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Band kicks it up for Halloween, last fall gig

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SCI Records

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Also by Matthew Kotler:

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The String Cheese Incident capped off their fall tour with a Halloween extravaganza in Madison last night that made Saturday night’s festivities on State Street pale in comparison. The band took to the Alliant Energy Center in full throttle, as thousands of costume-clad Cheeseheads celebrated one of the most exciting holidays of the music calendar.

As opposed to many of the parties that went down this past weekend, SCI took advantage of the proximity to Election Day to raise political awareness. Billed as the “2004 WePubliCan National Convention,” the show was comprised of three sets, the second of which was the now-traditional Halloween “costume” set. Opening the set with a mock political convention created by Peak Experience Productions, SCI’s production partner, the band went on to cover politically infused songs such as Cat Stevens’ “Peace Train,” The Clash’s “Rock The Casbah,” Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World,” as well as an original “Revolution/Activate” tune. The phrase “We Public Can” seemed a more-than-appropriate cap for the Halloween weekend as students prepared to vote Tuesday.

The first and third sets of the show certainly speak for themselves as well. The band obviously set the political mood with a funky “Born on the Wrong Planet” opener. Other highlights of the first set were “Search” and a jam out of “Looking Glass” that brought in a nasty “Miss Brown’s Teahouse” to close.

The jam out of “Rock the Casbah” in the second set is where the heat really started to be brought, and the third set was relentless in keeping it up. The opening sequence of a perfect, rock-solid “Howard” jammed into the depths of “Jellyfish” and then through an intense jam into a classic, old-school Cheese-style “Black Clouds” could have been enough for a ridiculous party. But the band kicked it up a notch further, ironically, with a mellower tune, Paul Simon’s beautiful ballad “Under African Skies”. The drums jam, which included newly announced sixth band member Jason Hann on percussion, explored house and jungle beats that could put some DJs to shame. Epic versions of “Way Back Home” and “Rivertrance” followed suit, with the band delving into increasingly electronic textures in combination with their bluegrass and Irish folk roots. The fusion of bluegrass and electronic styles has been an integral part of SCI’s maturity as a band, and extremely popular among SCI fans in the past couple of years. The “Rollover” encore featured a “Take The Power Back” (Rage Against the Machine) tease which brought an end to the show.

The String Cheese Incident next play in Camden, N.J., for two Thanksgiving shows, and then hit up New York City for what is sure to be an exciting New Year’s Eve run.