The String Cheese Incident will be performing May 18 at the Rose Music Center in Huber Heights, alongside American roots band the Wood Brothers. Tickets are on sale now.
Starting out as a bluegrass band that played “cheesy” covers, the Blue String Cheese Band changed its name to what it is today.
When SCI first started gaining momentum in the 1990s, as the internet was just beginning to take hold and the major-label business model was failing, the band decided to make music on its own terms. Since then, the String Cheese Incident has gone on to carve out a peculiar approach to the music business. Using the internet as a tool, SCI was among the first artists to disseminate information online — tour dates, release information, and other news — to its growing fan base.
The band’s record label, SCI Fidelity Records, operates under the same ideals. SCI Fidelity embraced downloadable music and file sharing early on, delivering SCI’s “On The Road” series, where every show the band plays — called “Incidents” — are made available to download. Currently, all Live Cheese concerts can be streamed on nugs.net.
The String Cheese Incident reimagined grassroots music-sharing opportunities with soundboard recordings. It’s a method inspired by what tapers — rogue music archivists who travel around documenting and sharing live shows, chiefly of the jam band ilk — started doing with the Grateful Dead. SCI helped bring that idea to a new generation with the internet, like tape-swapping but online.
“The Grateful Dead, who was one of the originators of the jam band, was all about releasing the music and putting every show out there, so we try to curate each show as an event,” said SCI bassist and vocalist Keith Moseley. “We try to write the set list in a way that will take the listener on a journey, emotionally and through highs and lows, and try to create an overall feeling much like it would be if you listen to an entire album.”
Moseley said that the band is proud of the studio albums String Cheese has released, but where the band excels is documented in its energetic live shows — full of ephemeral jams, unique set lists, and taking risks. The studio sessions help build a framework, the vehicle that allows the band to jam, live. No two shows are alike — the bread and butter of the String Cheese world — and, thankfully, soundboard recordings and tapers are there to document it all.
“Sometimes you create these moments that just… you couldn’t have imagined them, and they feel larger than life,” Moseley said. “I think what the tapers are always after is trying to capture those magic moments, to try to be present when that magic does happen.”
This writer has seen String Cheese play once, in what he recalls to be a very vividly-colored wooded area in Rothbury, Michigan, at Electric Forest, an annual music festival that the band frequents. Strangely enough, String Cheese is the only band he recalls seeing his entire stay, and posits he was there for roughly five days.
But, as Moseley points out, the community of folks who come out to see String Cheese Incident — a nameless fanbase, unlike Deadheads or Phishheads — should not be pigeonholed by the incriminating anecdote above.
“I’ve been told many times that we have the best, friendliest, most accepting fanbase anyone’s ever seen,” Moseley said. “The fans are super polite, engaging, aware… our shows end up being real magnets for gathering people. We’ve been really successful at building a great community around the shows and the people who show up. The fan base is just outstanding.”
String Cheese Incident’s commitment to community goes beyond its immediate circle, beyond the music. Early on, the band took a serious interest in giving back, and were among the first performers to encourage “green” shows and tours. Its philanthropy has helped give rise to such not-for-profit organizations as Conscious Alliance and HeadCount.
“I think our community of fans is very happy to participate when we do engage in these food drives,” Moseley said. “The fan base is happy to try to help out the local communities and realizes the importance of what we’re doing there.”
Meanwhile, the String Cheese Incident has stayed committed to the importance and the magic of music, too.
Brandon Berry writes about the Dayton and Southwest Ohio music and art scene. Have a story idea for him? Email branberry100@gmail.com.
HOW TO GO
What: The String Cheese Incident with The Wood Brothers
When: 6 p.m., May 18
Where: Rose Music Center, 6800 Executive Blvd., Huber Heights
Cost: $58.50 - $88.50
Tickets: rosemusiccenter.com
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