Happy Mardi Gras!

For the past three years my wife, Sheryl, and I took a cruise on The Rock Boat with my college roommate, Tim, and his wife Marie. Like last year, our twenty-something-year-old daughters also attended so they could hang out together and talk about how cool their parents are. The Rock Boat is hosted by a band called Sister Hazel that has five members. Since the passengers are a key ingredient in the overall experience, the name of the organization that puts on the cruise is called The Sixth Man. A number of moderately known artists besides Sister Hazel are featured on the cruises. In general all of these bands' songs are mid-tempo rockers with jangly guitars — not quite folk, not quite country, more of something in-between.

I have some photos from our vacation. You can click on any picture to enlarge it, but my pictures were taken with my iPhone 4GS. The ones taken by Tim are better. Here are the performances we attended.

Saturday, Feb 22:

1. Radiolucent
   
   We are entertained as we board the vessel.

2. Sister Hazel
   
   As our hosts, Sister Hazel always plays as the boat leaves the dock.

3. Scars on 45
   
   I became a groupie of this band based on last year's Rock Boat cruise. It was great to have them return.

4. Besides Daniel
   
   This picture was taken during the sound check. As the artists sleep, eat, and play among the passengers, there are no barriers between performer and fan.

5. Stephen Kellogg
   
   Stephen started his show among the audience in the upper balcony. He played a song had completed writing only 45 minutes earlier.

6. Courrier
   
   Ever go to a concert to hear a specific song only to be disappointed the band didn't play it? I wanted to hear "Between," but it did not happen.

7. Tonic
   
   I only knew the song "You Wanted More" but this band really rocked — more so than the less-than-hard-rockers that typify the voyage.

Sunday, Feb 23:

1. Honor By August
   
   The venues on the boat range in size. As one would expect, the Pool Stage accommodates the largest number of concert attendees.

2. Amy Gerhartz
   
   The Bar City Stage is the smallest — holding only about 200 people.

3. Ed Kowalczyk
   
   I was on the upper deck behind the stage so I could see what artists see.

4. Campfire Stories
   
   Singer/songwriters told humorous stories about their life experiences and what lead to the creations of their songs.

5. Ed Roland and the Sweet Tea Project
   

6. Courrier
   
   The Spinnaker Lounge holds a few hundred people with a variety of comfortable places to sit and relax.

7. Scars on 45
   
   By my estimation, the Stardust Theater holds about 2,000 people. Bands rotate among the various venues and play more than one show during the cruise.

8. The Gallery
   

9. The Dunwells
   I shot about 70 seconds of video with my phone.

10. Gaelic Storm
    

Monday, Feb 24:

1. Ken and Drew Acoustic
   
   Two members from Sister Hazel performed on the beach.

2. Guiltier Pleasures with The Goose
   
   This was intended as humorous. Boat artists performed songs that everyone loved to hate. The problem was that they were done so poorly, I thought I was listening to karaoke from passengers instead of professional musicians.

3. Reel Big Fish
   

4. Ed Kowalczyk
   

5. Alternate Routes
   
   By the way, the band pronounces the second part of their name as "roots." Our next door neighbors in Alameda saw this band in San Francisco. They were then envious of our Rock Boat attendance.

6. Edwin McCain
   
   Without question, this was my favorite performance of the trip. Very emotional vocals and great musicianship coupled with meaningful lyrics. I am going "all in" on this artist and buying his entire catalog.

7. Collective Soul
   

8. Tonic
    

9. TRB Presents an Evening With The Rolling Stones hosted by Sister Hazel
   
   IMHO the point of doing this is to see the bands on the boat perform songs that everyone knows and loves. With that in mind, bands should pick popular Stones songs and not obscure ones. Bands should not be allowed to change the arrangements of the songs they pick. The Scars on 45 version of "Get Off of My Cloud" was so bad, I thought I was listening to The Archies.

Tuesday, Feb 25:

1. Sixth Man Sessions
   
   Sixth Man takes 6 artists, puts them together for a week where they write and records new songs. The material is showcased in a format where the artists recount the experience. In past years, this event was better. Some of the artists' voices were shot so they played the recorded track and describing the experience. In previous years, all songs were done live.

2. Will Hoge
   

3. The Gallery
   

4. Honor by August
   

5. The Dunwells
   

6. Scars on 45
   
   I couldn't think of a better way for me to end the trip. My daughter described me to a band member as "a super fan."

Wednesday, Feb 26:
We did have a delay in disembarking. A passenger had a Korean War compass in his luggage. As part of being screened to re-enter the United States, the device set off the radiation detectors. The port of Miami was closed while this was sorted out. (// more) It was no fun waiting on deck, luggage in hand, for 3 hours. To The Rock Boat's credit, Ken and Drew played an impromptu acoustic set for those who wished to attend.

The cruise also features theme nights like St. Patrick's Day:

as well as competitions. Prior to boarding (actually in our information packets weeks in advance), passengers were grouped into teams organized by cabin floors and assigned a designated color.

Go team orange. Alas we came in third overall.

Speaking of teams, two bands, Scars on 45 and The Dunwells, are from the UK, so they played a soccer match.

Scars on 45 won the match 5 to 1.

If you are wondering how one can see so many shows in a day, it's because each show is an hour. That's perfect. Even if you take a chance on listening to a band, and it turns out not to be your favorite, it's only an hour. Sometimes we consciously stayed for the first half-hour of a performance to head out, just in time, to see the start of a different show we had a greater desire to see. Since none of the shows require tickets, passengers can come and go as they please. Another great thing is that every show starts on time — sometimes to the minute, at most 5 minutes late.

Once again, music appreciation is alive in the lab.