2024 finds The String Cheese Incident celebrating their 30th year, and to celebrate at home in Colorado they put together a very special 3 night run at Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater. Night one was labeled The New Orleans Incident, with the band following in their long tradition of enjoying sharing the stage with friends. Over the years of touring and playing in the south, they formed a beautiful bond with musicians and bands from the region by the likes of The Meters and Dumpstaphunk, who took them in with the warmest of southern hospitality, and subsequently later went on to join them around the country over the years, either sitting in as individuals or sometimes playing as whole bands as openers or festival sets.
The evening began with just the band, launching into the weekend with a very fitting Best Feeling, followed by the classic Outside Inside, then Joyful Sound and Can’t Wait Another Day. After that the festivities went into full swing as Colorado’s own Brothers of Brass provided a 2nd line style show of their own, coming down the north stairs and onto the stage, providing ample fun distraction for the crowd as the band was joined by George Porter Jr., Dumpstaphunk and Tarriona “Tank” Ball of Tank and the Bangas for a spectacular run of pure “Nawlins” funk!
Big Chief by Professor Longhair, a first time played by SCI, kicked off the jam , then all went into the Dr. John classic, Right Place, Wrong Time. George took us for a ride with a very fitting-for-the-times People Say by The Meters, which wound its way into Allen Toussaint’s Everybody Got a Right to Live. We then took a back street hustle into a sassy Sneaking Sally Through the Alley, another Toussaint classic, then wound ourselves up to a very fitting and rowdy Fiyo on the Bayou by The Meters.
Continuing the funk, the second set began with Tony Hall joining for a fun Get To You, trading licks and smiles with Billy Nershi and Michael Kang. As Tony left the stage, Ivan Neville and “Tank” emerged for Last Train, another by Allen Toussaint, as the crowd was gifted a spectacle in the way of a brief drone show by Nova Sky Stories, launching a steam train from the parking lots outside of the venue as the crowd rode that train into the statosphere with a rousing “CHOO CHOO”!
The set then continued in pure Cheese style with Bollymunster and One Step Closer, then brought out a nice surprise in the way of Eddie Money’s Two Tickets to Paradise, which segued beautifully into It Is What It Is, then on into a raucus Colliding to close the set. Not quite done, the boys came back out joined by the Dumpstaphunk Horns for their long-time favorite Miss Browns Teahouse, which led its way into Cannonball Adderley’s Mercy Mercy Mercy (a regular in the rotation from the bands early days), which then meandered its way back into Miss Browns to cap off a stunning night of music and friendship befitting a hometown kick-off celebrating 30 years!
Set One
Best Feeling, Outside and Inside, Joyful Sound > Can’t Wait Another Day, 2nd Line Jam, Big Chief, Right Place Wrong Time, People Say >Everybody Got a Right to Live, Sneaking Sally Through The Alley, Fiyo On The Bayou
Set Two
Get To You, Last Train, BollyMunster, One Step Closer, Two Tickets to Paradise > It Is What it Is > Colliding
Encore:
Miss Brown’s Teahouse > Mercy Mercy Mercy > Miss Brown’s Teahouse
