String Cheese Incident - little help?

Did you just compare SCI to Widespread??

What does it for me is Bill Nershi on acoustic. I'm really bummed he is the one leaving...and I did lose a little respect for him at last year's f.u.n.k. fest - long story - ...but man, I love to listen to him pluck those strings!.

It's a fair question, and one I could have asked as well. It's just asking a fan's perspective on a band they love. When someone can tell me why they like a band, even if I don't agree I can appreciate it more by understanding the appeal. You answered the question fine, but no need to get defensive Ziggy.

i would have to say, whatever songs grab your attention and your heart are the ones that make you want to see a band. hence the reason people exclusively followed the dead, or phish, or sci, or widespread vice all the others. if you can know any of these bands entire repetroire and get off on it, it's all your preogative.

i myself was a phish head who dabbled in sci and widespread.

i think the thing that i've really started digging about string cheese in the last few years, that other SCI-die-hards don't necessarily dig, is the electronic dance beats thrown into the loop. ie, rivertrance.

all that being said, i'll be checking out the superjam just because i have a feeling like nershi will not find what he is looking for after the "final cheese grill" at red rocks this summer. he'll be back, you can pretty much count on it.

My bad, you don't generally stir up trouble, and i see where your coming from. Someones gonna like every band, just i figure they have a reason and rather not hear their excuses. Its their last show because this is their last tour before Nershi leaves, and i don't think hes ever coming back. And for anyone who hasn't heard a show from the past 2 years, check it out, because they are much different then the ones before it. This being the suspected reason Nershi is leaving.

ziggyandthemonkeys said:

easymorningrebel said:

It's a fair question, and one I could have asked as well. It's just asking a fan's perspective on a band they love. When someone can tell me why they like a band, even if I don't agree I can appreciate it more by understanding the appeal. You answered the question fine, but no need to get defensive Ziggy.

My bad, you don't generally stir up trouble, and i see where your coming from. Someones gonna like every band, just i figure they have a reason and rather not hear their excuses. Its their last show because this is their last tour before Nershi leaves, and i don't think hes ever coming back. And for anyone who hasn't heard a show from the past 2 years, check it out, because they are much different then the ones before it. This being the suspected reason Nershi is leaving.

I agree with your opinion a vast majority of the time and even when I don't I can tell you know what you're talking about. Karma.

if you don't get it, thats your f*cking problem

I don't get SCI, actually I get that they are playing, I just don't care ... but I guess thats "my" f*cking problem.

They bring many forms of music together and have the talent and heart to jam in those forms. They support fans, for example they made a separate ticket company to get away from all those fees ticketmaster has. They have a label that has started many groups and artists some coming to bonnaroo this year even. They are good natured people and have soo many songs that sound totally different everytime they play them. They jam like no other. They have a good following of people. They support their fans like no other. I could go on and on. Basically you need to see them more than once live and in a good setting like bonnaroo to really understand what they are all about. Listening to a song and judging them is like judging food on looks.

great band, I want to see their show so bad, but ditto there are other shows I would like to see too ,this just totallyf%*^s with me, I will see three nights of SCI later iAugust 3-5 when they host their Big Summer Classic festival @camp Zoe here in Missouri, But this is a one of a kind last bonnaroo show for them going up against other one of a kind shows like that super jam. I guess I will have to chill out and go with what I feel, and enjoy, but no matter where I am I will be missing out on something good, I guess that is just the nature of the way Bonnaroo works, What a party it will be I wish I had the superpowers to be more than one place at once. Oh what a dillemma but no matter what it will be fun. the reason I like SCI is their diversity, and they really know how to jam, but not everyone appreciates that kind of shit .

^^^^LOL....I like!^^^^

I first saw SCI 9 years ago in a bar with about 100 people there. It was April of 98 and they were still new and fairly unknown. It was a really really tight enjoyable show. They opened with Midnight Moonlight and I thought it was great that they were playing a tune that Jerry used to play with JGB. My favorite part of the show was LIttle Hands. Keller Williams opened and it was the first time I saw them both. He came out later in the set to play with Sci. Truth be told, that was the only SCI show I have seen that I have enjoyed. After that, the shows that I have seen feel very generic to me. To me it sounds as if they are trying to force their sound. When I first saw them, they had pretty much a strictly bluegrass sound with a little rock and jam thrown. The later shows I saw they tried incorporating funk, and trance, and other types of music that other jambands were doing, and I felt like they did not pull it off that well. I have not seen them for 6 years, and never at Bonnaroo, mainly b/c there were other bands going on at the same time as them, but I have listened periodically and still feel the same way. The sound is forced to me. It is not natural and free-flowing like it was back in 98 when I first saw them. It sounds to me as if they are playing to the phish or jamband crowd. Which is pretty much why I can't get into them anymore. I enjoy jam music, and jam music is what brought me to Bonnaroo. I like WSP, UM, Bisco, moe., and Love Phish and the Dead. But SCI, to me, tries too hard to be the big diverse band on the scene with all their forced sounds. Instead of letting their sound develop, like the aforementioned bands, they forced themselves to play funk and trance, when truly, their niche was Bluegrass. If they had kept playing bluegrass/rock/jam shows like the one I saw at Newby's in 98, I'd probably still enjoy seeing them.

And at the end of the day, I think this is why Nershi is leaving. I could be wrong, but they have grown so far from their original sound, that he probably isn't enjoying it to the degree he was a decade ago. This is why he feels more at home in his side project.

I have never truly understood what drives people to enjoy them on the level they do. But that being said, I do understand enjoying something on that level, b/c I feel the same way with bands like Phish, and the Dead, and Radiohead. So I'm happy for the SCI Fans to get their final Bonnaroo show. SCI was a big part of the inaugural Bonnaroo and it would be a shame if they didn't get one final play before they go on their merry way. So even though I'll be at the superjam, and mago, and shadow, instead of SCI, I think it's great that the fans who are head-over-heels for them get their last late night show.

And Finally, it's ok not to like SCI, just as it's ok to like them. If you understand that the reason someone likes SCI is the same reason you like "insert band name here," then you've come to understand the nature and vibe of Bonnaroo.

i am a late comer to sci. im glad i get to see them twice before they are done. its just amazing music and amzing live performances. if you love bluegrass, rock, and for lack of a better word, trance then sci is where its at. as far as their following its just one of those things that happens to some bands on a lrge scale and not to others. going to festivals or shows from bands like sci, phishn abd the dead it is not just going to a concert. its going to a community of friends and family and sharing great times and energy with them. the music is just the conduit that brings all of that together. thats why i think there is so much excitement to catch them ontheir final tour. its the end of more then just a band and their music. and truthfully the superjam sounds nifty and all but it seems almost gimmicky to me. 3 dudes playing covers. id rather go back to having members of different bands come up unannounced then some random 1 off. that being said i wish i could see it. it will be great.

I actually want to thank you for this thread. Its been great reading the reasons why people love SCI, and why some are not so into them anymore.

Myself, I've only seen 'um play a couple of times, both at their "winter carnival" at the Filmore in Denver, but both shows are extremely memorable for me. The first one in . . '04 i think, was my first big jam band show. That was like an introduction to a whole culture I had never been exposed to. I guess it was kinda addictive, and its a big reason that I'll even be at Bonnaroo. That was also the weekend of the last huge spring snow storm to hit Denver. it was pretty cool.

The '05 show was one of the greatest musical experiences of my life. I was lucky enough to find the additional general admission section they opened behind the stage. It was such a difforent perspective than I have ever had at another show, about 10 feet away from the band, and looking right down at the percussionists as they played off each other. And no crowding at all, plenty of room to dance, so close to the stage. Another great part of that show, that perhaps the more old-school fans didn't like, was the addition of Perry Ferrell of Jane's Addiction. So in that case, it was a merging of different music genres that are considered pretty different, but that are two of my favorites.

Bonnaroo is offering me something similar this year, with the addition of tool. I'll leave it at that so that I don't get too off topic.