On July 29th, 2006, The String Cheese Incident was in the midst of its summer tour, with the Colorado-born jam act supporting Bob Weir and Ratdog for 14 dates across June and July. With four shows of the tour already under its belt, String Cheese Incident took a detour to Pine Mountain Amphitheatre in Flagstaff, AZ on a solo mission before of rejoining Ratdog the next night for a one-off date in Utah and a two-night stand at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on July 1st and 2nd.

For String Cheese’s solo performance at Pine Mountain Amphitheatre, the group put on one of the best shows of the summer, playing two sets of prime Cheese and leaving fans wanting more—eventually, with the band acquiescing to the demands of the hollering crowd that remained at the end of the show and returning after 15 minutes with a second encore of “Barstool”.

During the performance, The String Cheese Incident debuted two new additions to its repertoire: an original song called “Solution” and a cover of Weather Report‘s “Black Market”. “Solution” debuted toward the end of the first set and got a good amount of airtime during the rest of the year and across 2007—the song has since tapered off from the band’s song rotation, with it last being performed back in 2012 at Red Rocks. The second debut of the night was a synthy and psychedelic take on Weather Report’s “Black Market”, which kicked off Cheese’s first encore before a dramatic shift into the bluegrass-inspired “How Mountain Girls Can Love”.

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The show in its entirety was a high-energy offering from String Cheese Incident, with the group tight as ever and the members honing in on their transitions across songs. While the first set had less of an emphasis on transitional jamming, the second set was close to non-stop. Highlights of the first set include the show-0pening “Rain”, which got the show off to a perfect start, as well as its closing duo of “Land’s End” and “Smile” following the debut of “Solution”.

The second set, however, is where things really got kicked up a notch. The opening “Climb” is particularly well done, and the juxtaposition between the more heartfelt “Cats” into the forever-crowd-pleaser, Talking Heads‘ “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)” made for a stellar surprise. After the Talking Heads tune, “Big Shoes” offered a particularly gritty electronic-inspired jam, with the song clocking in at near-20 minutes, ahead of the set-closing “Round The Wheel”. You can listen to the full show below, courtesy of china.rider@cox.net.

The String Cheese Incident – Pine Mountain Amphitheatre – Flagstaff, AZ – 6/29/2006

 

Setlist: The String Cheese Incident | Pine Mountain Amphitheatre | Flagstaff, AZ | 6/29/2006

Set One: Rain, Desert Dawn, Drive, Think Of What You’ve Done > Blackberry Blossom, Solution1, Land’s End, Smile

Set Two: Climb > Joyful Sound > Dudley’s Kitchen, Cats > This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)> Big Shoes > Round The Wheel

Encore One: Black Market1 > How Mountain Girls Can Love

Encore Two: Barstool

Notes:

1 first time played

[Photo: Elliot Siff]