SCI @ Horning’s Hideout: Update #3

From there I took a stroll to check out Portland’s own Three for Madness, who were closing down the Caldera Stage’s daytime schedule with a funky and fun dance party in the sunshine. There is something about Carlton Jackson singing James Brown that gets me every time, and to have musicians like Asher Fulero and Tye North with him simply put, it feels good! (although it was Soul Power that they covered).

It was now time to head home to my tent, to put on my Saturday night best. I had a feeling I wouldn’t be returning to the campground for hours, so I wanted to be fully prepared for whatever the evening had in store. Unfortunately this decision made me miss out on Bill Frisell’s own set on the main stage, but I had my fingers crossed that we would get a taste of him with the Cheese. When I got to the stage before the show to drop anchor, I saw Bill Frisell getting a little tour from Bill Nershi. At that point I knew that we would be in for a rare treat.

The first String Cheese Incident set of the day started off with a little poetic introduction from long time SCI poet laureate Lester, who joined the boys on stage and spoke of the beloved wilderness through prose. Cheese followed that with a hot Black Clouds that gained musical momentum and midway through the jam transitioned into Jean Luc Ponty’s instrumental Rhum ‘N’ Zouc. I had a feeling we would see a little more of the Clouds later, and the Cheese didn’t disappoint.

From there it wasn’t too long till Bill Frisell came on out with guitar in hand to join in the fun. Bill Frisell is a guitar legend, and the guys in the band were pretty ecstatic to share the stage with him. Michael Kang even said it was great to have one of their musical heroes able to join them to play a few tunes.

Bill sat in during Country Road Blues, which took a little bit of time for all the musicians to get fully meshed, but once it did it was on. Freedom Jazz Dance came next, and this was a major highlight of the first set for me. The set ended with an always fun cover of Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire with Cheese adding its own spin on the classic that led smoothly back to the Black Clouds reprise. It was a great set, but it was only the tip of the iceberg for this night.

Saturday night at Horning’s Hideout may be the epicenter of all things String Cheese Incident. The band always brings their musical best to the forefront to compliment the community’s artistic best. This is showcased in a half-hour, awe-inspiring display in front of the stage with the audience sitting and watching on the hill.

SCI opened with the familiar notes of Rivertrance, which was the backdrop to this year’s performance. The first section brought out 20 or so synchronized samurai-esque dancers. What followed this dance performance was an incredible display of fire dancing that lit up the night. This group was wielding all sorts of fire dancing apparatuses around a giant mechanical peacock that stood in the middle of the dance floor. Midway through the fire dancers performance the peacock began to spread its wings, which were now fully ablaze in flames to transform the peacock to the legendary phoenix rising from the ash.

This then led to the arrival of the black and white shadow dancers, who were wearing body suits that gave the impression that the person in the white suit was alone and at times gently floating through the air (with the help of their hidden shadowed partner lifting them gracefully). Once this optical illusion subsided the arrival of the alien dancers in glowing white outfits and spinning multi-colored hula-hoops to the music. Soon enough they were joined by their own lit up giant mothership balloon that made its appearance from backstage as it rose high above the crowd. If all this visual insanity wasn’t enough, SCI was still jamming away during all of this to the fully extended Rivertrance, and we weren’t even done with the spectacle one bit.

Then, a group of  eight or so giant white helium balloons were taken out onto the dance floor, with the mothership still in flight, and an incredibly brave and nimble woman was attached from the balloons and was suspended over the crowd. She danced, swayed and twirled to the music while being nearly 100 feet above the crowd, and eventually she shot off some type of flame throwing sparkler that shot fire in the sky over us all. When the flames of her sparkler died out, the audience was set free to join in on the dance floor.

We erupted off of the hill to dance to the end of the double time jig of the extended Rivertrance. It was an incredible display of creative artistic mastery, and there were so many folks behind the spectacle that deserve a curtain call and bow for their mind-blowing performance. As I overheard wandering around it was like “watching a syncopated Cirque du SCI performance.”

The show and night was far from over and once the dust settled from the performance, SCI dug in and continued to do what they do best. Highlights included a Joyful Sound (which isn’t one of my favorite) but this one was particularly on point. Kyle Hollingsworth’s Piece of Mind was aggressive and seemed to evolve to new heights of explosive power since the band’s break. The Search >I Know You Rider set closer was also fast and fun.

For an encore they played a haunting Sirens, one of the best I’ve heard, which like Joyful Sound featured Keith Moseley in the forefront.  I guess I now know how Keith Moseley spent his off-season for the past three years. Actually there seemed to be a lot of reworked sections of Keith’s tunes, and I for one was impressed with the new direction and life added to the material. But they were not done, and just like they did in Red Rocks the week before, they erupted into Texas in the second encore slot of a Saturday night. It was a hot version that gained more and more speed until it screamed to a climax that had myself and thousands more jumping and flailing about. When it was all said and done I needed a bit of time to catch my breath and my voice because I was left both breathless and speechless.

The night was far from over, and there were late night shenanigans all over the campground to find. I found myself wandering all over the place to see the ridiculous sights. Eventually I was deep in the woods at a Late Night Freak Out Odyssey party hosted by some of my Portland Crew. There was a full PA, light show, ambient decorations and many friends that I just wanted to hug and say, “Can you believe what just went down?!?!”

The party lasted till late in the evening/morning (your choice), and eventually we made it over to the annual Sunday morning sunrise giant bubble on the lake gathering. This gathering has been going on for years, and in the past there were maybe 50 or so people there. It seems that the word has gotten out, and this year there had to be hundreds of people sitting on the hill behind the lake at sunrise giggling, cuddling and having a blast.

In years past the bubble makers would make bubbles that would float over the water and sometimes partially submerge then reappear unaffected to continue its journey across the lake. For whatever reason the bubbles decided to float uphill this year away from the water, and over our heads, which added a bit of hilarity to the situation. We all sat there and tried to coax the bubbles past us so we wouldn’t be the one to pop it and then get drenched in soapy goodness. It was quite the fun way to wind down for the night. And after a long walk back to my camp, I finally laid my head down on my pillow and got some much needed rest, but I don’t think the smile left my face as I slept.

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