Settling back in to perform in the state where SCI formed at the bases of Crested Butte and Telluride three decades ago for a five-night run, The String Cheese Incident has established Summit County as a staple event on their annual touring calendar since the venue opened almost five years ago to the day in 2018. With the exception of 2020, SCI has used the two-night Tuesday/Wednesday run at Dillon as a lead-in to their annual weekend bonanza an hour away at Red Rocks in Morrison, and this week’s shows marked their 9th and 10th appearances at the pristine lakefront alpine venue sandwiched between Keystone and Breckenridge and just an hour and change up the mountain from Denver.

Unlike down in the scorching flatlands below, the weather Tuesday evening couldn’t have been more ideal, with sunny skies and 72 degree weather greeting the packed lawn and band as they took the stage just after 6 pm and launched into a trio of familiar staples, kicking off the annual homecoming week with “Black and White > Groove Is in The Heart”, Bill Nershi’s more recent “Song In My Head” and the now ‘ancient’ bluegrass staple “How Mountain Girls Can Love” to kick off the first frame.  The second half of set one was made up mostly of tunes written and first performed over the past decade (with the exception of another thematic choice – “Water”), running through “Short Stack Willie,” (first debuted NYE 2021) bassist Keith Moseley’s “Gone Crooked” and a straight run through “Pack It Up > Water > The Big Reveal” to close the first of ten (or possibly eleven?) sets this week in Colorado.

As the sun began to fall behind the picturesque mountain range behind the stage,Nershi returned to the mic to test the vocal cords of the Dillon crowd, summoning a “Group Hoot” before blasting into a improvisation-heavy set two led by a hard-driving thirteen minute version “Just One Story” on the front end, after which Nershi exclaimed “you gave us the energy to do that!” The midtempo “Get Tight” would mark the last moments to catch a breath of the night, before Cheese tore through a frame that included the rare samba-jazz treat “Sand Dollar” (as ideal of a twilight hour sunset tune as could’ve been chosen), with Kyle Hollingsworth’s shimmering piano fills painting a vibrant soundscape over multi-instrumentalist Michael Kang’s sprawling and lustrous fiddle/mandolin melodies, with a pristine vista to take in behind the stage. Words don’t do it justice. “Sand Dollar” led straight into “Bumpin Reel,” allowing Kang to continue flexing his chops.

The final segment of set two was vintage SCI, playing three of the band’s most beloved originals, starting with the familiar silky smooth staccato notes of “It Is What It Is,” which, along with very few others, I’d describe as part of the quintessential SCI sonic fabric / song canon. Along with the aforementioned “Sand Dollar,” the dub-heavy reggae original “Shantytown” appeared as another too-rare bustout (at least for shows I attend) to big roars before the band settled into an prolonged, high-energy raveup jam segment bursting at the seams with energy before a dramatic peak. Sans segue, but with no break between, the electric drums and soaring synth lead of “Rosie” inspired the funkiest and most far out musicality of the night, with Hollingsworth going free reign on a Stevie-esque synth escapade that turned the bounce-y crowd loose.

As you gaze out into space

Feel the magic of this place

The String Cheese Incident “Shantytown”

Running up against the hard-and-fast venue curfew of 10pm, the encore was a brief rendering of Chuck Berry’s “Tore Up Over You” (in the style of Jerry Garcia Band’s cover version) to send fans home joyful and geeking to return for any number of the four shows that followed.