Photos and Review by Jolene Rheault
CHARLOTTE, NC — The Wood Brothers kicked things off just as the sun started to soften over Ballantyne, crafting an opening set that felt more like a porch jam than a polished performance—and I mean that in the best way possible. With a dusty, soul-soaked groove, they effortlessly bounced between bluesy laments and foot-stomping folk, dropping familiar favorites like “Luckiest Man” and “Little Bit Broken.” Chris Wood’s upright bass pulsed like a heartbeat, and Jano Rix laid down slick layers of rhythm with his unconventional shuitar wizardry. It was raw, unfiltered Americana—equal parts heartbreak and hoedown—that set the tone perfectly for what was about to unfold.
Marking their first full-scale Charlotte performance in two decades, The String Cheese Incident took the stage to the kind of uproar that only time and loyalty can earn. Right out of the gate, “Song in My Head” breezed in like an old friend pulling you by the hand into the night. What followed wasn’t just a show—it was a full-blown expedition. A massive first-set jam suite spiraled out from “These Waves” into “Djibouti Bump,” “Piece of Mine,” and “Lend Me a Hand,” each track fluidly bleeding into the next like colors in a tie-dye wash. It was jam-fusion sorcery, the kind of genre-blurring stretch that SCI has built their legend on.
And just when the crowd thought they had the band’s vibe figured out, Cheese dipped into the jazz-fusion well with a tastefully unpredictable “Birdland,” sending the room swirling into a Weather Report wonderland before snapping back with “The Remington Ride” and a boisterous “Let’s Go Outside.” Every member had a moment, each solo a different shade of weird, wild, and wonderful.
But it was the second set where the cosmic floodgates truly burst open. With night fully settled and the lights cranked into hyperspace mode, SCI launched into “All We Got,” signaling that the dance party was about to evolve into something far more interdimensional. “The Big Reveal” clocked in at over 15 minutes, meandering through psychedelic funk tunnels and full-band telepathy. They’re a unit that lives for the improv, and you could feel them listening as much as they were playing—pushing, pulling, breathing as one.
Cheese has always been masters of juxtaposition, and true to form, they yanked the energy back to earth with the high-lonesome twang of “How Mountain Girls Can Love,” an old-school bluegrass nod that showed their Colorado roots still run deep. But it wasn’t long before they launched us back into orbit, igniting a sprawling jam through “Tinder Box” into the hazy stomp of “Shantytown,” wrapping it all up with a euphoric “Desert Dawn” that left the crowd in a glowing, sweat-drenched heap.
They returned for a one-song encore with “BollyMunster,” a spicy instrumental rager that’s equal parts Bollywood flair and Celtic stomp, whipping the crowd into one last, joyous frenzy before the lights finally dimmed for good.
After 30 years on the road, The String Cheese Incident still plays like they’ve got something to prove—but only to themselves. It’s not about perfection. It’s about presence, flow, and feeling. And Charlotte? We felt everything.
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