November 4, 2012

West Coast Memories: Lake Tahoe

Tahoe was always the stop into or our of California tours. We played a few small clubs in those early years. The first one I played was Humpty’s. When we first played there, I was so new to the group that I did not know all the songs. So I would sit out for a few each night. I forgot which tunes, probably “Black Clouds” or bluegrass ones like that. But that was cool with me because I was able to hang out, get a beer, and meet fans. In fact, it was at these shows that I meet a lot of early California cheese fans.

The String Cheese Incident – Caesar’s Tahoe – Lake Tahoe – 07.19.04

We played a daytime show outside with Leftover Salmon one summer. I remember picking Mark Vann’s brain about how to emulate a banjo roll on the keyboard. It was a trip to figure out how to finger all those notes on the piano. And honestly, I never quite got it. But it was always a good time hanging with the Salmon guys.

So many winter stops for skiing and summer stops for mountain biking. I love this area. Looking forward to getting outside again when we are there.