There are certain facts about the String Cheese Incident that you cannot ignore.
The Boulder band is one of the most successful touring groups with the most rabid fans ever to call Colorado home.
The group’s shows – whether you like their noodly music or not – are otherworldly.
And the six-man group’s breakup after its four-night run at Red Rocks concludes on Sunday marks a milestone in rock music, jam- band culture and the larger musical world.
For years, String Cheese has been one of the primary jam torchbearers in the post-Grateful Dead, post-Phish era. The allegiance jam fans show is legendary: They follow bands around the country, purchase tickets for five consecutive nights at Radio City Music Hall, four nights at Red Rocks and throng to massive, jam-oriented festivals.
Just as String Cheese took the torch and ran with it when Phish called it a day, others will now be expected to do the same. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s nail down the news that has the band’s fans conflicted.
Is the Cheese really breaking up?
Yes. And no. The best answer at this point is, Yes – for now.
“We just finished playing a four-night run at the Beacon Theater in New York City,” head Cheese Billy Nershi said recently, “and that was the last show for a lot of fans. It was definitely sad.”
The last show ever?
“Well, forever or for a while,” Nershi said. “Nobody really knows. People in the band don’t really know.”
The band announced the break on its website earlier this year: “Billy Nershi is leaving the String Cheese Incident to pursue other musical projects.”
Nershi had been suffering mild stress attacks before band rehearsals, a result of difficult relationships and mutating musical styles within the band. And Nershi’s departure essentially ends the band, as he started the group and has always been the de facto frontman in an outfit that has always pushed collaboration.
As with any breakup, this one hardly has been pretty.
“We’ve gone through some pretty negative points since I came out to the band,” Nershi admitted. “At that point, nobody pulled any punches. We all said exactly how we felt about each other and talked about what had been going on for the last 13 years, and that’s the best thing that could have happened.”
Part of what drove Nershi away is something he initially relished. As with others from the jam community, String Cheese has always been about the improvisation and the collaboration. Nershi has long been the creative center and the aesthetic guidepost for the band, but as time progressed, songwriting responsibilities spread to other members.
“Everyone in this band is writing a lot now,” said Nershi. “And it’s great on one hand to have so many people in the band putting out so much original music. That’s a great sign, and it’s something I’ve always encouraged. But I didn’t foresee the position it would put me in, playing more of a support role, in some ways.”
As String Cheese enters this farewell weekend, the most telling section of their website is a small section on the right side of the page titled: “SCIDE PRODUCTS.” Listed there are the six bands that will carry on the legacy of String Cheese, bands in which the various members will continue to play. One is Honkytonk Homeslice, Nershi’s group, which will be touring and recording in the months to come.
“Playing in side projects kept people in the band sane,” Nershi said. “String Cheese has been its own entity, but all the material that you bring in isn’t always appropriate for that band.”
Some of these bands will no doubt inherit some of the post-Cheese fallout. The Cheese calling it a day could very well mean bigger crowds at shows by Widespread Panic, moe., Ratdog, Yonder Mountain String Band and others.
“There are a lot of people who don’t know what they’re going to do now because they spend a lot of time being in the community of people that come to our shows,” said Nershi. “We’re not really saying anything on stage about this being the final run. We’re just trying, like we do every night, to play music and feel the vibe between the crowd and the band, almost like there’s a tangible connection between the band and the music and the people.”
While Nershi admits that “the remaining members of the band could make some damn good music without me if they wanted to,” he also said that it would have to be done, “under an offshoot name or something.”
If he’s been left with anything from playing these last (for now) shows as String Cheese, he said it’s an appreciation for the role his band’s music has played in their fans’ lives.
“The way these shows are going now, and the reaction from the fans that has been really overwhelmingly positive, showing a lot of appreciation for the music over the years and really rallying over this last summer of shows. That makes me feel hopeful that there’s more music to come from the String Cheese,” Nershi said. “Certainly there are no guarantees, though.”
Pop music critic Ricardo Baca can be reached at 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com.
| String Cheese Incident
JAM|Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison; 7 p.m. today, Saturday and Sunday|$42.50-$45|303-830-8497 or
