The String Cheese Incident broke new ground over the weekend in America’s Dairyland with the launch of Campout in the Pines. Cheese hosted the two-night music and camping event at the home of the Blue Ox Music Festival in Eau Claire, WI, where the band invited The Del McCoury Band and STS9 to open Friday and Saturday’s shows, respectively.

Intermittent rain showers forced a consolidation of Friday’s schedule, with Cheese playing just one long set following Del’s opening performance. Undeterred by the truncated stagetime, Cheese stuffed the 12-song frame with big jams starting with Bill Nershi‘s jubilant “Smile” weekend opener and a murky “Close Your Eyes” featuring fluid interplay between Nershi, Michael Kang‘s electric mandolin, and Kyle Hollingsworth‘s Fender Rhodes. The subdued psychedelia of “Close Your Eyes” found Cheese in mid-show form just 15 minutes into the weekend.

The String Cheese Incident — “Smile” — 8/15/25

Changing styles on a dime, The String Cheese Incident brought out Del and his sons Rob and Ronnie McCoury of the Travelin’ McCourys for a sit-in. The elder statesman of bluegrass, dressed in his Sunday best as usual in a cream-colored suit and golden necktie, led the band through “Sittin’ On Top of the World” and Bill Monroe‘s “Shenandoah Breakdown”, which heard an idyllic melding of styles with Hollingsworth’s honky tonk piano blending with the plethora of strings on stage.

Following the McCourys’ departure, Cheese was still in the mood for some covers and reeled off the Jerry Garcia-favored “Tore Up Over You” and Talking Heads‘ “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)”. After bobbing along in a blissful jam, SCI took the Talking Heads cover into a relaxed reggae bounce that ultimately picked up speed and found its way into “Roll Around the Sun”, capping “This Must Be the Place” at around 17 minutes.

Capitalizing on the inertia, Cheese continued unabated for the remainder of the set, stitching together roughly an hour of uninterrupted music through four songs. “Roll Around the Sun” opened up into a rhythmically dense jam fueled by drummer Michael Travis and percussionist Jason Hann and accentuated by Hollingsworth’s soaring synth work, ultimately giving way to the euphoria of Keith Moseley‘s “Sirens”. The String Cheese Incident saved the best for last, rolling through “Texas” for nearly 20 minutes to close the set. Following the climactic final jam, Cheese came back for the encore and played right up until the venue’s midnight curfew with a pairing of Bob Dylan‘s “Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)” and “Hi Ho No Show”.

Though predicted rain showers once again threatened Saturday’s show, everything went according to plan as STS9 opened the evening and Cheese delivered a full, two-set performance. The additional airtime gave Cheese greater freedom to spread out, and following a 15-minute opening “Rollover”, the band rocketed through “Eventually”, New Grass Arrival‘s “Can’t Stop Now”, and “Manga”.

The String Cheese Incident — “Rollover” — 8/16/25

Between songs, Hollingsworth forewarned, “Let’s funk up some stuff right here,” and the band did exactly that as Kyle’s Clavinet introduced “Dirk”. The funk soon transitioned into a hard-driving prog jam that marked some of Cheese’s heaviest playing of the weekend, before the set ultimately crescendoed with an 18-minute “Rivertrance” that married the band’s bluegrass roots with its trance infatuation of later years.

For the final frame of the weekend, SCI hit the “Sweet Spot” to start, followed by a rollicking “Vertigo” that opened up into an atmospheric jam with Bill adding acid-rock leads on his Fender Strat. “Vertigo” then propelled the band through “Joyful Sound” and a quick “Rumble”. Throwing it all the way back to Cheese’s 1997 studio debut Born on the Wrong Planet, “Land’s End” lofted on blissful guitar arpeggios and paired nicely with the “Glory Chords” to follow.

Winding down the last set of the weekend, Cheese took Wisconsin to the West Coast with the first performance of “San Jose” since New Year’s Eve 2023. Though the aged Cheese number had been absent for nearly two years, the crowd in Wisconsin clearly hadn’t forgotten it as they chimed in with appropriately timed “woo!”s during the instrumental breaks.

Finally, SCI fittingly closed its last set at Campout in the Pines with “Let’s Go Outside”. Upon returning for the encore, Nershi mourned the loss of “beautiful soul” and longtime SCI poster artist Daddy-O who recently passed away, dedicating the weekend’s closing “Restless Wind” to the late artist and longtime friend of the band.

“He had a good life,” Bill reflected. “That’s about all you can hope for.”

Check out photos from the inaugural String Cheese Incident Campout in the Pines courtesy of photographer Ty Helbach, plus pics from the preceding show in Grand Rapids by Steve Baran. Both Kyle and Bill dropped hints of doing another Campout again next year during Friday and Saturday’s respective encores. If you share their sentiment, let the organizers know by filling out this survey. Up next for Cheese is a trio of West Coast dates in Oregon and California, ahead of a headlining slot at Bender Jamboree in Las Vegas the weekend of September 10th–13th. Find tickets and a full list of tour dates here.

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The String Cheese Incident — The Pines Music Park — Eau Claire, WI — 8/15/25 — Full Audio

The String Cheese Incident — The Pines Music Park — Eau Claire, WI — 8/16/25 — Full Audio

Setlist: The String Cheese Incident | The Pines Music Park | Eau Claire, WI | 8/15/25

Set One: Smile, Close Your Eyes, Sittin’ On Top of the World (Walter Vinson, Lonnie Chatmon) [1], Shenandoah Breakdown (Bill Monroe) [1], Tore Up Over You (Hank Ballard), Naive Melody (This Must Be the Place) (Talking Heads) > Roll Around the Sun > Sirens > Texas
Encore: Quinn The Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn), Hi Ho No Show

[1] with Del McCoury, Rob McCoury, Ronnie McCoury

Setlist: The String Cheese Incident | The Pines Music Park | Eau Claire, WI | 8/16/25

Set One: Rollover, Eventually, Can’t Stop Now (New Grass Revival), Manga, Dirk > Green and Gold Jam > Rivertrance
Set Two: Sweet Spot, Vertigo > Joyful Sound > Rumble, Land’s End > Glory Chords > San Jose [1], Let’s Go Outside
Encore: Restless Wind [2]

[1] LTP 12/31/23
[2] Dedicated to Daddy-O, longtime SCI poster artist who recently passed away