String Cheese Incident and Nahko and Medicine for the People at Red Rocks 07/26/15 BandWagon Magazine Mark Rudolph
A beautiful sunny day at the spiritual Red Rocks Amphitheater was the perfect way to see The String Cheese Incident and Nahko and Medicine for the People. To open the last night of the three night run for The String Cheese Incident came Nahko and Medicine for the People. Nahko had a tribesmen come out and grace the land with a Native American prayer before starting the concert which set the vibes in the audience to be peaceful to everyone and love thy neighbor and respect the land and each other. Nahko brought peace and medicine to everybody through the music and energies that his band was expressing to the sold out crowd. At one point he had a chieftain dancer come out and grace the presence of the land. As Nahko sang in Manifesto II, “Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, Being human can be great. No matter what is on your plate, Be grateful!” These are some of the messages of many that I have taken from this inspirational, powerful band after seeing them live. After the spiritual empowering set from Nahko came two insanely free-spirited sets from the Colorado improvising masters, The String Cheese Incident. Cheese started out playing a very loose Close Your Eyes into Far From Home which is always great for the Hometown Throwdowns that Cheese throws. Joyful Sound was as uplifting as ever making everybody dance and sing for more and more cheese. The first set ended with an electric Bollywood style of song known as Bollymunster. The second set started out with some heavy rock riffing on Howard which lead into Rush’s Tom Sawyer and then back into the powerful Howard. String Cheese ended the second set with a touching and peaceful version of Beautiful into the fan favorite, Colorado Bluebird Sky. The String Cheese then came out for a three song encore starting with a mystical version of the Talking Heads, This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody), that lead into the Cheese powerhouse song, Jellyfish, which ended with a rocking bluegrass inspired cover of The Grateful Dead’s I Know You Rider. Cheese was completely on fire for the three night run at Red Rocks and Nahko just brought the spirit of the land and people to a more valuable and grateful experience. Overall 5 out of 5 stars!
Nahko and Medicine for the People: Welcome Prayer, Directions, Vultures of Culture, Aloha Ke Akua, Risk It, Warrior People, Manifesto II, Black as Night
SCI SET 1: Close Your Eyes > Far From Home, Blue Bossa, Water, Joyful Sound > Miss Brown’s Teahouse > Bollymunster
SCI SET 2: Howard > Tom Sawyer > Howard, Stop Drop Roll, County Road Blues, Sirens, Don’t Say > Beautiful > Colorado Bluebird Sky
ENCORE: This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) > Jellyfish > I Know You Rider
Photos by Mike Pope
