Photo by Derek Martinez from a week earlier

Coming off three nights of the Allman Brothers Band, the Orpheum Theater in Boston welcomed String Cheese Incident to the stage for a single night. Just past the halfway mark of the Roots Run Deep tour, SCI ripped it up for the sold out house. The jams were tight, flowing easily from one voice to another keeping the audience on its feet all night.

While the calendar said December, the show had the feel of a summer festival; care free and fun. The Orpheum is an old theater and when the place gets cooking the front of the mezzanine section bounces up and down. With the mezz bouncing to the beat of the opener “Desert Dawn,” I couldn’t help but wonder where we were going to go for the rest of the night. It was a great ride.

The first set was high energy, with each song building from the previous. The latin-flavored ‘Yo Sé’ was a great shift from the pulsing jams that opened the show. The reflective “Look at Where We Are” felt like the band taking a moment to appreciate the success they were finding on the road, and have continued to find over the years.

“Little Hands” progressed from a gently lilting tune into a bluegrass jam that felt like a train running down the tracks. Sliding into a deep spacey jam they came out the other side and landed into a grooving “Mouna Bowa.”

The set ended with a nod to the Bad-Boys of Boston. Their take on Aerosmith’s “Walk this Way” was truly their own. While the riff was all rock & roll, the verses and jams were all bluegrass. The agreed tempo seemed to be “as fast as humanly possible” sending the crowd into the set break wanting more.

The between set music felt like another shout out to Boston, featuring a couple of tunes from home grown Dispatch.

The band came out of the break with long jams in “Bam,” “Rhythm Of the Road” and “Water.” Though each song had a different flavor, they collectively created the care-free feeling that makes this band so much fun.

The back end of the set featured the funky “Jellyfish” with a break to wish a happy birthday to one of their crew members, Jesse. It was a fun moment for him, and for the crowd. After the birthday celebration they slipped back into the end of “Jellyfish.”

The set ended with a great version of “Outside and Inside.’” The song worked as a bookend for a killer cover of U2’s “Mysterious Ways.” It was the high point of the night with the band and audience filling the house with unbelievable energy.

Encoring with “Blackberry Blossom” and “White Freightliner” the crowd was sent out into the night wanting more from a band that had delivered all night long. This was a great night at the Orpheum. Here’s hoping String Cheese Incident comes back to Boston soon.