It's all over but the crying

So, there you have it. The String Cheese Incident has played their last show of 2007 and as the key board player says "we have no plans". I read an article that friend sent me this morning about the band's break up. He stated that the band stated, a few months ago, that after August 12th, 2007, they have no plans. The media and fans took that to mean that they were breaking up. Adfter many many months of speculation before the announcement, we knew it was happening. The acoustic guitar player, Billy Nershi, wanted to pursue other endevors, namely playing in a crap ass band with his wife. Some like to liken her to Yoko, but i don't feel that way. I think that she was just a great escape from the entity that is String Cheese Incident. AND in a recent interview published in Relix magazine, he wants to write more music. Apparently having a band of 5 other musically talented people that want to contribute to the whole of the process was too much for poor Mr. Nershi. Well lets see how those coffeehouse gigs treat you after selling out Red Rocks (cap. 9,000) for the last four nights. Something tells me that his ego will not be able to stay away from the thousands of adoring fans, even if we are adoring other members of the band.
They will be back. But it has consumed a good length of time in my recent history, as well as a significant pportion of my income to tickets, CDs, clothes etc. That will be nice to have back.
And the friends. Nothing can hold a candle to the quality of person you see on tour and become close to. We take care of each other. The Community associated with cheese will be missed. There is something else out there for us, we just dont know what it is yet.
Time will tell... until then we then, we have memories, taken thousands of pictures and shared more smiles that i know...
Thanks for everything String Cheese, I cant wait to see you again.
(picture was taken during the 3rd night at Red Rocks, It was the start of first set. They would continue to have stilt walkers, fire hula hoopers, though out the night. Also there were large butterflies on fishing poles though out the audience. The quilt hanging on the keyboards was given to the band that evening by a local Native American Tribe. An independent non-profit called conscience Alliance, have been collecting canned goods at concerts for years starting with the String Cheese Incident. You can take 10 canned goods and turn it in for a free poster at designed for that concert by great artists. -or pay $10.00. This all went to help this tribe, so they made a quilt and presented it to the band. Jeff has some great photos of all the band members standing next to each other with the quilt wrapped around them all. Very special moment.

Got to get to the bottom to climb to the top again....

OK, wow... that was a long break.. sorry.
So, i was gone from the 19th of July to the 30th on my California/Oregon trip. We left and rode to Rawlings and got the most expensive Nastiest hotel room that you could ever imagine.. and we stayed... we were so tired it was all we could do to climb into the nasty bed and doze off. We awoke and quickly showered and got back in the car to make it to California. Which we did... We landed about midnight and were really tired when we got to out friends house in San Francisco. They live very close to the Golden Gate bridge so, it was nice to see the landmark when crossing into the city. I love SF. It is a great town, but i dont think i could do the weather. The next morning we woke up and had to get to the Greek Theater in Berkeley for the Cheese show (the whole reason for this trip). It looked rainy, nasty and really foggy. It made it really hard to become motivated for anything, much less getting up and starting to party.
By the time we got close to the Bay Bridge, the sky was nice and we saw sunshine over in Oaskland. It was going to be a great day.
And it was. The show was great. It was my first time at that venue, and man, that place is HOT.. and i am completely talking about the temperature. MAN!! but we found some friends in line and they pointed us to the space we were all going to be in. center on the floor, but not on the rail as normal. The stage in that place is so high that if you are on the rail, you cant see the band without straining your neck, so we went for sight line.
After the show, jeff and i went back to our friends place before they got back and tried to walk to the water. Well we got down one hill and decided that it was too hard to get back up the one we came down, that we were just going to forgo the others and start climbing back to where we were staying. Not too long after everyone else got home.
The next day we went out to the Greek again, but this time the show was completely in the day time., which meant EVEN HOTTER.
we got stuck in the sun all day and ended up with some good burns on our faces and shoulders. But to be honest, when the band was playing I couldn't help but dance, no matter how hot it was, i didnt notice while the band was playing good.
We stayed that night at our friends and then headed up the coast. That was wonderful. But before leaving town we stopped by the look out points to the GG and took some pictures... the towers were in the clouds, but it makes for better/artsy photos.
We stopped and camped in the red woods and went hiking around all the big trees.. and if you have never been to that part of California, THEY ARE BIG!!!
very fun. We camped a few more times before arriving in Portland. The next three shows were held in a private land area about 30 miles west of portland, so the night before the festival started, we got a hotel room in Portland and charged up all the batteries, including ours by sleeping in a bed and taking showers. The next day we did some shopping at Trader Joe's and ate lunch at Bridgport Brewing. I love their IPA. and the beer for lunch set the right tone to get to the festival grounds.
WE didn't have much waiting and we were heading though the gates to this magical land that is Hornings Hunting and Fishing Hideout. They have peacocks.. i swear, i even took some pictures of those and they had an albino one..
Three days and nights of String Cheese Incident. I didn't bother with any of the opening acts. I wasn't there to see opening acts. So we just saw the cheese and had a BLAST!! I am so pleased that i finally made it to this event, but it makes me very sad that this was the last time. As i am sure i have stated before, the band is calling it quits (maybe) after this summer tour.. I say maybe because all the friction seems to come from the acoustic guitar player, Billy Nershi. Seems that when the band starting getting better and all members starting contributing to the song writing and lyrics, that rubbed little Billy the wrong way and he got his poor feelings hurt. WHAAAAAA... anyway the rest of the band still wants to play, so maybe, after about a year or so, they will get back with out the whiner of the group and have themselves one hell of a strong band.. we will see.. But in the mean time, i will be attending the last four shows here at Red Rocks this coming weekend. Our friend from CT, who was also at Hornings, is flying in tomorrow night and the shows start on Thursday. It is going to be one of those weekends where it feels slow going though it but will fly by in the end. I am suspect there will be some tears shed for sure. which reminds me to put Kleenex in my backpack..
SO, more tales as the week goes on. but that's my story and i am sticking to it.