As many of you probably know, I spent all of last week on vacation on The Jam Cruise. For those not familiar with the cruise, it’s basically a music festival or Jazz Fest on a cruise ship. This particular year, most of the artists are of the Jazz, Blue Grass, or Jam variety but there were a few electronic-style musicians as well such as Pretty Lights, Sound Tribe Sector Nine and Lotus.
FFrom the moment that I got to the airport, I started meeting fellow Cruisers. Pete and I managed to meet at least a dozen people before even setting foot on board the MSC Poesia, as everyone was super-excited. As soon as we got onboard the ship, we had a blast. We quickly set up our door decorations and were off to explore the ship. Much like last year, the main venues were the Pool Deck, the Theater located in the bow of the ship, the Zebra Lounge (similar to the Leopard Lounge from last year), the Jam Room and the Disco (both of which were located in the very rear of the boat).
The music was absolutely phenomenal. Now that I am much more well-versed in the artists themselves, I was much more aware of who was sitting in and playing with the other bands throughout the week. For me, the highlight had to be the Galactic set in the Teatro theatre or George Porter’s Super Jam from the last night on the Pool Deck.
To make the adventure even more fun, I managed to pull out a new costume (or variation on a previous costume) just about every single night. This made it so much more fun and made me look forward to running around each night in a different outfit. Compared to last year, when I had nothing out of the ordinary to wear even on the theme nights — this made the trip even crazier.
I think the best part of the week — and what I’ve been struggling to deal with all this week, was the great people that I met. From the people that I closely connected with over the week to those random characters that I’d just see periodically throughout the trip, everyone was so incredibly fun and awesome — that I miss all my new Jam Cruise friends.
It’s been difficult transitioning back into a normal work environment. Since the middle of December, things have been in chaos / holiday mode — and now things are settling back into the regular work groove that encompasses the majority of the year. Fortunately, there’s some good shows coming up here in San Francisco, so I’ll be able to get my groove back on fairly quickly.
All-in-all, I think I speak for everyone when I say that a good time was had by all… and I’ve already pre-booked for Jam Cruise 9 next year. If you’re interested, here are my photos from the trip:
