The String Cheese Incident and Yonder Mountain String Band covered the Grateful Dead together last night at Red Rocks. The concert was the start of SCI’s three-show run at the amphitheater outside Denver.
YMSB opened Friday’s show and all five members were brought back for the conclusion of The String Cheese Incident’s first set. The collaboration featured the pair of Colorado-based bands rolling through the Dead’s “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo.” Yonder mandolinist Nick Piccinni and String Cheese bassist Keith Moseley shared vocal duties.
The joint cover occurred not long after Dead & Company played the same song in New York City. Watch SCI and YMSB cover “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo” last night at Red Rocks below:
Prior to the sit-in, SCI packed the first set with jammed-out favorites starting with the opener “Mauna Bowa.” Set one also saw a 15-minute “Close Your Eyes,” as well as back-to-back 19-minute versions of “Looking Glass” and “Shine.”
Set two began with “Into The Blue,” the title track off SCI’s recently released studio EP. The new tune was followed by classics “Sirens” and “Miss Brown’s Teahouse.” The rarely played “County Road Blues” made an unexpected setlist appearance. Staples “Shantytown” and “Howard” paired up to close out the set with each leading to more expansive improvisation. The encore was “Hi Ho No Show,” another song recorded for the four-song Into The Blue EP.
The String Cheese Incident’s Red Rocks run continues tonight, Saturday, July 16 with Leftover Salmon set to open. Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh was supposed to perform a special The Phil Lesh Incident show on Sunday, but canceled after testing positive for COVID-19.
Listen to Friday’s full concert taped by Michael Frasca and watch pro-shot video of the set openers below:
https://www.facebook.com/stringcheeseincident/videos/2879948595634749/
https://www.facebook.com/stringcheeseincident/videos/757621675656732/
Setlist (via Friends Of Cheese)
Set One: Mouna Bowa, Close Your Eyes > Can’t Stop Now, My One and Only, Looking Glass > Shine, Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo [1]
Set Two: Into the Blue, Sirens > Miss Brown’s Teahouse, County Road Blues, Way Back Home > Shantytown > Howard
Encore: Hi Ho No Show
Notes:
- [1] with Yonder Mountain String Band
