Band and crew before Red Rocks gig via SCI’s Facebook page. Photo by Spady Photography

Last night the String Cheese Incident opened its three night stand at Red Rocks Amphitheater. In an interview with the group’s Michael Kang, which just posted to the site, he explains, “Being a band from Colorado, Red Rocks is kind of like the holy grail of gigs in a lot of ways. I mean, you can work your entire career and feel like that is the culmination. Just all the lore and the history there…Over the years, we’ve been pretty lucky to have arguably the best live music venue in the country right on our doorstep and get to call it home.” The group opened with “Sometimes A River,” on a night that also included takes on such fan favorites as “Miss Brown’s Teahouse,” “Outside and Inside,” “Desert Dawn” and “Colorado Bluebird Sky.”

On a more somber note the group also debuted “Struggling Angel”, the song written for the late Sarah Gewald, who was found dead in Colorado’s Boulder Creek at age 35 in March. Two months later, SCI’s Keith Moseley and Kyle Hollingsworth posted a version of the song for download via BandCamp with 100% of the proceeds to be donated in Gewald’s name to Front Range Hippotherapy, a charity close to her heart.

The group returns to Red Rocks tonight. To hear a few songs from the opening evening of the tour, visit the Relix audio page. An archival interview with the group representing the band’s first-ever Relix cover story from 2001 also has been posted to the Relix site.