String Cheese Incident has resurrected the inflatable pig that is immortalized on the cover of Pink Floyds brilliant 1977 album, Animals. Saturday at the Austin City Limits Festival, the band covered Another Brick in the Wall pt. II while several crew members held ropes attached to the helium-filled pig, which floated above the crowd. The pigs last flight came at a Milwaukee Floyd concert in 1977 and it seemed as though the pig would never be seen again (there were other pigs used on later Floyd tours). The pig crashed into the scoreboard, damaged its nose and flew out of the venue, a spokesperson for String Cheese Incident tells Jambands.com. However, last July Cheese co-manager Mike Luba tracked down the damaged prop and purchased it from a former Floyd roadie. The pig was then repaired and made its triumphant return at the beginning of Saturdays second set. (During set break, fans were treated to a video snippet from the 1995 Simpsons episode, Lisa the Vegetarian, where a pig flies over Springfield.)
Meanwhile, String Cheese welcomed mandolinist Chris Thile (Nickel Creek) and pedal steel guitarist Robert Randolph to the stage later in the set. Thile performed on Remington Ride and Randolph joined in for ‘Rhythm of the Road.
SCI plays Friday at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. For the full schedule, visit www.stringcheeseincident.com.