Goodbye, Colorado! Hello Oregon! ... again. When we planned this trip, we decided to make the Colorado portion nice and quick to give us more time in Oregon. I think that was a good choice. My first time in Oregon was just the previous week for String Summit, and this was Jordan's first time. We decided we had to go back to Haystack Rock.
Colin, Emily, and I all got the same String Cheese hoodie.
What a wonderful day, indeed!
I never saw slugs before, but they were all over the place in Portland! This was the pickle slug. He was huge and slimy.
The day before going back to Horning's, we wandered Portland a little. We went to the Grilled Cheese Grill, where we were fortunate enough to experience The Cheesus. A hamburger patty between 2 whole grilled cheese sandwiches.
Then we played blacklight 3D pirate miniature golf. It was really cool and Emily kicked our asses.
Then Thursday comes along, and what do you know? We're back at Horning's! We definitely weren't at the front of the line like last time, but we were there pretty early. When we finally got in, we ran to the same area that we were in last time, but it was all full. We were running around like crazy trying to find space, and I slipped on one of those damn fat sticks. Down I went onto another fat stick on my ankle. It could've been worse, but it sucked having a welt on my leg all weekend.
We found a huge city block sized empty area that was taped off with caution tape, but there was nothing else saving the space. No tents, tarps, chairs... nothing. So, we were trying to figure out where to look next, when Bob Horning himself came up and ripped the tape down. "This is bull, people can't save space like this." Thanks, Bob.
It's hard to coordinate with friends when there's no cell service. I actually turned on my phone and it said it was January 5, 1980. Kind of freaked me out a little. Especially when I saw a dude with a sweet 80's cop stache and neon shorts. But, Ashley has a good eye and found us pretty quick, so we were all able to be together... and it wasn't the 80's.
The first night's music was all side projects of the Cheese guys, which I thought was a neat idea. We missed Kyle's band, but got there in time for the Chris Berry Trio. They're good, especially this one song that I really got into both times we saw them on this trip, but I enjoy Pangea way more. But Chris Berry will always put a smile on your face.
After CB3 was the Emmit-Nershi Band. I love love love Billy Nershi. He can do no wrong.
I couldn't believe how many people were already there Thursday night. I could tell this was going to be ridiculously huge.
We might've been in Oregon, but Iowa was representin' at this festval.
We got to watch the sound check Friday afternoon. They played Freedom Jazz Dance, Carry On Wayward Son, and I don't remember what else.
Emily and I splashed in the water a little, which felt so soothing on my swollen ankle.
There was a lot of cool art at this festival; sculptures, installations, group projects... it was way cool.
There were four freaking stages at this festival. FOUR! It was so different from String Summit, and I didn't see any music at any other stages besides for a couple minutes of Bill Nershi and Scott Law at the Sawmill Stage (most folks called it the Beetlejuice Stage). But, it was very hot and sunny and that stage had no shade.
The first band we really saw on Friday was the Soul Rebels Brass Band. They were really good and had a lot of choreographed moves. But, I don't like forced participation and the whole time we were supposed to put our hands in the air (like we just didn't care), crouch down, jump up... just too many instructions... let me enjoy the music.
Oh, Cheese! We were so ready.
Bob Horning's mom came out for the introduction. Very cute and sweet.
... Then String Cheese came on and kicked all of our asses.
What a great show! I couldn't believe we were able to be on the rail, but it was all thanks to the lovely Cheese rail riders who were generous enough to share their space. Out of all three nights at Horning's, I think this might have been my favorite.
My highlights from this show were Smile, Missin' Me> Wheel Hoss, Born on the Wrong Planet, Under African Skies> Climb, Black and White, Bend Down Low> Sittin' on Top of the World, Bumpin' Reel, Restless Wind, and Hey Pocky Way. We noticed that there were a few repeats from Red Rocks, which we were surprised to get. Honestly, I thought we'd get only a couple - maybe.
String Cheese Incident
July 30, 2010
Horning's Hideout
Set I: Smile, Missin' Me> Wheel Hoss, Sometimes A River, Born on the Wrong Planet, Under African Skies> Climb, Miss Brown's Teahouse
Set II: Black and White, Bend Down Low> Sittin' on Top of the World, Song in my Head, Water, Dirk> Jungle Boogie> Dirk, Bumpin' Reel, Restless Wind
Encore: Hey Pocky Way
Saturday started off all right, with all of us hanging at the site, having breakfast and what not. The coffee creamer had disappeared the day before, and now we woke up and there was a huge crystal in the cup holder of one of the camping chairs. These are our theories:
1) the creamer turned into a crystal
2) it was a fossilized hippy turd
3) some drunk hippy sat down in the middle of the night, realized he wasn't at home, and left his crystal
Theory 3 is most likely the right one. Ashley said we should leave a trail of kidney beans leading to the crystal so that it could be reunited with it's hippy.
We headed down to the main stage in time to catch most of Toubab Crew. I never saw them before and I really enjoyed it.
After Toubab Crew was Bill Frisell with Steve Moore and Rudy Royston. They were really good as well, and we got to watch Scrambell Campbell do his thing.
We were on the rail all three nights - the second two were Kyle side.
At the set break we were told we had to back out of the bowl because there would be a performance. We waited for what seemed like forever before the second set and the performance started. The band opened with Rivertrance and dancers came out. Honestly, they looked like they hadn't really rehearsed enough and they weren't really together. After that, though, it was all amazing. There were fire dancers and a huge bird that they lit on fire.
They also brought out an inflated UFO and a woman doing acrobatics from balloons high above the audience. Once the fiery bird was out of the way Kyle yelled something like "Come on Everybody!" and everyone ran back to the bowl and up to the front. We all got back to the same spot, just not directly on the rail, which was fine because we were all still together.
No matter how hard we tried to convince him, Junkyard didn't come to this festival. This is what Scotty and Drew thought of that.
This was a great show, and the performance ended up being one of the coolest things I've seen at a show. We were at the front of the crowd, but it would have been neat to see the performance from farther back. But oh well. String Cheese really knows how to entertain.
My highlights from this show were Black Clouds, Freedom Jazz Dance, Cedar Laurels (teach a young girl how to sing), Ring of Fire> Black Clouds, Rivertrance (and performance), Joyful Sound> Is What It Is, Search> I Know You Rider, and Texas.
String Cheese Incident
July 31, 2010
Horning's Hideout
Set I: Black Clouds> Rhum 'n' Zouc, One Step Closer, County Road Blues, Freedom Jazz Dance, Way That It Goes, Cedar Laurels, Ring of Fire> Black Clouds
Set II: Rivertrance, Joyful Sound> It Is What It Is> Orion's Belt> Piece of Mine, Search> I Know You Rider
Encore: Sirens, Texas
Sunday we all headed to the Welcome Home sign at noon to meet for the Iowa group picture. But, what a shock, Zach and his group weren't there (even though the photo was Zach's idea). Danny was awesome and ran to their camp and rallied them up. We were still missing some Iowa folk, but it was still great.
If you know someone from Iowa, you know how it is. Good people.
I was really excited about Sunday, because we got to see the Travelin' McCourys. Oh man, they were so good!
The Travelin' McCourys joined Cheese for the beginning of the first set. Ronnie wore a cape. Sweet.
We took the magic crystal to the show and luckily the crystal and hippy were reunited.
The Sunday show was a little bitter-sweet. It was another great show, but we knew our vacation was almost over and we'd be saying goodbye to all of our friends and the Northwest.
My highlights from this show were Lester Had a Coconut, Rollin' in my Sweet Baby's Arms, Orange Blossom Special, Betray the Dark, Will it Go 'Round in Circles, Looking Glass, San Joes, Shantytown, Howard, It Is What It Is> Eyes of the World, Outside Inside, Best Feeling, and Good Times Around the Bend.
String Cheese Incident
August 1, 2010
Horning's Hideout
Set I: Lester Had a Coconut, Rollin' in my Sweet Baby's Arms, Walls of Time, Think of What You've Done, Six Days on the Road, Orange Blossom Special, Fixin to Die, Betray the Dark, Yo Se, Lost, Will it Go 'Round in Circles, Looking Glass, San Jose
Set II: Shantytown> Gypsy Queen, Howard, Emma's Dream> Don't Say> It Is What It Is> Eyes of the World, Outside Inside
Encore: Best Feeling
Encore II: Good Times Around the Bend
This was a long trip, and it was hard to say goodbye to our friends, but we were finally ready to go home. Thank you to everyone that made this journey so fantastic: Colin, Emily, Jordan, Claude, Ashley, Tim, Lori, Dale, Alison, Jen B., Jen M., Stephenie, Bill, Aly, Michael, Annie, Gregg, Nilima, Scotty, John, Jessica, Josh, Emily Rose, Tim, Dennis, Junkyard, Danny, Cassie, Pjef, Steve-O, Zach, Sarah, and everyone else who is awesome! Let's do this again next year.
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