The String Cheese Incident

"I thought that new years eve was an all around amazing experience. My girlfriend and I are huge cheese fans and a strange thing happened on new years, in stead of finishing watching cheese we went to go see Tipper right after the count down and didnt go back, and oh my god was it amazing.One thing that lead to this choice was my inability to dance my ass of with out hitting some one else, and the gusts of fresh air in the other room, I couldnt really deal with the whole dripping ceiling thing(especially after a drop fell in my mouth and I realized that it was sweet).Not to mention Tipper is a world class breaks DJ that lays it down hard and fucking nasty.And because of this choice I realized that the sea of dreams wasnt just about string cheese but about the collective experience of all the bands playing. I think that cheese was showing all of us cheese lovers out there , that there is a whole other fractal of positive musical, and psychidelic vibrations to tap into, like Zap mamma, pnuma trio, tipper, bassnectar, and the amazing gathering of burning man. As for cheese what I saw of new years I really liked, I thought the boys layed it down and the count down was insane talk about sensory overload. I personaly thought the 30th was the better of the two, but when cheese is playing it is hard not have a good time. I thought that cheese on the first night was more of a focused cheese vibrationand that the crowd was there for cheese. New years was a mix of all kinds of freaks, I have never seen so many ass-less chaps, but all the freaky people make the beauty of the world. And I must it was beautiful. See ya at winter carnival"

"whats with the negatives? the show was great and we were all lucky to be with cheese for the new year, people should be open to whoever the incident brings on and off stage, with or with out a flashlight"

"he didn`t ruin it. It was cool. newb."

"i think your luckey you got the ones without souleye. if you ask me he ruined the song. all he does is sing well rap as fast as he can. and he really likes saying "ev-er-yyyy-one ever ever ev-er-yyy-one" he got real annoying real fast!! but the show was amazing!!!"

""Flying west jam" "

" I ordered both the BIRDLAND tracks from the ENCORE AND neither had SOULEYE on them ? HOW DO I GET THE VERSION WITH SOULEYE ????"

"errr correction, that was night 1. Not sure night 2."

"Drum Line was SCI playing Samba DeGreeley!"

"Hey - Does anybody know who the Drum Line was that played between the first set and the second set on NYE? Then I believe that they were playing out by the bathrooms after that. Thanks LA Jammer"

"I remember you "Flashlight Guy". If it`s really you, which I don`t think it is, you were extremely annoying and a joke. Every time you came around I was like "oh god it`s the annoying flashlight guy. get a life." Cheers!"

"Hey hey It`s the Flashlight Guy!!! Awesome show!!! I was chooglin` all night with my flashlight. Anyone remember me? I had no shirt, I`m about 60 years old with a grey beard and I have an AWESOME flashlight!!! Dance!!! Flashlight!!! Yeah!!!"

"this was my first incident,i came from maui for this show and it was the best show ive ever been to,no complaints whatsoever, everything was amazing. peace and love to all!"

"the energy of these shows was incredible. the shows were incredible. You won`t hear the crowd countdown to new year`s, you`ll barely hear them react to the new year. You won`t hear the crowd go nuts when they first yelled "James Brown`s Teahouse!" or react to several other instances of lyrics and mind-blowing jams. That`s why I have always gotten On the Roads. You actually re-experience that incident or one you didn`t get to see. Those days are gone folks. With the exit of O`Leary and bringing on some dude named Gordon, pffft...you`re on the outside looking in. The sound quality is not on these discs, nor the energy. It doesn`t take a rocket scientist to figure out that we all want to re-live the experience, but we keep being taken further and further away from the recording. Who`s got my heady auds? O`Leary??"

"someones is complaining about the setlist and repeats from last year? give me a freakin break. if your a fan of this type of music you should be more interested in how they play than what they play."

"I AGREE IF SOMEONE IS NOT GROOVIN IT MIGHT TAKE A LITTLE FOR THEM TO GET COMFORTABLE BUT I CAN ASSURE YOU BY THE END SCI WILL HAVE THEM RAGING TOO"

"All I have to say is that after 11 years of Cheesy ConSCIousness and a few hundred shows. This night Raged!!! I love the Mass Mind, it`s Always a treat to party with a few thousand lost Souls. Thats what its about...`Shining the Light on those that are Lost` Hopefully Awakening that Sleeping One. Fuck Yeah it was crowded thats waht NYE is all about, Schwillies, Spunions, Heads, Meds, those on the straight and narrow, a Sea of Dreams Kidz, a Sea of Dreams Love Light to All Peace Profound"

"We feel compelled to write in and say that we found the NYE shows to be amazing. Although we experienced some of the crowd aggression, we`ve been going to shows for 20 years, and these things happen. Moments like these can serve as opportunities to help spread the Cheese`s message of Positivity. That`s one of the great gifts of being a part of an incident, bringing those unenlightened into the fold. The show isn`t just what the band makes it, but what we make of it too. "

"Ok we have all seen the number of bad reviews but nobody wants to get to the point. The problem with these shows had nothing to do with the crowd or the "sloppy play", rather this show had everything to do with the setlists. The first night was orgazmic with a great setlist, but the second night was a little weak. I had a great time, but if you were in attendance last year then you probably noticed all the same repeats as I. I was accepting of the bam repeat because they did it justice this year and it was really short last year. The repeats I did not appreciate are as follows: Rhum N` Zouc, Dessert Dawn, Rollover, Black Clouds, Joyful Sound, It Is What It Is, Restless Wind. I love seeing all of these songs, but I really hoped that all the songs from last year would be thrown out. The dissapointment came in because we all know Cheese has a gigantic list of songs they could play. I can understand the repeats for the Round the Wheel album cover, but seeing this many repeats from one year to the next was really boring. The show was great overall and a great deal of fun, the covers were sick and the bassnecter jam was nasty. Setlist needed some work otherwise this show was groovy. Call me a hater or whatever, but this is the truth. Happy new year!"

"I`m glad to see all these positive reviews now. Earlier I was starting to think that I was at a different show entirely. I had so much fun and I did not get a sigle negative vibe the whole night. I will deffinately be back there next year even though the cheese probably won`t be. You just have to look at it this way, somebody threw a huge amazing new years party in my favorite city with my favorite people and String Cheese was playing!"

"firstly this show was incredible in every way. secondly i`ve read alot of the complaints and would just like to say that people need to be more accepting of newbies. for instance I had like 3 high schoolers right behind me that didn`t dance or groove, just kind of stood there staring off into the craziness so I kept bugging them to "get funky" and low and behold by the end of the second set they were grooving too. Just because someone hasn`t been to over 20 cheese shows and hasn`t grown 3 foot dredlocks does not mean they are squares! Talk to the people you think aren`t as hip and maybe you`ll find out that they actually are pretty cool people. "

"Great sound! Great Show!"

"Whoever gve this show a comment like "they played sloppy", "terrible show" etc etc...should seriously lay off the Doces at their next show. I was not there but i downloaded (contrary to "warnings" not to) and it sounds great to me...ok, Sex Machine was pretty bad but you know they just threw that in there as a tribute at the last minute. To any of you who said its bad...why dont you have examples of where/why? Its not one of the best incidents ive heard/seen....but its certainly worth a download to have in your Mp3 player. FTW!"

"got the mp3s tonight and the end of birdland there is some fuzz that happens then goes away....bassnectar jam is sick!"

"Coolest Party on the Planet and solid music to boot! Almost got my head stomped on at set break trying to get down the stairs, but hey, we all need a little adventure sometime. This did not fuck with the overall vibe. People need to master their highs if that is how they are going to spend their evening. A fine example of Cheese eclecticness. Thank You everyone involved, even the haters, because they make me enjoy this music even more."

"nobody pushed peopel down stairs. It was totally chill. There was ZERO security. All the employees were pouring drinks and dancing and smiling. There were glowstick wars galore. All of the negative reviews are simply false. Happy new Year!"

"I dont see what all the negativity is about. This was a solid show and I have been to over 25 New Years concerts. The vibe was excellent, the band played great and it was one of the best New Years I can remember. As for the people, I was having too good a time to notice or be bothered. The night before was tremendous but the 31st was the event to be at. Wish everyone and the Cheese a happy 2007."

"Sorry some had a bad time, I thought it was great. I agree the music was better sat, but oh what fun it was both nights. It was crowded, but I didn`t see all the negativity, only smiles!"

"I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT. There is nowhere else in the universe that I would have wanted to be. I LOVE THIS BAND AND ANYTHING THEY PLAY, AND I WISH IT WAS NEVER GOING TO END!!!!! The 31st was straight up old school eclectic Cheese and the 30th was filled with Electronic Space Funk, either way you can`t miss. Sure it was crowed. It was NYE but there was plenty on places to call your own if you needed to escape the thickness of the crowd. Overall the promoters did a great job and most people enjoyed themselves beyond words. "

"Unbelievable...... You wrote I need to stick to dave matthews?? What does that mean? Are people less likely to push my girl down the stairs or grab her tits at a Dave Matthews band show?? I just wish the energy, and crowd etiquette could be like it was on tour with the Grateful dead, or even phish. I expect belligerent concert goers at widespread but not cheese. Any which way, it was a great performance by cheese. The first set doesn`t get me too excited, although Rhum n Zouc and Desert Dawn were decent. The whole second set was great though. Still not a big fan of Elton John or David Bowie, but the covers were still fun, especially star trek and final frontier."

"It is incredible the amount of negative reviews that are posted here. For all of you who are complaining about either the scene or the music, what exactly is it that you are wanting? The scene is 5,000 people decked out in elaborate costumes, all partying and DANCING their asses off, in the most incredible venue and highly decorated venue EVER put together! Anon Salon and Peak must have spent a couple of weeks putting up everything there. Were there a few people who were moving around? Sure, but who cares? I was all over the joint both nights and didn`t have one episode that would remotely damage the incredible time I had at the shows. As for the music, it was fantastic! Tighter and funkier than Atlanta; higher energy than Vegoose (at least Vegoose 2nd set late night); fantastic diversity AND creativity. Don`t forget how the creativity was off the charts. Travis singing Ziggystardust? Kyle hitting Rocket Man? Billy singing Across the Universe? Star Trek for the Peak parade? Vegoose was jungle theme. New Years was space...I thought it better than Atlanta, Vegoose, Marymoor, (Eugene was JUST as sick as NYE), and in a lot of ways hotter than Red Rocks (Ratdog singing China Cat - Rider w/Cheese is just tough to beat). If these shows were marginal, then I am curious to hear what shows in recent history you thought were better? Highlights for me were This is the Place and Valley of the Jig 12/30 1st set; Restless Wind and 100 Year Flood 2nd set; Bam!, Pretty Polly, Rhum n Zouc and Rocket Man 1st set 12/31; and my god, the ENTIRE 2nd set on NYE. Peak parade during Star Trek and James`Brown`s Teahouse/Sex Machine was just ridiculous. Just not sure how anyone can have a negative take on these shows. People, dancing, scene, low security, music from 9:30-2am with a rave that followed each night until 4 so you weren`t pushed out the door... What else can you possibly ask for? I thought it a GRAND experience..."