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Rand Knapp's JamCruise 2, Jan.2004
JAM CRUISE II, Jan.10-14, 2004 : Rand's review.Performance Highlights: A few come to mind. Number one: The Green Parrot, in Key West, a 4 hour Donna The Buffalo set, ironically not even on the Jam Cruise proper, was #1. Here, we had a great reunion with Gary and Mark, tapers. Also, Jamie/Amy, Ben, Susan, Steve/Melissa and Cosmic Carl from the Cruise were there. A few young faces that we met on the JC and had strongly encouraged to go to see DtB surprised us and showed up as well. I talked to 'Mike' a very young fellow, and he was really 'getting' DtB and glad he came. The locals was also a very happy crowd, getting into it and obviously glad to have an excuse to party in the early afternoon on a weekday. At one point I was dancing outside the bar, beer in hand, looking into the bar through huge glass free windows, when one of those cheesy open air tour buses came by. The tour operator was barking his spiel about how the Green Parrot was a landmark of KW, and, well, lookie here, there is a real live party going on. The passengers clearly did not know what to think, but slowly they started to smile. The bus operator was trying not to let on how much he liked what he heard in front of his paying customers, but he kept the bus parked on the curb for 10 minutes to let the passengers enjoy this unexpected encounter. Then as the bus pulled away, many of the passengers strained their necks, looking back, wistfully, at us party animals dancing legally with beer in hand in the streets of sunny KW, grooving to DtB outside one of the world's best bars. Pure bliss. An aside: they only once mentioned the DtB show at the Green Parrot on the ship's onboard PA system, we actually found out about it by going to the event office and demanding to know what was going on with DtB (and being embarrassed to find out our beloved group had caused their own woes by forgetting their passports). There was only one PA announcement about the Green Parrot and 30 announcements about all the ways you should spend money in Key West doing 'excursions'. At any rate, after we found out about the Green Parrot gig, we spent a lot of time and effort getting the word out to other DtB fans we ran into. They were easy to identify...grounded, friendly, a little older than average, and did I say friendly?? We ended up with a nice 'entourage' going to the show. My second performance highlight was a very late night set in the Disco, a small bar deep in the bowels of the ship. Here, at 3:30 am, several musicians from several different bands joined together to do a Jazz set. I love jazz, I love the late night and I love small bars. Imagine Mark Karan (lead guitarist from RatDog), and Karl Denson, and about 5 other top notch musicians jamming, doing a cross between classic jazz and space rock and funk. Plus, they had a light show that was absolutely insane. It was more abstract visuals, perfect for the "thinking mind" groovin' to late night, cerebral jazz. It was absolute perfection, and lasted several hours. It was a VERY close second to the Green Parrot scene for me. It also was not on the schedule...entirely impromptu. I stumbled across it entirely by accident, and then couldn't leave. Third highlight, catching New Monsoon, with Mark Karan sitting in, in the Mermaid lounge, a small venue, doing classic Dead covers...the spacey cerebral stuff, Cryptical Envelopment/That's It For The Other One and more. They played opposite Particle and Les Claypool, so there were only about 50 of us New Monsoon fans there, but that made it all that much more special...dancing with true Dead Heads to stunning Dead covers. Other highlights...Col Bruce set. Particle set. And finally, but not least, Les Claypool's 2 to 5:30 am set which included a cover of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall". There is no doubt that Claypool is an incredibly talented performer. He won me over. Another highlight: the look on the Avis Car shuttle bus drivers face as she watched the Jam Cruise passengers emerge from the ship's terminal...she was slack jawed and stunned (most passengers LOOKED exactly like they had partied 4 non-stop nights with no sleep). We were on that shuttle and answered her questions ("What the hell is this all about?" she wanted to know. "This isn't like any other cruise ship I ever saw!") ======== Performances: Stellar. Definitely the best part of the trip. These bands put their heart and soul on the line for us. They went above and beyond the call of duty. I can not say enough about that. And you guessed it...that is exactly why we went... to hear the bands. So, with that said, we got our moneys worth, for sure. And the part about "party all night"? No exaggeration there AT ALL. You could find something going on musically until 6-7 am each night. One night, I chilled out in a "electronica" disco setting...it rocked!! There were many "things happening" going on with this crowd. In that department, we were a bit out of our element, as we are 40-something Dead Heads, and our partying style reflects a more conservative approach. But, in the short term, I can stay up with the best of 'em, at least for three nights. ====== Public Rooms/Venues: Main stage: on the main deck, open air (no smoke buildup, yippee). A tad bit chilly the first night, but dance hard enough and that part goes away. Room for hundreds of party animals, split level, great views from above, decent light show. Carol spent lots of time video taping from the second level looking down on the main stage. Mermaid lounge: small, semi smokey, held about 100-150. Good venue for getting right up close to the performers. Basic venue, would have been perfect for DtB. Not much of a light show. Grand Ballroom: comfortable seating, but who sat? Low ceilings, moody venue, incredibly smokey. The 'ravers' loved this venue, and the energy level here was probably the highest. Ceiling too low for much of a light show. Held perhaps 400. Disco Lounge: classic bar, my favorite, small, but quirky, deep in the ship, late night chill/disco/DJ/jazz scenes. Best light show of any show I saw was down there. Held perhaps 150. High ceiling there helped with smoke buildup. ==== Amenities: Lots of shore excursions to do if you could bring yourself to get up early and pay more money...every 60 minutes or less the PA system blared (and I mean BLARED) about all the on shore travel excursions to do. They even blared the PA during the music, but thankfully the music was MUCH too loud to hear the PA. I think the promoters were dismayed that people that partied until 6 am didn't want to get up 2 hours later to take a Nassau foot tour. Another amenity for some... the 'no smoking' zones on the ship were TOTALLY not enforced (except for the dining room). This was good/bad ... you could 'spark up' anywhere, but so could the vast number of cig smokers ... the passengers aboard the Jam Cruise seemed to smoke cigarettes like chimneys too...a couple of the venues were actually very poorly ventilated, and very very very smoky, with a blue haze. Reminded me of a Bingo Parlor on a Saturday night. We had a GREAT room steward...it does pay to 'pre-tip' the help. He was a little too zealous though, offering to "freshen up" the room every few hours...we finally gave him a $5 and put out the 'do not disturb' sign except for 1 hour a day. He was happy, we were happy. The service for alcohol was actually surprisingly good...I guess the profit margin on booze meant they wanted to sell, sell, sell...and boy did they. As soon as you were 2/3 done with a beer, you had 2 or 3 waitresses offering to get you another. They have an insidious system in place...the tip is automatically included in the price of drinks, and so the waitresses had a huge incentive to make the sale. This was actually, IMHO, a very GOOD system, as we never went for lack of drink service. They would hunt you down, no matter WHERE you were, too. You could take a drink down into a chill out spot, way down a side hallway, and sit all by yourself and by magic...'do you want another drink' would be heard. Interesting, almost all the waitresses seemed to be from Croatia and Latvia, while the busboys and room stewards were from the Philippines. How do I know? Cause their name tags told you where they were from. A lot of the help seemed anxious to practice their English as well. We even had a German lad (about 20) as a waiter in the dining room...he spent a great deal of time talking to us, telling us all about Germany. Very entertaining. Other amenities: Giftshop, duty-free shop, beauty shop, cyber cafe, cash machine. The ship is old, circa 1950's/60's and the decor reflects that. But, as a party ship it is actually close to perfect. No complaints. ========== Low points: There was one serious downer...2 out of the 4 mornings, we were required to report at 7:30 am to immigrations officials (Bahamas and KeyWest). Now, think about that, you have gotten very little sleep, and you are expected to report at 7:30 for paper work issues. It was a real bummer. All we wanted to do was sleep. I am one of those types that once awake, find it hard to go back to sleep, so this was a real bad vibe for me. Carol hated it just as much, if not more, than I did. We would much prefer to skip Bahamas altogether to skip at least one of the two occurances. Another low point, most of the passengers were badly sea sick for the first 5 hours after leaving Ft Lauderdale,,, the seas were absolutely awful. (Remember, this is an old ship, there are no stabilizers). Carol got physically ill, I fared better, and was just "green in the gills". But, it passed, and by midnight, most passengers had emerged from their cabins to start partying. Once the ocean calmed down, the rest of the trip was great sailing, with a warm south wind. =========== The Food: OK, think buffet food at a 6.99$ all you can eat diner. They had both a buffet line and a sit down restaurant...the restaurant served the exact same food as buffet! Service very slow. Humorous food related event: we went to the restaurant and after eating, one of the fellows in our group that we had just met "fired up" at the table...talk about upset waiters! They came running over and pretty much booted our asses out the dining room door...telling us stuff like "the smoke odor will make the other diners sick" ...which is a joke because everywhere, all the time, everyone on the trip it seemed was smokin' 'em. So, who was there to offend in the dining room? And WHY was the dining room the ONLY place on the ship enforcing the no smoking rule? It was a joke. Good thing our new found friend 'sparky' waited until after our dessert to pollute the air...the other diners were rolling on the floor laughing at us...noooo, I don't THINK we were offending them in the slightest...I think their appetites were actually stimulated. An aside, they had food at breakfast, lunch, dinner, midnight. A pleasant surprise, breakfast started at 5 am, so you could eat before crashing...a nice way to avoid a hangover. ===== Cabins: Small. Too cold, too hot. Stinky bathrooms. And we had one of the nicer rooms! But, since we spent so little time in the rooms, and had ear plugs (required to sleep), it really did not take away from the overall experience. ======== Cleanliness: Adequate. This is an old, well used ship. It is perfect for non-stop partying by a young(er) crowd...no one seemed to mind the age or simple nature of the ship's design, or that the carpet was not exactly new. The crew did a good job keeping everything tidy and tables cleared. ======== Repeatability: Possibly. Any event is best the first time. We have so many mainland festivals yet to see. It certainly got under our skin in a fun way. We met some great people, were exposed to some fine music, and got a crash course in how a generation younger than us likes to party. And that may be an education worth having. Rand Knapp |
