String Cheese Incident preps for annual Winter Carnival

Independent jam-band the String Cheese Incident has lined up the dates for its 2003 Winter Carnival concerts, which will kick off the Colorado-based group's touring year.

The shows are set for March 17 and 18 at Vail's Dobson Arena, and March 20-22 at Denver's Fillmore Auditorium. Opening acts hadn't been announced at press time.

According to the band's official website, all of the String Cheese Incident's previous Winter Carnival dates in Vail and Denver have sold out for three consecutive years.

The quintet's 2002 winter trek through Colorado was filmed for the documentary DVD "Waiting for the Snow to Fall," which was released earlier this month. The DVD features concert footage from Denver's Fillmore Auditorium, backstage banter and ski footage.

Last spring, the String Cheese Incident launched an ongoing live CD series dubbed "On the Road," which allows fans to purchase a recording of almost every show that the band plays. The three-CD sets are "a matrix mix of soundboard and audience microphones, as mixed by SCI front-of-house engineer Jon O'Leary," according to the band's SCI On the Road website. So far, nearly 60 concerts have been released as part of the series.

The band's last studio album, the Steve Berlin-produced "Outside Inside," hit stores in 2001.

String Cheese Incident handles its own booking, management and publicity. It also has its own record label, publishing company and travel agency. In addition, it sells tickets to its events via its SCI Ticketing service.