Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Shenandoah Breakdown
2. Missin' Me
3. Mouna Bowa
4. Bar Stool
5. Take Five
6. Hey Pocky Way
7. Black Clouds

Disc 2:

1. Lester's Rant
2. Footprints
3. Don't Say
4. Birdland
5. Hold Whatcha Got
6. Jellyfish
7. Drum Jam
8. Texas

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38106 in Music
• Released on: 2000-02-01
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Live
• Dimensions: .26 pounds

Amazon.com
This Boulder, Colorado, quintet does many things well, but nothing great. This double-CD set, culled from 13 different performances, shows off their breadth as they move from electro-bluegrass to fusion to funk to prog-rock like kiddies in a toy store. While they certainly have the chops to pull it off, they wind up playing away from their strengths too often. Everything from bluegrass stomps like "Shenandoah Breakdown" and Jimmy Martin's "Hold What You've Got" to jazz staples made famous by Dave Brubeck, Weather Report, and Miles Davis, to the Meters' "Hey Pocky Way" is fair game. There's an infectious energy and a lively experimental spirit at work, and their stylistic range keeps things interesting to say the least--especially over the course of a long live set. But without a bit more focus and some more compelling originals, there are too many low points to suffer through, especially for those of us listening at home without benefit of the live vibe. --Marc Greilsamer

Customer Reviews

SCI fans Know this could be better
When I received this CD from SCI online, I was very excited to rush home and pop it into my CD player. SCI is an amazing band, with talent, structure, and texture almost unmatched in the 'jam band' circles today. This CD however does not portray accurately the magic that SCI projects from their shows. Their previous live CD, A String Cheese Incident, was recorded from one night at the Fox Theatre in Colorado. This live CD took highlights of the spring 1999 tour and pieced them together to bring a single show feel. It fell drastically short. There is basically no flow to this live CD, unlike similar live 'moments' CDs such as Widespread Panic's 'Light Fuse' CD. Excluding the above problem, there are some fantastic moments within both these CD's. CD 1 opens with the lightening fingers of Michael Kang working the strings. Missin Me into Mauna Bowa is a great jam that explores many different realms. Barstool and Take Five are nice standard SCI jams, followed by the Funky Meters song Hey Pocky Way. The disc closes with one an old SCI favorite, Black Clouds, that leaves you thirsting for more. CD2 definately does not hold together very well. The Don't Say>Birdland has some moments, with the keyboards being the glue that holds this funky jam together. From here, CD 2 takes a downturn. Hold, Jellyfish, and Drums are all out of place. I would have liked to hear the jam that the drums came from rather than just this segment. Jellyfish projects the SCI humor, and their imaginative storytelling continues with Texas. This live issue from SCI is guaranteed to please both newbies and old SCI fans alike. I would just prefer to hear a show in its entirety, with both the ups and downs, than just a 'greatest hits' live CD that has inconsistant flow.

SCI does some great things here, but also makes some errors
First of all, I'd like to say that I would've given this album 3.5 stars if it was possible. Here we go... There are so many great things about it. It contains that infectious SCI live vibe, and just the general jam band live vibe that makes us all love this stuff. The first disc opens up just the way you would expect it, especially if you've listened to SCI's first live disc "A String Cheese Incident." Most of the the first disc is very good. Good jams, good vocals, good songs. I love the Dave Brubeck cover (it ain't anything like the original, but SCI certainly makes it fun and interesting). But then we come to the second disc. It open's with "Lester's Rant", which is hilarious, I must say, and rather interesting. But "Lester's Rant" kinda characterizes the feeling on this disc. It is almost, at times, as if SCI is trying to make a point of how weird they are. If you listen to "Jellyfish" you will obviously be laughing, but it becomes monotonous and boring. It is like they are trying to make people laugh more than make good music. Laughing is good, but long, drawn out songs are no fun after a while. One of the high points for me on the second disc is the drum/percussion solo. Mike Travis really displays his percussion skills here and it is amazing to me being a drummer. Overall, if you are an SCI fan and you like all their other stuff and you have some of their shows, etc. you will not dislike this CD. You'll probably like it a bit actually, but you'll just be dissapointed with certain aspects of it. If you are a new SCI listener, I'd reccommend getting "A String Cheese Incident" before picking this one up.

what happened to this great live act?
Having seen SCI more than dozen times since 1996 (although only once or twice in the last two years) I was disappointed to hear this album. Knowing what the band could do live and having witnessed it myself several times, this is almost unbelievable!

The first disc is pretty solid, and includes some extremely talented improvisation & interplay between members (all of which are EXTREMELY gifted musicians.) On the 2nd disc though, things go extremely awry! It gets into this cheesy (no pun intended) light jazz that are only a few notches above MUZAK. I didn't care to much for their Round the Wheel album either.

Their first live disc "A STRING CHEESE INCIDENT" has some of the most thoughful creative jamming I've ever heard on a live album and should be in the collection of any lover of "jam bands."

I'm all for expanding the horizons of a band and for experimenting with different types of music, etc., but this is mostly just misguided noodling. Hopefully SCI can turn it back around and not become a casualty in the often over-indulgent jam band scene.

I give it two stars because there are some fantastic jams that make up for the watered down jams, but not enough to make this worth having in my collection.