On Saturday night, November 25th, crowds made their way back to the historic Chicago Theatre for the second and final night of the String Cheese Incident’s Chicago run. Particularly in light of Friday’s strong, if not at moments surprising, performance, fans came ready for the highly anticipated final night of the band’s Thanksgiving run, marking the last shows the band will play before ringing in the New Year next month.

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String Cheese Incident started off the show with an Alan Parsons cover of “Sirius”. The tune opened up for a roundabout, during which Bill Nershi took time to introduce each member as the band, eliciting huge choruses of applause from the crowd after each name. Continuing on, the boys barreled through “Stop, Drop, Roll” before taking the audience on an odyssey with “Little Hands” and “Song In My Head”. From this point on, the tone was set and the show was in the full motion, with Cheese following up a powerful rendition of “Song in my Head”.

“Sirius”

 

While classics showed up regularly during the start of the first set, String Cheese Incident mixed it up with “Believe”, the title track off their newest album released this summer. The rendition was particularly noteworthy given its effortlessness—booming and rolling, the band used the number to show what they’re all about. Charging onward, the band offered up the second cover of the night with a rendition of The Band’s “Ophelia”, creating an energy that would be carried into the set break. The jam out of “Ophelia” segued into “Way Back Home”, which drove head-on into a set-ending “Rollover”, making for the first set’s obvious highlight.

Considering that Chicago is the hometown of Umphrey’s McGee drummer Kris Myers, it came to no surprise that Myers came out to join the band to begin the String Cheese Incident’s second set. During the first set, rumors buzzed around the theater that Kris was walking around, and what better way to prove those rumors true with an outstanding drum jam with Michael Travis and Jason Hann? Eventually, the drums ceased, and the strings came the forefront for a spellbinding “Restless Wind”, which seemlessly transitioned into “These Waves”. During “Dijubouti Bump”, the band broke into a very convincing “Scarlet Begonias” tease that sent many into a frenzy before fizzling out. The jam would finally catch a break after “Hi Ho No Show”.

Drums with Kris Myers

 

Following a rumbling “You’ve Got The World”, the band moved into a strong take on the beautiful tune “Joyful Sound”. Coming out of the tune, String Cheese Incident offered up one the nicest surprises of the night—an unexpected cover of Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride”, a song that hadn’t been played since 7/20/2012. To end out the set in full, the group played a triumphant “Just One Story” before offering up two strong encores, first with “Barstool” and lastly with “Beautiful”.

You can check out a gallery of photos from String Cheese’s performance at the Chicago Theatre last night below, courtesy of Aaron Bradley Engler.

Setlist: String Cheese Incident | Chicago Theatre | Chicago, IL | 11/25/2017

Set 1: Sirius ^, Stop Drop Roll, Little Hands > Song in my Head > Believe, Ophelia* > Way Back Home > Rollover

Set 2: Drums +, Restless Wind > These Waves > Dijibouti Bump & > Hi Ho No Show, You’ve Got The World, Joyful Sound > Magic Carpet Ride % > Just One Story

E1 : Barstool

E2 : Beautiful

^ Alan Parsons cover, * The Band cover, + W/ Kris Myers, & Scarlet Begonias tease, % Steppenwolf (Last Played 7/20/12)