The String Cheese Incident performing on Austin City Limits, I do believe. That was a good show to watch when you were a musician and got up late the morning after a gig. The video is 18 years old. The performance might be even older, who knows? Useful information is in short supply on ToYoube, generally.
That’s some fonkee whathaveyou. There’s some fun George Bensoning about four minutes in. The guy is a terrific player, and nice, relaxed singer, ain’t he? Audiences are unduly impressed when guitarists scat sing along with their solos. I was never much of a guitar player, but I’ve always found it harder not to grunt along with solos than to shut the hell up. I’ve found that it’s deuced difficult to sing scat while playing the trombone, though. Almost as difficult as playing cello in a marching band.
Dude’s got a beautiful guitar, too. I can’t pinpoint the maker. It’s koa wood, semi-hollowbody, and looks like it’s a short scale. Such questions vex me. The drummer is lefty, which also always freaks me out to watch. If you really need some disorienting drumming, you can watch old Fabulous Thunderbirds videos. Fran Christina is left-handed, but plays what’s called open grip, I think. He plays a right-handed set, but hits the hi-hat with his left hand, and the snare with his right. He was one of several Rhode Island guys that ended up in Austin.
The String Cheese Incident is still touring around, if you’re interested. I gather many people are. They’re from a genre I call Rag Rug Eclectic. Whenever I see bare feet and grandma’s carpets on the stage, I know I’m gonna get Jazz Odyssey or Groove Thang Omnibus or Whipping Post Deluxe or Grateful Dead Gloss, only longer. It’s generally just good time music for leisure spots like ski areas, beaches, festivoos, and multi-level marketing conventions. I’ve played all those places back when I was a musician. We were never that successful, however, because our grandma had tile floors, and we had to wear shoes.
4 Responses
That shorty guitar is damn near a ukelele. And with a capo too. I mean, just go get a mandolin and be done with it.
The biggest surprise playing barefoot is finding out that the old place you’re in is grounded wrong. We refered to it as the “power tool tingle”.
Hi Ed- I know there’s such a thing as a guitarlele, a kinda giant ukelele, or mini guitar, but I had to look it up to see that he’s just playing some sort of short scale guitar. It’s beautiful, and he can really spank that plank, though, can’t he?
I see you’re a veteran of the bar band wars if you know about the tingle. A million years ago, I played my first performance using an ancient Ampeg bass amp, the kind with the flip top head on the cabinet with tubes that glowed like a cityscape when you turned it on. I was tuning a bass backstage with it, and the ground was hinky, and I made the mistake of leaning on a steel lally column I got the full force of the 110 volts. Knocked me flat, and my left arm went entirely to sleep. I was always a bad bass player, but I did need a left arm in any case. I went on stage, my head spinning, my arm asleep, and doggedly tried to play, and then the light man turned on a strobe light to add to my troubles. I damn near had a seizure on top of the whole mess. I’ll never forget it.
Nice-thanks for sharing! was feeling some Jimmy Smith right out of the gate there.
Loves me some Jimmy Smith. I don’t like moving Hammond organs, however, or Leslie cabinets with them. I’ll bet Jimmy and Mr. String Cheese hire it out, because I would.