While many of us were grabbing the charcoal, cracking open the grill and lighting the fuses of this July 4th weekend, members of The String Cheese Incident, the jam band that hosts festivals like Electric Forrest and Hulaween, lit the fuse on their Independence Incidents in Asheville, NC and Atlanta, GA. We were lucky enough to get in to see the Asheville shows on July 1st and 2nd at the Exploreasheville.com Arena to catch the vibe and take in the music.
The first night was on a Friday and walking up to the venue, the ‘cheese heads’ were out in full force. Some were selling pins, others were looking for last minute opportunities to buy tickets and of course there was the overkill police presence that can be typical of a lot of jam band shows. Once we got in, the costumes got even more colorful. There were mango tie-died wigs mixed in with the array of feathered headdresses, but what was here that you probably wouldn’t find at other shows were all of the ‘cheese’ references. Before the night was over, I was pegged with a cheese sticker and even saw a pin that said ‘ahh the power of cheese.’
The band was in full force after finishing up with Electric Forrest the week before. Before they opened up the show with “Birdland” into “Lonesome Road Blues”, the band acknowledged that they felt right at home in Appalachia because the mountains were similar to their native Colorado. The set that followed was a musical journey that defied expectations and crossed just as many genres. They even debuted a new song called “Get Tight” a feel good summer tune. The second night they played more songs off of their album Song in My Head along with some other wild forays into genre blends like funk-fueled blues, some electronic bluegrass, and a piece called BollyMunster to end the night. 
Click here to check out some samples from the Independence Incidents and for more information about their summer tour click here.
Photos ©Lucas Gregg for YourEDM.com
