String Cheese Incident at Horning’s Hideout in North Plains, OR

7/29-8/1 2010 Part 2 (Saturday and Sunday)

Link to Horning’s Hideout Review Part 1

Review and pictures by Phishbeard

Saturday started off slow as a sloth on heroin. Fortunately, mother nature gave all campers a break by allowing everyone to bask in the overcast. It was pleasant to be in the shade for once and the temperature was perfect! This was definitely a blessing for all those people who partied hard the night before and for the ones that were trying to go to sleep during the day. My plan was to take a shower, which were located very close to where I parked my car and to catch the Banana Slug String Band play from 1:45 to 2:45pm at the Sawmill Stage. The problem was that the showers cost $8.00 and even though there were only 3 people in line, I stood there for over 15 minutes without seeing anyone else go in to take a shower. Out of slight anger, because I really wanted to be clean, I decided to put my hippy game face back on and tough it out for rest of the weekend. So I marched back to camp to recharge and get ready to watch the Everyone Orchestra’s set at the Sawmill Stage from 3:15 to 4:15pm instead.

When I arrived at the Sawmill Stage to catch the beginning of the Everyone Orchestra play, it became apparent that stage setup was a tad behind schedule. Who would of thought that the stage crew would have fun at night too? This was my first Everyone Orchestra experience and I would have to say I was pleasantly surprised. The band was huge, filling up the available stage area and they had some guy ranting poetry while the band played. For the most part I enjoyed what I saw of their set, but the ranting man sort of got to me a bit, so I went to Main Stage to check out Toubab Krewe whose set went from 3:30 4:45pm. I had heard Toubab Krewe on the Sirius Satellite Radio, but wasn’t really into them, but I thought they may be better live. Come to find out their music is very percussion based and that is probably why I like them much to begin with. As for the music they played, it was decent and sounded good, but it was not enough to keep me from not going back and catching the last two songs from the Everyone Orchestra.

After the Everyone’s Orchestra’s set, I made my way back to camp to recharge, eat, and prepare for the big Cheese show. Once again I missed a number of lectures, workshops, and bands playing Saturday during the day. Here is a list of the activities I had missed; At the Sawmill Stage was Spinsterz Poi Workshop from 12:15 to 1:15pm, and the Banana Slug String Band from 1:45 to 2:45pm. At the Calera Stage was James Grant instructing Kids Yoga from 10:30 to 11:15am, Elle Potter’s commUNITY Yoga from 11:30 am to 12:15pm, Global Illage from 12:30 to 1:15pm, Lewi Longmire from 1:30 to 2:30pm, Fou Fou Ha! From 3:00 to3:45, and Three for Madness from 4:15 to 5:30pm. At the Emerald Parlor Stage was Big Heartedness in Big Business from 11:15 am to 12:15pm, Ethical Biz Q&A from 12:15 to 12:45pm, Freestyle Americana Guitar with Scott Law from 1:15 to 2:15pm, Col Bruce Hampton’s Outstructional Workshop from 2:30 to 3:30pm, Spinsterz Hooping Workshop from 4:00 to 4:45pm, and Designing the Future – Real Solutions from 5:00 to 6:00pm. On Main Stage I only missed Bill Frisell with Steve Moore and Rudy Royston from 5:30 to 6:45pm.

After eating a chocolate and getting recharged, my buddy and I made our way back to the Main Stage for the Cheese’s 7:30 to 12:00am show. The boy’s started the night out with Black Clouds and played into Rhum ’N’ Zouc. You could tell that the crowd was into the music and that everyone was having a blast. The crowd of people was a blur colors swaying to the music. About halfway through the first set, Bill Frisell made his way out on stage to jam with the Cheese for a couple songs. After two more songs were played, the set came to a close with a bitchin’ Ring of Fire into the rest of Black Clouds! At set break, everyone was asked to clear the floor for the fire dancers and instrumental second set, which was my cue to go get a recharged and try to get a grasp on reality.

When we got back to Main Stage, it was just getting dark, so it was difficult to find our blanket and friends on the hillside. Plus, it was amazing to see that everyone from this sold out show was all clumped together sitting on the hillside, besides the people that were behind the scenes working and the people too wasted to make it to the show. It is safe to say the hill was packed more than I have ever seen it in years prior. The instrumental set was an epic and trippy Rivertrance. While the band was jamming out, there were a ton of different fire dancers, most of them people who preformed at the late night show at the Caldera stage. As the fire dancers were doing their thing, there were a few people on stilts in costumes wandering around. There was also a giant peacock statue that was on fire in the middle of the floor area and hula hoopers dancing around with lighted hoops. I even spotted a giant pink ape holding a sign, who just happened to be a guy camped next to us. Nershi even made note of the guy during the show by saying something about some guy going ape shit. (Later we found out that Bill signed that guy’s ape suit glove and it said “Go ape shit! – Bill Nershi”)

While watching the fire dancers in awe, a giant UFO flew out over the crowd. The light show was going nuts at this time and there were lazers being reflected off of mirrors set in trees to create a green lazer smoke screen above the crowd of dancing hippies covered in flashing lights and glow sticks. After the giant peacock was removed people dressed in half white and half black body suits did some funky things in the blacklight. They were like one legged and one armed aliens. To say the least, it was frickin’ trippy as balls. The people from the Kazum troop were out there demonstrating their acrobatic mastery, which I was happy to see. To top it off, a lady was lifted up into the night sky by a number of giant balloons. These balloons had long drapes of fabric that hung from them and she wrapped herself and did a number of acrobatic tricks while dangling above the crowd. To add to the already highly fire hazardous show that I was witnessing, the lady in the drapes was holding what looked like a flare of some sort. She was amazing and it was definitely comparable to something one would see from a Cirque de Soleil show. I have only seen the Cheese have a person perform the drape act once and that was in Vegas at an after hours Vegoose show, but the drapes were not attached to a balloon and no fire was involved.

As the mind melting Rivertrance came to an end, the flood gates were opened and the crowd poured back onto the floor area from the hillside. By the time the floor was over taken by the happy feet of a plethora of hippies, the Cheese busted in to Joyful Sound. After four continuous songs, aka. < (one of my favorite marks), which were Joyful Sound >It is What it is >Orion’s Belt >Piece of Mind, the boys busted out a wicked Search played into I Know You Rider to end the set. By the end of I Know You Rider I was more pumped up than an Ohio State linebacker on steroids. As the band left the stage, the crowd literally went ape shit, cheering the Cheese back out onto the stage. The boys wanted to send the crowd on their way in good form to continue the partying into the wee hours of the morning, so they busted out a double encore with Sirens and one of the sickest showings of Texas that I have ever heard.

After a stellar Saturday night show, we made our way back to our camp for a recharge. We ended up stopping at Bob Horning’s crew camp and listened to a band, unfortunately I am not sure what they were called. When we finally did make it back to camp, we had a couple beers and some bonks and decided what our after hours plans were going to be. Once fully recharged, we made our way up to the Caldera Stage to check out the Caldera Fire with Furthermore Collective and also the Liquid Fire Mantra and the Spinsterz to check out some sexy ladies hooping it up. We stayed for a bit but had to leave because we did not want to be swarmed by people thinking I am hanging out with Kang.

We made our way back to the car to grab some more beers. When we got there, we did some more recharging and decided to do some wandering around of the venue with another one of my friends. We made our way around visiting with people along the way, but trying to avoid any Kang sightings. We ended up wandering to the Emerald Parlor Stage and checked out the black light garden again and listened to a bit of the Late Night Lounge with Global Illage, who played from 12:15 to 2:15am. We then made our way back to the Caldera stage to show my buddy Rod what he had been missing. We spent some more time checking out the sexy fire dancers and the giant flaming statue. After that, we decided to slowly wander our asses back to camp for some late night beers, bonks, and some sleep.

The after hours shows that we did not make it too were as follows; At the Sawmill Stage was Lynx and Janover from 12:00 to 1:00am and the Dub-Temple Sessions with Miss Murray from 1:00 to 2:00am. We did not catch all of the other acts that we saw at the Caldera Stage and the Emerald Parlor, but we did get a taste of what they were dishing out.

On Sunday morning we were once again blessed with a wonderful overcast. When I thought Friday was slow, I was wrong, because Sunday was slower than a retarded elephant that is fed only paint chips. My main focus of the morning was to make it to the Liza Oxnard show from 1:00 to 1:45pm. With that in mind, I got a good morning buzz on and made my way to go check out one of my favorite female musical artists. The stage crew was slow setting up for Liza, but can you blame them? If you are not partying into the wee hours of the night at a Cheese show, you must be taking care of children back at family camp. After starting almost 20 minutes late, Liza was still in good form. A little girl was doing pencil rolls down the hill with this little boy and she almost kicked my buddy in the head. I told her that it was ok to kick him if she wanted to, but she was polite and ran back up to the top of the hill to start rolling again. Come to find out, that little girl was Liza’s daughter. Liza mentioned that she had been away from the music scene for a bit because she was doing the mom thing. Liza was not only as sexy as she ever was, but her beautiful voice put me at peace. Her set was most excellent. All I could ask is that if we could hear her sing a second set.

After Liza finished, I made my way back to camp and did some chatting with our neighbors. They convinced me to check out the lecture at the Emerald Parlor called After Legalization – Ethics Post Prohibition from 3:00 to 4:00pm. I did some more recharging and made my way to the Emerald Parlor. I was quite disappointed with the lecture. They mostly talked about good business ethics and did not state one thing about post prohibition. The lecture reminded me of a college lecture but the lecturers must have been high as fuck because they did a shit job of getting any kind of point across. All I can do is commend them for attempting to hold a lecture of some sort. I could have done a better job talking about post prohibition and I am fairly uninformed.

I decided to bail from the lecture and go check out Col. Bruce Hampton’s set at the Sawmill Stage. Bruce was in good form and he did a great job of demonstrating his phenomenal picking ability. The music was great and other than standing in the sun I was not disappointed. After missing Bruce’s Outstructional Workshop, I owed it to myself to at least get a piece of what Col. Bruce had to offer. Even though I don’t know any of his music real well, I was still very pleased with what I heard. After the set, I made my way back to camp to get geared up for the final Cheese show of the weekend.

The events that I missed on Sunday during the day are as follows; On the Main Stage I missed the Travelin’ McCourys from 4:15 to 5:30pm. On the Sawmill Stage was Eco Up Fashion Show with MC Chris Chandler from 12:15 to 1:15pm and Rachel Goodrich from 1:45 to 2:45pm. At the Caldera Stage was Elle Potter commUNITY Yoga from 11:00 to 11:45am, Jamie Stillway from 12:00 to 12:45pm, John-Alex Mason from 2:15 to 3:00pm, and Global Illage and the Family Parade from 3:30 to 4:45pm. At the Emerald Parlor Stage was Banana Slug String Band from 10:30 to 11:30am, Activism in the Music Industry lecture from 12:00 to 1:00pm, and Open Mic with host Matt Butler from 1:15 to 2:45pm.

The Cheese started their first set with the Travelin’ McCourys playing alongside. They began the evening with Lester had a Coconut and followed it up with a nice bluegrassy Rollin in My Sweet Baby’s Arms. Six songs into the set and Col. Bruce Hampton came out to join the all-star jam to help play Fixin’ to Die. After that, everyone left the stage except for the Cheese, who then busted out Betray the Dark. A few songs after that, the boys threw down a memorable San Jose to close the set. Now that the Cheese played some lighter stuff to start the night, I knew that the second set was going to be bitchin’, since the first sets they played that weekend were for the most part fair, while the closing sets that weekend were more superior.

The second set started with a awesome Shantytown played into Gypsy Queen, which was stellar. Next was a very long and trippy Howard that pretty much sent me to the moon. A few more songs were played into each other, including Emma’s Dream into Don’t Say into It is What It is into Eye’s of the World with Scott Law coming out to assist. I was pumped to get a little Grateful Dead music in the set, because it was Jerry Garcia’s birthday and he needed to be honored. Happy Birthday Jerry! The set closed with Outside/Inside with Law still out on guitar. The crowd went nuts at the end of the set, but you can tell there was a sadness in the air, because the music for the weekend was coming to an end. After cheering the boys back out to the stage, the Cheese played Best Feeling and Good Times Around the Bend! I freaked out because this is was what my buddy Rod and I wanted to hear for an encore. Once the music was over, the crowd cheered thanking the boys for putting together such an extraordinary weekend.

We made our way back to camp for one last night of partying. My friends and I did some recharging and recounted about our crazy weekend. After a while, we helped some friends carry their camping gear up to the shuttle area, since they unfortunately had to park up on to of the hill in the vehicle staging area. The trek was hard and dangerous. Since it was Sunday night and many people had to be back at work on Monday, there was a bunch of traffic leaving that night. The exiting traffic was very dangerous not only because they have to maneuver their vehicles through cramped areas but they also have to avoid all the wasted people wandering around in the dark. I actually witnessed what may have turned out to be a fight due to some ass not paying attention and backing his truck over top of someone’s tent. Thank god the tent was vacant at the time, but some could have easily been killed.

After hiking to the shuttle pickup area, we said goodbye to our friends and sent them on their way. We then hiked up to the artist’s camp to look for a girl who is a friend with Kang. She told us to find her sometime throughout the weekend so there could be a meeting of the Kang’s. Unfortunately we were late and she had already called it a night by the time we made it back stage to harass a security guard to use his radio to contact this girl. Kang knows about my buddy, so I am sure it will happen eventually. Maybe next year…

We decided to make our way back to camp. We did some chatting with people on our way back to home base, since we’re always trying to make new friends along the way. We ended up making it back to camp and started drinking the last of the beer to lighten the load for haul back to the car on Monday. We did some more relaxing  and chatted it up with our neighbors until it was time to call it a night.

Monday morning we were not blessed with the overcast that we had experienced the previous two days. The venue was hectic and full of bustling people all trying to get home. Breakdown of the camp went quick, but it was a hot and sweaty process. After three different trips to my car, I was exhausted but happy to be loaded up. Unfortunately this year I was not able to drive to my camp to load up, so we ended up hauling all the stuff back in the wretched heat. I said goodbye to my friend and wished him well on the rest of his summer adventure and the proceeded to wait in line for over an hour until I was actually able to hit the road and leave the venue.

Overall this year at Horning’s Hideout for the Cheese was epic. There was a crap load of music to listen too, among plenty of other things to do. The vibe amongst the people was awesome and positive. The crew and security were not only helpful but very kind as well. Even though the weekend was a huge party, it was still kept to a family atmosphere, which the Cheese definitely try to do every time I see them. The weather was phenomenal besides the blazing hot Thursday and an overly warm Sunday. Plus the women at Horning’s were so beautiful this year! The Cheese have the sexiest lady fans by far. Sorry Phish. I would have to say that in all the years I have seen the Cheese at Horning’s, this was probably the most enjoyable one I have experienced since 2001. Plus I saw my favorite Care Bear, the PBR Bear! Thank you String Cheese, Bob Horning, the Artists that performed, and the fans, without you all something as special as this would never happen. I hold this venue and the experiences I have here very close to my heart, because I feel most alive when taking part in an Incident at the Hideout.