@AndyShore Going into Rothbury I didn’t even have String Cheese Incident in my top-10 most anticipated shows. I had a bad experience at a SCI show when I was in high school when they began their experimentation with a more electric, tripped-out, spacey sound. It was just a whole mess of fail. I saw them again just before their hiatus began at 10klf a couple summers ago and could tell they needed time apart. The energy they had become known for was no longer there. Enter Rothbury 2009.
SCI took the stage to roars from the crowd. This was a special show, for a band with a massive fan base. They kicked off their biggest show in years with “Roll Over.” It was immediately apparent that the band was rejuvenated and happy to be back together. They continued the old SCI feel for the entirety of the first set, sprinkling in fan favorites like “Ms. Brown’s Tea House,” “Joyful Sound” and turned the whole set into a great big “Roll Over” sandwich. Other set highlights included a Talking Heads cover and a “Beat It” tease.
The second set of SCI, the band reverted to their tripped out ways that turned me off of them so many years ago. Despite a giant glow stick war, hoola hoopers, fire dancers, gymnasts on ribbons and paper bag hot air balloons, the music was not as good. Many times, it felt as if I could be seeing that music at an EOTO show. The jam during “Black Clouds” was so spacy it was almost unrecognizable. The band teased the scary laughter from “Thriller” this time around.
SCI invited Keller Williams to the stage for their encore. Cheese told the crowd they were making it hard for them to stop playing, as they kept playing right past their scheduled 12:15 stop time. With Keller aboard, they had the crowd going with “Best Feeling.” There was no stopping there. Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground” was next up. Bringing it all full circle, Cheese closed out with one of their classics, “Restless Wind.” It was a little bit of every kind of Cheese, for every kind of Cheese fan.
Related posts:
- Rob’s Rothbury Top 10 Anticipated Shows
- Michael Jackson covers at Rothbury
- Rothbury Friday Preview
- Yonder Mountain String Band
- Jordan’s Rothbury Top 10 Anticipated Shows
7 Responses
one of the sickest shows cheese ever played
Posted on July 7th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
this show was so much fun i can hardly believe it. Best show of the festival in my opinion.
Posted on July 8th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Highlight to the entire festival! Here are some pictures of them including a 360 panoramic. http://revolutionaryviews.com/rothbury.html
Posted on July 9th, 2009 at 5:43 am
[...] Check out the review of String Cheese Incident at Rothbury 2009. Videos [...]
Posted on July 12th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Show was so good I decided nothing could top it for the night and went back to my campsite.
I was a bout three people deep in the front when they started releasin all the balls… it was indescribable…
Posted on July 13th, 2009 at 7:49 am
I wasn’t even into SCI before this show. ^^”this show was so much fun i can hardly believe it.” I know what your saying man! It was just unfathomable how insane it was! I go to about 10 shows a month and I have never EVER seen anything come even close to the production and madness that was SCI at Rothbury. I don’t know what SCI shows are like because this was my first one but all I can say is WHERE EVER THE CHEESE IS I’M THERE
Posted on July 24th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
[...] SCI took the stage to roars from the crowd. This was a special show, for a band with a massive fan b… [...]
Posted on December 24th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
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