String Cheese presents its big, fat ‘Freak’ concert

Spencer Patterson

Monday, Nov. 3, 2003 | 8:25 a.m.

The String Cheese Incident's Halloween shows are famous for their surprises, but I really didn't expect to hear Nelly on Friday night.

OK, so it was actually Keller Williams, musician-friend of the band, and not the real Band-Aided hip-hop star singing the words to "Hot in Herre" inside the Cox Pavilion at UNLV.

Williams' giant Afro wig was a dead giveaway, in case his goofy rhymes -- read off a crib sheet at his feet -- weren't.

Not that the sold-out crowd of 3,000 seemed to mind. A roomful of crazed, costumed String Cheese fans responded enthusiastically to everything the Colorado-based jam band handed out this Halloween night.

And there were bags and bags of treats to enjoy. The quintet -- augmented by a stable of guest musicians and carnival-style entertainers -- performed a marathon three-set concert that stretched more than 4 1/2 hours long (two intermissions included).

The show was billed as a "Freak-In Convention," with music, theatrics and video clips loosely bound by the central theme of the "freak."

The String Cheese Incident played a slew of covers, including Dr. Hook's "(Freakin' at) The Freaker's Ball," Chic's "Le Freak" and the Williams-penned "Freeker by the Speaker."

The band also handed out prizes for the freakiest Halloween costumes. First place in the group category went to the "Yucca Mountain Delivery Service" -- a foursome dressed in radiation suits toting glowing, green cargo.

I might have given the award to the three blind mice in the crowd, with placards that read: "Cheese Please," "Spare Cheese?" and "Will Work 4 Cheese."

During one break, the members of String Cheese married off one of their own, mandolinist/violinist Michael Kang, to the winner of a charity raffle. The ceremony was performed by the self-proclaimed "Rabbi Go-Go Boots."

Silly stuff, and lots of it. But amid all the fun, the band demonstrated it has some serious musical chops to back up its playful spirit.

The first set served as a sort of stylistic smorgasboard, providing glimpses at the many sounds of String Cheese.

The band jammed out "Miss Brown's Teahouse" to around 15 minutes, Kang's five-string electric mandolin ringing out as if it were an electric guitar. From there, the group segued into the twangy "Close Your Eyes" before settling into a tropical island beat for "Mouna Bowa."

"White Freightliner Blues" was a hillbilly bluegrass number featuring Kang on violin, while "Come as You Are" featured a Latin flavor that evolved into something more akin to disco music as strobe-lights flickered overhead.

Set 2 was built around covers, one for each of five definitions of "freak" displayed onscreen.

The Beatles' "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!," Nelly's hit single, Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" and Pink Floyd's "Money" all received the String Cheese treatment during this segment, as the band teased fans with long intros before settling into each tune.

Anchored by the strong rhythm combination of drummer Michael Travis and bassist Keith Moseley, String Cheese mixed in moments of improvisation, be they a few bars of keyboard funk from Kyle Hollingsworth or long guitar solos by costumed cat-for-a-night guitarist Bill Nershi.

Those musical adventures rarely grew tiresome. And while they were not without some awkward moments, they also produced occasional musical brilliance, the proverbial gold at the end of the rainbow for jam band audiences.

By the end of the final set, the energy seemed to flag a bit, as both the band and the crowd wore down from a long night of dancing. Jams grew trippier, and more and more fans settled into their seats in exhaustion.

And to think, they did it all over again at Cox Saturday night.

Though I've seen both the Grateful Dead and Phish many times each over the years, this was my first experience with String Cheese Incident, one of the most popular next-generation jam bands.

I was pleased to discover that, where Phish's shows are loaded with inside references, back story and context, the String Cheese experience was fairly straightforward, even for the uninitiated.

Sure, the crowd cheered the instant it recognized a favorite song, or in some cases, a set list anomaly. But not knowing such details didn't detract from the the concert, even in the trickiest of jam band settings.