Sunday: I met up (after my AM church gig) with the rest of the band at the airport, and we flew straight to Miami. By the time we made it to the port, just about everybody else was already on board, so we walked on with no delays. We'd even timed it so we missed the muster station b.s. Aha!
I was slated to room with Mark Dannells. One nice bonus of this cruise was rooms with balconies! Cool!
Our first show of the trip was in the main theatre. Very cool! This is the room where the headliner plays--we've never had a slot on the big stage before. It was pretty neat. The sound was good. I think I played pretty well.
Peter Beckett from Player and Elliot Lurie from Looking Glass were our special guests, so we featured them each on a couple of their songs (Baby Come Back, Brandy, and others). No problems--we'd rehearsed their "B sides" earlier in the month. I think they're getting used to us.
Afterwards, I tried to eat all the fruit on the boat.
Monday: Monkey and I woke up late (our first sleep-off was a tie!). The rest of the boat was on Great Stirrup Cay, so we wandered the boat. We hung out on the balcony with Greg Lee and Pete.
A shark appeared.
In the evening, we all got dressed and participated in a meet and greet. We signed lots of posters, guitars (where in the hell did those come from?), scraps of paper. I'm not sure why anyone would want my autograph. It might be pity.
That's about it for that day! We saw Ponderosa play in the big theatre. They sounded great. Didn't understand a single word, though. Methinks skinny jeans make them sing funny.
I didn't question how it worked out, but we were able to spread out to individual cabins. Sweet!
Tuesday: Monkey and I went to Great Stirrup Cay, which is Norwegian Cruise Lines' private island in the Bahamas. Waaaaaaay nicer than the last time we came through.
Peter Beckett and I peed in the ocean together while listening to Sister Hazel.
Tuesday night, we played our U2 set on the Pool stage. It went over very well--lots of favorable comparisons to the real thing. The wind made reading charts impossible. I shook a lot of tambourine. Everybody else on stage was awesome.
The new Yacht Rock Revue CD came out Tuesday, containing our originals and a cover of Africa. Get it!
Wednesday: faithful readers may recall that we ate at the Japanese steakhouse on the Kiss Kruise II. We ate there again. The food was great. We were somewhat loud and obnoxious. We caught food in our mouths.
Wednesday night, we participated in the Woodstock recreation. Each band did one or two songs. We were given Sly and the Family Stone. It went OK. No big disasters. The form on I Want to Take You Higher is kind of random.
Thursday: we hosted the flip cup tournament bright and early at 2 PM, dressed in really unfortunate tank tops. Our outfits inspired us to lose horribly. Like, we lost because the whole opposing team finished flipping their cups before we could get one. Ouch. At least I didn't have to drink any of their shitty beer.
Thursday night was our final set, this time in the atrium. One of our boat friends stole a plate of fruit for me. I ate most of it on stage. Fantastic!
A Saxman is fueled by fruit. instagr.am/p/WUfqLKrFZh/
— PleaseRock (@pleaserock) March 1, 2013
The band flew through this set. Peter and Elliot joined us again. Very good! The crowd was really enthusiastic.
That was it! Home on Friday!
Thanks to Sixthman for inviting us and hosting this really cool week. Special thanks to the crews at each stage we played--great sound and professionalism. I was a rock star all week! I wish we had a crew like that to take care of us at every gig. Amazing!
We're at Park Tavern tomorrow (Saturday), playing U2 and Yacht Rock. Come see us!
Upcoming dates:
March 2, Park Tavern (Atlanta, GA)
March 14, Wonder Bar (Asbury Park, NJ)
March 15, Theatre of the Living Arts (Philadelphia, PA)
March 16, Gramercy Theatre (New York, NY)
March 17, The Hamilton (Washington, DC)
April 19, Summerour (Atlanta, GA)
April 20, Park Tavern (Atlanta, GA)
April 26, (Atlanta, GA)
May 3, Georgia Theatre (Athens, GA)
May 4, (Nashville, TN)
May 24, Radio Radio (Indianapolis, IN)
June 8, (Woodstock, GA)
June 28, Park Tavern (Atlanta, GA)
July 8, Cape May Convention Center (Cape May, NJ)
July 11, Mohegan Sun (Montville, CT)
July 12, (Baltimore, MD)
July 13, (Philadelphia, PA)
July 20 (Atlanta, GA)
August 23, Park Tavern (Atlanta, GA)
September 27, Park Tavern (Atlanta, GA)
October 19 (Atlanta, GA)
