String Cheese Incident - Boise, ID - The Knitting Factory - 1/21/2015

String Cheese Incident comes to Boise to play in a less than 1000 person venue, The Knitting Factory.  The anticipation has been building for me since the announcement of this tour.  This is the smallest venue I will have ever seen String Cheese in.  M first show 12 years ago, 9/26/03, was in an over 5000 capacity venue at Fox Theater in Atlanta.  Upon arriving to the venue, I asked the box office how many tickets had been sold and the number was around 550.  It wasn’t even sold out, this show was going to be special!

Every night of the tour has started around 8:30 and Boise was no different.  They opened with a strong On The Road which I love when they are actually On The Road.  The song was hard to watch on those one off they were playing a couple years ago.  Kyle sprinkled the middle of On The Road with a Hungry Like a Wolf tease.  He has been loving that tease.  Michael Kang then picked up his fiddle to bring on a bluegrass jam that led into Orange Blossom Special.  Billy picked up the electric and they played the Kyle song, Way That it Goes.  The first repeat for the night was the amazing Keith song Until the Music is Over.  It flowed into, for the third time this tour, the Grateful Dead’s Slipknot tease that carried on for a minute leading to the bust out Black and White.  Black and White got super funky with another tease in the jam of I want to dance with another.  That got the crowd going crazy.  Everyone was cracking up and dancing their asses off. 

Right after this a good friend of mine, Scott Deppe, explained to me that if I thought this room was small then imagine this.  His first show was 21 years ago in Boise at a place called the Rose Room with about 30 people.

Billy before the next song started he couldn’t figure out electric or acoustic, laughed at himself and told the crowd, “This is a fucking song I wrote” dropping straight into Wake Up.  2^nd time played on tour and before that had not been played by String Cheese Incident since Electric Forest 2011.  It makes me smile that I wanted this song for the last tours and was fortunate enough to catch it twice during Winter Carnival.  Maybe they will play the old extended version soon if it is back in rotation.  It is great (Tony the tiger’s voice) that I can even think that is possibility.  Billy mid jam moved to electric and Wake Up was as powerful as ever.  They finished the set with dance party, Colliding. 

Second set started with a Come As You Are>Life During Wartime>I Know You Rider.  What a way to start second set.  They continued with an all-time favorite String Cheese song Rhythm On The Road.  “This is what you wanted now look what you got,”  is one of my favorite lines from any song ever.  Next the sounds of John Coltrane flowed through the Knitting Factory with a great version of Freedom Jazz Dance.  The band brought it all together with Kyle letting loose on Eye Know Why.  The electronic jam that followed flowed nicely.  Andy Cass on lights played some interesting lighting tricks during it creating a look where all the white beams he had on stage moved onto Michael Travis’s cymbals creating a unique affect.  Kyle was breaking loose in this second set moving his hands all over his keyboards to create key heavy jams.  The band finished 2^nd set with a huge Howard.  

The show finished with the Billy favorite Colorado Bluebird Sky.  The hard curfew of 11:30 was easily surpassed as the encore started at 11:33 and lasted per usual for this song over ten minute.  The show was solid and the small crowd loved it.  Boise with less than a 700 person crowd was going crazy!