Get set for String Cheese Incident
denverpost.com
By G. Brown
Denver Post Staff Writer
Feb. 13, 2001 - First there was the Grateful Dead. Then Phish
carried the positive communal vibe and idealism of the hippie
era into the '90s.
Now that Phish has
announced an indefinite
hiatus, fans have been
searching for a way to ignite
the spirit of the music into the
21st century. And String
Cheese Incident, one of
Colorado's biggest
home-grown success stories,
is primed to fill the gap.
"There's a lot of talk," bassist
Keith Mosley admitted recently. "Our scene has been
snowballing. This will probably fuel it.
"Our biggest challenge is to keep it a feel-good String Cheese
scene."
Eight years ago, String Cheese Incident was playing apres-ski
bars in Crested Butte and Telluride. Soon after, the five
unassuming musicians - Michael Kang on violin and mandolin,
Bill Nershi on acoustic guitar, Michael Travis on drums,
keyboardist Kyle Holl- ingsworth and Mosley - moved to
Boulder to seriously pursue a career in music, a self-described
"sacrilegious mix" of bluegrass, funk and jazz with breezy Latin
and African influences.
The energy and enthusiasm exuded from the stage established
String Cheese Incident as one of the most popular jam bands
based west of the Mississippi. Taking a page from the Dead
and Phish, SCI has built a fan base so loyal and involved that it
has become somewhat of a phenomenon itself.
Whether it's following the group for national and international
shows or collecting merchandise or trading live-show tapes, set
lists and concert reviews via the Internet, devotees make the
group a way of life. They're silver-haired Deadheads, well-to-do
college kids, suntanned ski bums, middle-aged professionals,
all sharing in the carefree happiness.
SCI expects to gross several million dollars in revenues this
year. Yet the band has no major-label contract, gets hardly any
radio airplay and does not have a video on MTV. As SCI
continues to elevate both the sound and the shows, the group
has attracted the support of a zealous business team.
The enterprise includes the band's own management and
booking company. It launched its own record label, SCI Fidelity,
and an in-house merchandise department. There's also an
SCI-run ticketing service and in-house travel agency, set up to
help fans arrange transportation plans to "incidents."
SCI also employs a tape archivist who maintains the group's
recordings from each of its shows. All told, the String Cheese
empire has two dozen twentysomething casually clad staffers -
and a few dogs - running around the offices in a basement
level of a Boulder office building.
"It's something we set out to do from the beginning - "Let's
tour like maniacs and build a grassroots following, and let's
start our own record company because everyone we talk to has
nothing but horror stories.' It began as a dream," Mosley said.
"Then, by enlisting people to run the company, we've seen it
happen. I walk through the doors here, (and) it's amazing it's
grown into this. There's a sense of responsibility that weighs
on my shoulders. I not only play in the band, I'm a part of all
these different wings of the organization."
To make their tiring tour schedules more pleasant, the band
members often play multiple dates in the same city so they and
their dreadlocked, patchouli-soaked disciples can settle into a
festive atmosphere.
SCI closed the year 2000 selling more than 21,000 tickets over
a three-day New Year's Eve celebration in Portland, Ore.,
incorporating theatrics and costumes and props.
For hot summer gigs, String Cheese Incident has played at
exotic beachside locations in Jamaica, Mexico and Costa Rica.
For the band's annual Winter Carnival shows, venues near the
best ski resorts are favored. SCI will visit the Fillmore
Auditorium on Thursday, Friday and Saturday for three
sold-out performances, and will also appear at Dobson Arena in
Vail on Monday and Feb. 20.
This week, the band's guests are (on successive nights) Bruce
Hornsby, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Little Feat, Del McCoury
and Karl Denson's Tiny Universe.
"We're doing the same thing onstage, whether we're playing to
500 or conceivably 50,000 - that is, communicating as a
musical unit, trying to blend five instruments into a single
voice, and have some feedback from the audience, ... get them
involved, feel their emotion," Mosley said.
While String Cheese Incident is a leader in the neo-hippie jam
band genre, others have sold more records. SCI's fifth CD,
"Outside Inside," recorded in Austin with producer Steve Berlin
(Los Lobos) and scheduled to hit the streets in May, could
change that.
"The concept was different from the beginning - it was the first
time we worked with a producer," Mosley said. "Steve took a
liking to the band and made a point of seeing us on tour and
getting an understanding of our whole scene. He was genuinely
interested in what we had to say.
"We're feeling as driven as ever to keep pushing ourselves
musically. No one's resting on their laurels here.'' |
