place where Phish used to. As in there’s a big time jam going on where the whole band doing their own thing, yet still in sync as a unit, but there’s this other jam happening on top of all that.
And that sums up this ‘Desert Dawn’ perfectly.
The set break was complete mayhem. Just masses of people milling about enjoying the surroundings. We were actually late to the start of the second set, but for good reason. We had to stop and see a young lady wearing nothing but a half top get escorted out of the venue. That’s right, she had no bottoms on at all. Priceless.
As we walked into the main stage area ‘Miss Brown’s Teahouse’ was already playing, and even though this is without a doubt my #1 favorite SCI song, I didn’t care that I missed the beginning. I think we arrived on the tail end of the ‘Sex Machine’ tease with Nershi shouting “James Brown’s Teahouse!” So great.
The ‘Star Trek Theme’ may look lame on paper, but it was unreal live. Just like ‘Rockit’ they took this thing where only Cheese could. It went way out there, in a good way. The ‘Rollover’ after the countdown was to be expected I guess. Yet another thing Cheese fans gripe about that I don’t get. Anyway, I thought ‘Rollover’ was fantastic and fit the mood of the place just right with the balloon drop and all.
Then, in the out of nowhere category again, came David Bowie’s ‘Ziggy Stardust’ sung by drummer Michael Travis. He was in full on rock star mode clutching the mic stand and all. Comedy, but he still pulled it off nicely.
The ‘Rain’ that came next was sick. I had never had heard this song before, but the funky somewhat African groove was just right. ‘Rain’ really took it out of us. We had been dancing non-stop for who knows how long, so we kind of chilled in the background for a while (i.e. sat down). Until the closing ‘Black Clouds’ (favorite song alert…again) got us to at least stand up.
We were flagging big time by this point, but did manage to throw out a few last moves to ‘Joyful Sound’, but when the rapper came out during ‘Birdland’, that was it, and we were out. No Pnuma Trio (2:15-3:30) for us. The only problem being there was not a cab to be found anywhere (by us, or anyone else). So we had a nice 45 minute walk back to the hotel after dancing all night. Ugh.
Although I will say that the city was still pretty lively for after 2 AM. We saw at least three people puking on the sidewalk (one woman in a full on evening gown with what seemed like her entire hand down her throat), and every restaurant on Union Square had a line stretching out of it. Silly us, we thought we had left the freak show behind. I swear, straight people need to handle their business better. Lightweights!
Overall, this was easily the best “Incident” I had ever seen. From reading the message boards afterwards though, it seems like my view may not be universal, which is very surprising to me. I’m not sure how anyone could complain?
The music was great, the venue was done up to the nine’s and the vibe inside was so positive it was almost a little surprising (to me anyway). I don’t know what more these Cheese people wanted out of a NYE experience? For it to be 1998 again? Whatever. Get over it already.
As for me, I was as happy as Trey Anastasio with the keys to a pharmacy. I really want this to be my last experience with String Cheese before they retire, because I don’t see how anything they could ever do would top this. In spite of that, if they play the Cuthbert again this summer, I’ll probably be there.
COMING SOON! My top 10 shows of 2006…..
posted by D$ at 3:25 PM
1 Comments:
I was as happy as Trey Anastasio with the keys to a pharmacy. Oh my god - best line ever
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