On Saturday, The String Cheese Incident will be coming to the RPI Field House as part of a tour to promote their newest album: Outside Inside. The album is the band’s first studio release in nearly three years.
Michael Kang, Michael Travis, Bill Nershi, and Keith Moseley formed the band in the Colorado ski town of Crested Butte in 1993. Skiing by day and performing by night, the band moved to Boulder, Colo., where they added Kyle Hollingsworth. The band quickly gained popularity across Colorado, performing at the renowned Telluride Bluegrass Festival.
Since their formation in 1993, The String Cheese Incident has given over one thousand performances, put out five albums, and toured non-stop not just in the U.S., but in such places as Jamaica, Mexico, and Costa Rica as well.
By 1997, the band formed their own label, SCI Fidelity Records, and released a debut album after four years of non-stop touring amounting to an average of 170 shows per year.
The band’s debut album, Born on the Wrong Planet, was quickly followed by a self-titled live album. 1998 saw the release of their third album, Round the Wheel, and in 1999 they released Carnival ’99, a double live album. Another noteworthy achievement in the band’s rise to fame has been the establishment of Gouda Causes, the not-for-profit arm of The String Cheese Incident. Among the causes aided by the efforts of the band are Boston’s Pine St. Homeless Shelter and the Windows of Hope Foundation for the aid of those effected by the events of September 11.
Most fans of The String Cheese Incident contend that they are a modern-day Grateful Dead, oozing with creativity and musical savvy. This can only lead me to one conclusion: They are hearing something that I am not. Despite the wide array of musical instruments utilized in Outside Inside, including electric mandolin, the album sounds like a poor imitation of the Grateful Dead and their contemporary counterpart, Phish.
Overall, String Cheese combines elements of pop, funk, bluegrass, salsa, and jazz in a way that may work for other bands but just doesn’t quite work here. Their lyrics aren’t particularly inspiring and the songs grow boring quickly, especially when they exceed 10 minutes in length.
Though fans of the band insist that nothing can match the experience of live performance, I find that hard to believe. Given that it is more common for bands to put together good albums, thanks to the magic of studio editing, while being mediocre at best when it comes to live performance, it is hard to believe that the opposite would be true for The String Cheese Incident.
Overall, The String Cheese Incident appears to be an acquired taste—to their fans they are an amazing jam band with an addictive sound. To others they seem to be another band trying to imitate someone else’s sound rather than find their own.
To their credit, though, it is refreshing to find a band that has made it their policy to champion the causes of those in need not just when it is needed most, but every day. Further information on The String Cheese Incident and Gouda Causes can be found at the
band’s official website, http://www.stringcheeseincident.com.
