‘Dance party funk train’

Kyle Hollingsworth from The String Cheese Incident says playing live music is like brewing your own beer.

While performing with his self-titled band, Hollingsworth likes to improvise, rather than just stick to the script.

“Sometimes when you take a risk, you can make terrible beer, or the jam you’re playing can go really sour,” he said. “Or it can become more beautiful than what you originally thought.”

Playing the same set every night is something he doesn’t enjoy, he said.

“It’s getting a chance to explore outside the musical boundaries and living in that improvisational moment that makes music speak to me,” Hollingsworth said.

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The Kyle Hollingsworth Band will play a free concert at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater as part of theHot Summer Nights concert series Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m.

“I heard the stage is amazing and the crowds are receptive,” he said. “I’m excited to get out there and get people dancing.”

The band will perform songs from The String Cheese Incident that Hollingsworth helped write, as well as his own music.

“Hopefully people will recognize some (songs from The String Cheese Incident) and get turned on by some of my new stuff as well,” he said. “It’s more than just standing up and playing music. A lot of my music is very inviting for the audience. Performing in front of people is something that I thrive on,” he said.

The String Cheese Incident has a lot of eclectic sounds and incorporates many different styles in their music, he said.

“That being my roots, I bring some of that to my performance,” Hollingsworth said. “But my current music is more on the dance party funk train. I definitely get in there, and I’m not afraid of trying some different styles from Latin music to even a little bit of bluegrass.”

‘A circus from outer space’

Patrick Marshall, a ticketing associate for Bravo!, is a fan of the Kyle Hollingsworth Band and specifically requested to do the announcements for his show Tuesday night. He has seen the Kyle Hollingsworth band perform multiple times, as well as The String Cheese Incident.

“(A String Cheese Incident show) is like a circus from outer space,” he said in an email to the Vail Daily. “The energy you find at a String Cheese show definitely carries over into Kyle’s band’s performances.”

That energy is what fuels Hollingsworth’s improvisation skills.

“When you get a chance, you step into a new space within that original form (of music),” Hollingsworth said. “It makes it intriguing to me to find out where we can go.”

According to Marshall, the audience can tell that Hollingsworth is in tune with his band during the whole show, and the band’s ability to improvise is smooth and seamless.

“It will be one huge funky dance party that you do not want to miss, trust me,” Marshall said .

Hollingsworth to host his own beer festival

Just as he believes in stepping into a new space while performing music, Hollingsworth has done the same with brewing his own beer, called Hoopla Pale Ale, which is released through the Boulder Beer Company.

“Like my music, Hoopla is a blend of varied ingredients that come together to form a unique mix,” he said. “It’s all about discovery. Beer or music, I’m willing to take risks in both.”

Hollingsworth has spent the last few years touring the country with his band on ‘rock and brew tours’ where they visit different breweries, meet with fans and explain the connection between live music and home brewing.

He will host his own beer festival, called Kyle’s Brewfest, at the Boulder Beer Company July 23, which will feature about 35 Colorado breweries.

The festival is a charity event designed to benefit Conscious Alliance, an organization that organizes food drives at concerts and assists food pantries, as well as economically isolated Native American reservations.

Courtney Riley is an intern at the Vail Daily. Email comments about this story to criley@vaildaily.com.