String Cheese Incident 11.12.14 Capitol Theatre

Words + Photos by Jeremy Gordon

This past Tuesday and Wednesday nights saw the String Cheese Incident return to the New York City area. While the last trip through saw them play the criminally underused United Palace Theater in Washington Heights, this time Peter Shapiro’s Capitol Theatre was the host of SCI’s two night run.

On a tour that has seen plenty of highlights, Wednesday night the band started off with a smoking “Johnny Cash” and a fantastic jam into “Beautiful”. After Bill Nershi settled things down with a haunting “Hotel Room”, the band kicked it back into gear with a surprisingly good “Big Shoes>Rosie”. “Rosie” saw Raq/Kung Fu’s keyboardist Todd Stoops sit in and push the jam so far that even Nershi yelled out for, “More! More!” In all it was an excellent set from start to finish.

The second set saw crowd favorites “Rhythm of the Road > Can’t Stop Now” and a lively tease of Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die”. “Rivertrance” sans laptop and Michael Kang on fiddle throughout felt fresh, before a great “Just One Story” closed out the set. A three song encore included Jerry Garcia Band’s “Tore up over You” (Tuesday night saw “Shakedown Street” in a similar spot as perhaps an ode to Garcia’s bar located inside the Capitol Theatre) before finishing out with Paul Simon’s “Under African Skies” and “Whiskey Before Breakfast”.

Afterwards fans remarked on how the once fractured band seemed to be finally listening to each other and enjoying each other’s company. With the successful fall tour soon coming to a close, 2015 holds a great promise for the String Cheese Incident. Don’t believe me? Then either catch the band’s video feeds on Nugs.net, or better yet, make it to Colorado for their three night New Year’s Eve run at 1st Bank Center in Colorado.

Set One: Johnny Cash > Got What He Wanted > Beautiful, Hotel Window > Climb, Big Shoes > Rosie*

Set Two: Texas, Pack It Up, Rhythm Of The Road > Can’t Stop Now, Piece Of Mine, Rivertrance, Just One Story

Encore: Tore Up Over You, Under African Skies > Whiskey Before Breakfast

Notes
* with Todd Stoops from Kung Fu

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