Crappy String Cheese Perspective

I was outraged at this guy at archive.org.

Here is what he said:

"I'm tired of people pretending this band's music is good.

The reason people have such intense trips at the shows is a testament to the power of the mass psychedelic experience and has nothing to do with the band. The reason it never took off to the next level - in addition to their musical limitations - is that there was no one in the band with real shamanic power. So the audience was left more or left spinning its wheels. But since people are amazing, they found their own way, but then mistakenly attributed it to this gang of chumps!

Now *that* is irony.

I got in free on the list to this dismal occasion and stuck it out as long as I could. Every time I thought the music had reached a peak of crappitude it got worse, just as it was at every SCI show I went to (usually bc I was bored and got in free, or because there were other, actually interesting bands on the bill).

They don't improvise in any interesting or meaningful way.

They have no power musically. They can get kinda wound up in their endless, repetitive circles, but they never do anything with it.

Their lyrics are terrible - pretentious childish cliches or just silliness. I like silliness, but not as the defining feature of psychedelic music."

here was my response:

"True, early Cheese lacked the amount of exploratory nature found at most Phish and Grateful Dead shows (I compare the three because those are the three bands I listen to about 95% of my listening time.) But they did remember to include that aspect of music at every Incident (also this Incident.) Not quite as much as Phish and the Grateful Dead but, enough.

Cheese, I think, as a result of Nershi’s influence, concentrated mainly on creating the perfect aesthetic experience. Most of the time, too much exploratory nature, in music, is not a good ingredient. Face it. Most people at these shows are in a psychedelic state of mind. Speaking from experience, I have flipped out (got in trouble) at two Phish shows but I never once flipped out at Cheese. If you come seeking the perfect aesthetic experience over exploratory music then Cheese is for you.

Once the almost perfect aesthetic experience, which included the “happy’go’lucky” nature of the lyrics, the vast array of musical styles, the not quite there visual aspect, the perfect traveling community, and most importantly the brilliant classical and technical expertise (especially Kang and Hollingsworth) of the band, was created they were able to focus more on exploratory music and the finishing touch on their visual aspect which was a giant diamond shaped plasma screen which would later on become three screens in the shape of an eye in their last tour.

Overwhelming evidence of the exploratory nature of Cheese can be found throughout 2005-2008(when the band felt it was safe.) The Grateful Dead set out to do this as well and found perfection in their way, and so did Phish and many other bands, but Cheese crossed a frontier I think with much thanks to technology. As technology gets better its nice to imagine what we have in store."

Thats better.

Oh by the way he is referring to the 12-31-1999 show.

 

It's just someone's opinion. If had a nickel for everytime someone told me the Grateful Dead sucked......

 

SCI is amazing. Kang has blown my mind more than once.

 

You can take those first few paragraphs he wrote and apply it to any jam band from an outsider's perspective! I've heard the same shit spoken about Phish, the Dead, etc, a bazillion times.

I'm a huge Rush fan as well and 99.99% of the other Rush fans I know would say the same thing about jam bands. It's a state of mind they don't get.

 

Rush is amazing. the voice gets to me from time to time. but there early stuff (pre 83 synth stuff) is so organic and progressive, its amazing.

 

That guy sounds unhappy with life.

On the other note..I love most RUSH...including 83 synth stuff

 

Yeah, the guys an idiot

So am I, I find, after looking back over my post. Forgive me. First post in over six months. I've got to get back in the groove.

The title should be "string cheese perspectives" or something. Stupid Title.

As for Rush, I agree. I enjoy Rush 75-80 myself.