String Cheese Incident For 3 Nights In Vegas

The String Cheese Incident was absolutely on fire during their three night run in Las Vegas at the Brooklyn Bowl!! Friday morning started rather early but was choreographed by us professionals when it came to packing up the car. The Blue Z, The Dude ( asleep in the back ) & myself behind the wheel hit I-70 at 7:45am. Those first few hours went by fairly quickly and uneventful. Which Was Nice!!

We made it all the way to Beaver Utah before we needed to fill up. From there, the real road trip began. I simply waited for a driver with Nevada plates to blow on by at 100mph+ and I set the cruise at 95mph. We made the 7 1/2 hour trip in only 6 hours and 41min!!!

 The above photo is of Michael Travis and on the left is Billy Nershi. The photo below is from inside the Brooklyn Bowl. Friday night started off with the song Close Your Eyes which is about looking inside your own heart and seeing what you find. I felt like this was an excellent choice of openers for a three night run. The Cheese then slowed it down a bit and pulled of a very soft Little Hands into Ooh Las Vegas!!! They then started up an electrifying Sweet Spot and ripped into a Song In My Head and the crowd threw back the energy on the bad. It Was Amazing!! The whole band stepped back and were looking at each other as if to say," The crowd is here!" They were playing a slow dreamy in between and right on the correct time they HIT the first of two covers with Best Feeling > This Must Be The Place > Beautiful!!! Best Feeling channeled Keller, Naive Melody channeled David Byrne and the younger generation went ape sh*t when Beautiful started and ended the set. It's Vegas And Everyone Was Pumped At The Set Break!!!  

Everyone got together during the set break to read their "song" that we picked on our bowling shirts. Our group pre ordered Roots Run Deep bowling shirts for Friday Night's Show. The right front pocket had Cheese in Vegas 2015 and the left front pocket had your choice of song title. We heard that 87 shirts were ordered and our smaller Cheese Family went with all cover tunes. The Blue Z had Magic Carpet Ride ( his radio show ) , The Dude had Synchronicity ( opening 2nd set at Red Rocks 2007 while Cheese played this Police cover, a number of parachutist buzzed the crowd ) and I went with Hot In Herre from my 1st Cheese show in 2003 in Vegas with a Keller Incident. The photo below is just before the band went on showing off their bowling shirts.

 The Cheese came out for second set and you could totally feel that magic was in the air. They jumped into a Can't Stop Now for about 14min that was unreal!! The crowd went into a frenzy and became one ball of energy that the band tapped into. They flowed into Miss Browns Teahouse > Chameleon > Miss Browns Teahouse > into the best played ever Birdland!! That is saying something because Birdland into Flying West Jam is pretty much a staple for the Cheese.

 Keith Mosley ( Photo Below With The Bass ) was celebrating his 50th Birthday and Billy walks over to him during Birdland and Team Mosley went off on a fat bass solo with the band complementing his performance for like 3 full minutes. I can't wait to buy a copy from this Friday show because the band brought it and were so strong!!! From that point after Birland, the band was so tight and they all interacted with one another and you could feel that they were all on the same page and the jams filled the room with their energy!!! You've Got the World drove the younger crowd crazy AGAIN!!! Outside and Inside fired up the OG fans from the late 90's and then the Cheese busted out the Beatles cover She Came in Through the Bathroom Window!!! It was flipping awesome and everyone was singing their hearts out. The Cheese loved it!! Then, Mike Kang rips the horse hair from his fiddle during Bumpin' Reel > a drummers duo > and a sweet dreamy Just One Story. The place went ballistic during this 45min 3 song set ender. What a way to wrap up the second set of the first night complimented by a light show.

The encore was a beautiful Peter Gabriel cover Shakin' The Tree!! I also used that tune for my time lapse video from up above. The Cheese played this tune nice and slow and brought the whole show back around and again the crowd sang as if it was their favorite all time song. In fact, its how the whole first night went. The Cheese pulled us around, brought us together, and pumped us up for night number two.

On Saturday, Happy Valentines Day, The Cheese went Cheesy with the love songs!!! They opened with an original 15min +  Shine that was so appropriate for the night. Lost > Boo Boo's Pik-A-Nik > Mouna Bowa > Could You Be Loved was top shelf!!! I mean the band was blowing the place up and the crowd lost their SH*T when the first beat of Bob Marley's Could You Be hit their ears. Sirens > Colorado Bluebird Sky rounded off a very strong first set!!! The Cheese came out stronger than Friday and Friday was epic!!!

Second set opens with Jason and Michael playing drums with DJ Logic emerging his sounds that brought the place UP another whole level!!! The 3 of them went into a techno type of DJ action that melted the crowd into a dancing pool of sweat while the full band joined in for Let's Go Outside w/DJ Logic. It Was Magical Vegas Style!!! Then, It Is What It Is > Rivertrance was my highlighted jam!! Hotel Window was nice but Born On The Wrong Planet went completely off the grid. I don't know where the band went but they weren't in Vegas anymore. I was so stoked and didn't want the night to ever end. Beautiful people in the crowd, friends from back in the day, The Dude & Z were having a blast, and it was all happening at the right time. The Cheese ended the second set with Way Back Home > Roll Over that had wonderful jams in the middle of both songs!! The crowd went wild when the band walked off the stage and we couldn't wait for the encore of the evening!!!

 Billy came out to share a tale from one of his past Vegas experience that totally cracked me up. Plus, it was the first time they address the audience. I appreciate this because I am not a fan of bands stopping after every song to ask, " How are you?" Of coarse I am doing well and you are wasting our time by asking. JUST PLAY!!  I hope the story is included on the CD when I buy the shows from LIVECHEESE dot com. The encore started of with their original Las Vegas that they hit every mark spot on!!!! They then pulled out a Tom Jones cover ITS NOT UNUSUAL and went back into Las Vegas to round out another strong night. I am telling you, The String Cheese Incident never plays a bad show. They just don't!!! That encore was was two songs mashed up into one killer kick A$$ set!!! Thank You SCI
All of the photos were downloaded from Crackbook. Most of them were from Erik and a few others were from SCI page. The Dude still has the camera so I will post our photos, updates from our Vegas experiences, our road trip stories, the pool, crockpot dinner, the hotel, our bowling shirts, and whats on tap for training and break throughs I have had. Have a wonderful week as I know I will ride this high for the rest of the week.
Plan On This, String Cheese Incident at Red Rocks this July!! A Must!! See You There