Writer and photographer Alan Crandall submitted the following guest blog originally published on TimesCall.com:
Winter Carnival
The third and final night of The String Cheese Incident’s Winter Carnival wrapped up what was the best carnival ever. Interesting note: the last time SCI played in Colorado it was for the Fourmile Fire benefit concert last October, and now only a short distance away another fire was raging in Lefthand Canyon.
The band that opened the evening’s festivities, Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk, reminded the audience, through song, that you have to throw your cares in the dumpster. Dumpstaphunk’s energy and hard-driving funk had the audience hopping and smiling with anticipation for The String Cheese Incident to take the stage. It should be noted that Dumpstaphunk played a free show at the Fox Theater after the concert, which I feel speaks to the dedication of Ivan Neville and his band.
Winter Carnival
When SCI did take the stage the band’s mandolin, electric guitar and violin player, Michael Kang, mentioned to the crowd all of the strife in the world and suggested that tonight we should compensate by having a great time. Having a great time is just what we did. The resulting Winter Carnival went beyond any expectations. I would think the great sound, light show, set design, crowd performers and special projection effects would be enough for one concert. Not so for SCI, a band that likes to step it up a notch for every show. By the end of the evening the audience was treated to a glowing winter and spring clan parade, ribbon and bungee acrobats performing stunts while hanging from the ceiling, and go go dancers that rose up from the audience in six different locations to dance on elevated platforms.
Winter Carnival
Colorado-based String Cheese Incident’s fans are an energetic, happy bunch who travel from afar to see the band. They also take strides to effect change outside of their concert-goer pastimes. SCI teamed up for the Conscious Alliance’s Winter Carnival 2011 Food Drive’s “Art that Feeds” program. The Conscious Alliance asked fans to drop off canned food at the concert venue and the fans answered. Over the three days of shows the fans dropped off over 25,000 pounds of food, making it the organization’s largest food drive to date.
SCI has only a couple of festival concert dates scheduled for this summer. For more information visit the bands web site.
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