Majestic to host cheesy jams

By Christian Hoard

Daily Arts Writer

The jam band scene has grown at a remarkable rate over the past few years, as Grateful Dead and Phish clones have cropped up almost as frequently as new boy bands. With so many young musicians taking the free-form route, however, it's tough to lend a fresh ear to every group that talks of its distaste for pop radio or a "magical, spiritual connection" with its audience.

But anyone who writes off the String Cheese Incident as just another face in the patchouli-scented crowd is sorely mistaken. Since 1993, the Colorado-based quintet of Kyle Hollingsworth (keyboards), Michael Kang (mandolin, violin), Keith Moseley (bass), Bill Nershi (acoustic guitar) and Michael Travis (drums) has carved out a niche for itself in the jam scene with a sound that's equal parts rootsy and stylistically diverse. At times, the SCI sounds like a down-home bluegrass band, having been invited to play at Telluride Bluegrass Festival in its home state several times in recent years.

But bassist Moseley said the SCI members "don't claim to be a bluegrass band. We're more of a rock band that happens to play a lot of styles."

Indeed, the SCI's two studio recordings, 1996's "Born on the Wrong Planet" and 1998's "Round the Wheel," find the group drawing on folk-rock, jazz and calypso swing in addition to the revved-up bluegrass in which it specializes. But as much as these albums bear testimony to the jam band ethic of freedom, instrumental virtuosity and feel-good centrism, it's during the SCI's live performances when things really get interesting.

"We're definitely a live band. (Playing live) is what we're best at," Moseley said. Accordingly, the SCI's jam-soaked performances - dubbed "incidents" by the band's faithful - have drawn more and more fans during past tours. Moseley sees the band's fanbase increasing in numbers in the years to come. "It's definitely been growing at a steady rate," he said, "and it looks like it will continue to grow in the future."

Released on its own SCI-Fidelity label, the SCI's new double live album shows why fans have been turning out in droves at group's concerts. "Carnival '99" offers plenty of live standards and straightforward bluegrass numbers as well as an eclectic mix of cover songs everything from jazz standards ("Take Five") to Meters classic ("Hey Pocky Way"). The jams, likewise, range from raucous rave-ups with Kang's electric mandolin leading the way to the laid-back, jazzy noodling that the Dead made famous.

In addition to writing material for a new studio album, the SCI are preparing for their annual "international incident," which will be held Memorial Day weekend in Costa Rica and which Moseley expects about 700 fans to attend. If you can't swing the plane fare, however, you can catch the group a little closer to Ann Arbor when it appears Saturday night at the Majestic.

Photo courtesy of Madison House

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