String Cheese Incident

With words like 'exponential,' 'destiny,' 'community' and 'vision' sprinkled throughout approved String Cheese biographies and a fleet of over 10,000 dedicated 'Pirates' whose mission is to scope-out, enervate and acclimatize venues for SCI appearances, this band is more than music: it's a force. Formed in 1993 in Crested Butte, Colorado, a serious-about-music foursome rolled into Boulder, picked up a fifth man and commenced a bluegrass jam band career that's mentioned in the same breath but not to be confused with the Dave Matthews Band, Widespread Panic and Phish. Stringed instruments are, not surprisingly, this band's forte, and acoustic guitar, acoustic mandolin, violin, piano and electric base are the purviews of Michael Kang, Bill Nershi, Kyle Hollingsworth and Keith Moseley with Michael Travis on drums, congas and djembe. Associated with food drives and nature-restoration projects, and solicitous of their fans (who else would cancel an appearance, at the Secluded Forest Music Festival, because they were concerned about fan safety?), String Cheese backs up its albums, which include String Cheese Incident Live and Carnival, with over-the-top tour appearances.