trb vii - the aftermath
Jan. 16th, 2007 04:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
violaceaOkay, now we have the attempt at a long, wordy review of the Rock Boat 07. Enter at your own risk. :)
Wednesday: An uneventful travel day, thank god (and, if I thought that, it was a jinx, obviously). Had dinner with Dad in the St. Louis airport, and arrived in Fort Lauderdale right on time. Got to the hotel, met up with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
moryssa, semijocund, and datahawk, and we made the decision to stay and hang out at the pre-party rather than head off to the Cowboy Mouth/Carbon Leaf show. First, though, we ate dinner at the waterfront restaurant at the Days Inn across the street, with a mother and daughter from Colorado Brenda had met on her shuttle to the hotel. Later, we headed back to the hotel to watch the music that several enterprising folks from the TRB board had arranged. Saw several people play ... Jackson Rohm, Keaton Simons, Rayen Belchere, John Taglieri, a couple of other folks whose names I missed. Brenda saw Oval Opus play later in the evening, after the rest of us had crashed for the night. While we listened, we wandered around and met people - a bunch of folks we knew from the Carbon Leaf message board, including netg15 and her roommates, and willoughbee (and boyfriend), Jenn, and Lauren. Also met Chris, one of the TRB board folks (and one of the pre-party perpetrators, if I remember correctly), who insisted on filling Misti, Lara and I with alcohol. I am a lightweight, and the screwdrivers the bar was serving were basically straight vodka colored with a splash of OJ, so after two of those and a couple of jello shots, I ended up drunker than I've been in two years. Heh. Good times, man.
Thursday: The Legend calls! We made it onto the ship noon-ish - ran into Amanda, our roommate from last year, and her mom in line - and set about exploring the ship. My written journal for the day says "this ship is huge, and gorgeous in that opulent, almost-tacky sort of way." Lots of unicorns, lots of gigantic urns forming railings and staircases, a four-story large painted reproduction of the Colossus at Rhodes hanging above the Atrium. While we explored, we ran into Pat McGee and several band members in the elevator. As I said earlier, Pat was everywhere I went! Hee.
First music of the day was Wideawake, and this was our first indication that the Firebird Lounge was not the best rock & roll venue ever. This show really should have been in the main room - Wideawake were the breakout stars of last year, and since they were the first musicians playing this year, of course EVERYONE wanted to be there to see them. It was packed, and we could barely see anything. In fact, Lara and I wandered off in the middle - her to smoke, me to use the bathroom - and ended up standing on deck for a few minutes, watching Fort Lauderdale disappear behind us. Still, it was a good time, and when they (and the hundreds of people in the audience) launched into "Not So Far Away", I remembered why this truly is the best trip ever. :)
After dinner, Lara and I went to see the Alan Yates Band, back in the Firebird, which is a much nicer venue when there aren't people standing on the dance floor. Good music - they get bonus points for an amazing cover of Muse's "Our Time Is Running Out". Alan's kinda pretty, too - Lara thought he looked a little like a dark-haired David Tennant, while I was more reminded of Butch Walker. Either way, not bad. :) A little later in the evening, we ran into Alan while we were walking around, and when I complimented him on a show well done, he begged us to bring more people to their second set on Sunday. Which we missed. Whoops.
When we came back, Misti and Brenda were decorating our door - hey, we won an honorable mention this year, score! - and then we changed for the pajama party. Next up was Sister Hazel's first set of the weekend, which was awesome, as usual. They began the 80s theme of the weekend somewhere in the middle of their set, by covering The Outfield's "Your Love" (you know, "Josie's on a vacation far away ..." et cetera). After that, we wandered back downstairs to the Firebird (hereafter referred to as the Hole) and listened to the end of David Ryan Harris's set. He called Aslyn and Toby Lightman up to help him sing "Yesterday Shutting Down", which was very cool. After that, it was time for the pajama party with the Pat McGee Band. Unfortunately, they started off the set with a lot of very mellow stuff, so we didn't stick around more than a half hour or so. We wandered around for a while after that ... watched whoever was jamming in the casino (either Scott Munns or Francisco Vidal, don't remember which, because they were both on every stage everywhere at all times), then danced to the Zac Brown Band in the Promenade. Always music to be found late at night ... after I crashed, apparently Misti and Lara went back to see Pat McGee again, and saw forty-seven musicians on stage at the same time, give or take a few. The infamous PMB jam session, and I missed it again. Ah, well.
Friday: Started out by hearing, over the loudspeakers, that Carbon Leaf was hosting the bingo game at noon. Debated for a second, but decided I was there to see music, not play games, so I skipped out. Brenda went, though, and said it was fun. Meanwhile, the other three of us headed up to the Lido Deck to watch/listen to Sam Thacker. Sam is very pretty - looks a bit like Heath Ledger in 10 Things I Hate About You, which is NEVER a bad thing - and his music was pretty fun, too. I ended up picking up his CD later, in my orgy of music buying.
After that, it was time to get our seats for the Gaelic Storm show, which was thankfully in Follies, the main room. We were just a smidge too late for the front row, and ended up sitting behind our friends from dinner on Wednesday night, along with husband and brother. Brother is TALL, and blocked a lot of my photos. Oh, well. It was fantastic set - everyone was in good form, having a good time.
After that, Misti stuck around to film a little bit of Better Than Ezra, while the rest of us went back up to the Lido Deck. This was the point at which we caught Josh Kelley, who was sporting a long military-style coat that screamed Jack Harkness to my one-track mind. Heh. Tons of fun, I was really glad we got the chance to see him!
Then, we wormed our way up front for the Carbon Leaf show, and were naturally surrounded by folks we mostly knew. Barry walked out dressed in khakis, an olive green button down shirt, and a straw hat, and I turned around to Lauren and said "apparently, we're being entertained by Steve Irwin today." Barry, immediately: "Hi, I'm Steve Irwin." Hee! Barry was in rare form for the show - every time Chris came on stage to fix something, he grabbed his ass. Ha. They were all fantastic - Carter, in particular, had a ton of energy. Great stuff, one of the better shows I've seen from them, if naturally too short, at an hour.
Food, and to the room to dress for the NYE party, and then I wandered over to the Hole to see Aslyn. A better show for that room, as everyone sat on the dance floor. She was unbelievable, a revelation really. Amusing, too - Cowboy Mouth was sound checking above her head while she played, and she found herself in the unenviable position of having to compete with Fred's drums. She did an admirable job. Hee. I wandered back to the room for a minute during her set, met Lara, and she came back and filmed the end of her set.
Back to the room, and to the Atrium, where Pat McGee and Chardy, his percussionist, were jamming with Francisco. I walked up to the bar for a drink just as Pat was holding the piano bench above his head, while Chardy crawled underneath the piano and Francisco mocked him - "you wanna bring anything else up here on stage with us? Because we have plenty of room!" I don't quite understand, actually, why no one moved the piano off the Atrium stage this year; no one had any room to really do anything on that stage. Oh, well. Maybe the Barenaked Ladies needed it for their cruise, which is out right now on the same ship.
Later, I wandered in to see a bit of Cowboy Mouth's set. Saw Fred get up, climb up into the balcony, and force lazy people to get up and dance. Fantastic. :) We wandered away, though, to see Ingram Hill play down in the Hole. (Well, Misti, Brenda and I, anyway - unfortunately, seasickness clamed Lara for the night.) Our new buddy Chris joined us, despite being a little skeptical about Ingram Hill ... apparently, they cancelled out of TRB V (the one that eventually was canceled due to Katrina) in order to open for some pop act? (He kept saying Jesse McCartney, but he knew that wasn't right.) Anyway, that left a bad taste in his mouth, but he figured he'd give them a chance. I like Ingram Hill's music, so I was excited to see them. They didn't disappoint - they were fun, even got Chris into it. The lead singer was wearing a hat that made him look like Jason Mraz - I saw him later, and the resemblance wasn't there, but that night, I kept laughing over it.
It was very very cold down in the Hole, so Misti and I got up and wandered for a little bit in between Ingram Hill and Zac Brown. Went into Collective Soul for a few minutes, so Misti could film a bit - I have to say, while I didn't see enough to truly judge, what I did see didn't inspire me to stay. Annette later said that CS struck her as a faded band now trying too hard, and I can see that. Anyway, we wandered away, and saw Wideawake playing in the Promenade, and Josh Kelley jamming with Scott Munns in the casino.
As we wandered, we spotted Barry standing in a group of people, talking to some guy in a bright green wig. He was laughing, and told the guy "dude, you are SO not getting laid tonight." It took a few glances to figure out that it was Chardy, drunk off his ass and wearing not only the wig, but a fake paste-on mustache. I laughed. Very hard.
Back to the Hole for Zac Brown, which was a great big party. Highlights included their cover of "Devil Went Down To Georgia" and "Sic 'Em On A Chicken", a song Zac wrote about his Jack Russell terrier and a wayward rooster. Hee. Then, we stuck around while the room filled and filled. On the schedule, it listed "80s Tribute" in the 2am-3am slot. We heard via the ship grapevine that it was going to be a KISS cover band. Chardy and his green wig came in to stand in the crowd and incite rock & roll behavior, along with Pat, dressed more conservatively but possibly only slightly less drunk. ;)
Anyway, KISS was late to go on stage, in true rock style, but when they got there ... oh, boy. Whoever was under that makeup went ALL OUT, full KISS costuming and makeup. Gene Simmons was frighteningly, scarily accurate. Melissa later told me that it was the band Getaway Car underneath the makeup? Whoever it was, they looked and sounded authentic. Heh. We only stayed for a song or two, though, because it was late and none of us were really gigantic KISS fans in the first place.
Okay, currently tired of typing. Saturday and Sunday to come in another post!
Wednesday: An uneventful travel day, thank god (and, if I thought that, it was a jinx, obviously). Had dinner with Dad in the St. Louis airport, and arrived in Fort Lauderdale right on time. Got to the hotel, met up with
moryssa, semijocund, and datahawk, and we made the decision to stay and hang out at the pre-party rather than head off to the Cowboy Mouth/Carbon Leaf show. First, though, we ate dinner at the waterfront restaurant at the Days Inn across the street, with a mother and daughter from Colorado Brenda had met on her shuttle to the hotel. Later, we headed back to the hotel to watch the music that several enterprising folks from the TRB board had arranged. Saw several people play ... Jackson Rohm, Keaton Simons, Rayen Belchere, John Taglieri, a couple of other folks whose names I missed. Brenda saw Oval Opus play later in the evening, after the rest of us had crashed for the night. While we listened, we wandered around and met people - a bunch of folks we knew from the Carbon Leaf message board, including netg15 and her roommates, and willoughbee (and boyfriend), Jenn, and Lauren. Also met Chris, one of the TRB board folks (and one of the pre-party perpetrators, if I remember correctly), who insisted on filling Misti, Lara and I with alcohol. I am a lightweight, and the screwdrivers the bar was serving were basically straight vodka colored with a splash of OJ, so after two of those and a couple of jello shots, I ended up drunker than I've been in two years. Heh. Good times, man.Thursday: The Legend calls! We made it onto the ship noon-ish - ran into Amanda, our roommate from last year, and her mom in line - and set about exploring the ship. My written journal for the day says "this ship is huge, and gorgeous in that opulent, almost-tacky sort of way." Lots of unicorns, lots of gigantic urns forming railings and staircases, a four-story large painted reproduction of the Colossus at Rhodes hanging above the Atrium. While we explored, we ran into Pat McGee and several band members in the elevator. As I said earlier, Pat was everywhere I went! Hee.
First music of the day was Wideawake, and this was our first indication that the Firebird Lounge was not the best rock & roll venue ever. This show really should have been in the main room - Wideawake were the breakout stars of last year, and since they were the first musicians playing this year, of course EVERYONE wanted to be there to see them. It was packed, and we could barely see anything. In fact, Lara and I wandered off in the middle - her to smoke, me to use the bathroom - and ended up standing on deck for a few minutes, watching Fort Lauderdale disappear behind us. Still, it was a good time, and when they (and the hundreds of people in the audience) launched into "Not So Far Away", I remembered why this truly is the best trip ever. :)
After dinner, Lara and I went to see the Alan Yates Band, back in the Firebird, which is a much nicer venue when there aren't people standing on the dance floor. Good music - they get bonus points for an amazing cover of Muse's "Our Time Is Running Out". Alan's kinda pretty, too - Lara thought he looked a little like a dark-haired David Tennant, while I was more reminded of Butch Walker. Either way, not bad. :) A little later in the evening, we ran into Alan while we were walking around, and when I complimented him on a show well done, he begged us to bring more people to their second set on Sunday. Which we missed. Whoops.
When we came back, Misti and Brenda were decorating our door - hey, we won an honorable mention this year, score! - and then we changed for the pajama party. Next up was Sister Hazel's first set of the weekend, which was awesome, as usual. They began the 80s theme of the weekend somewhere in the middle of their set, by covering The Outfield's "Your Love" (you know, "Josie's on a vacation far away ..." et cetera). After that, we wandered back downstairs to the Firebird (hereafter referred to as the Hole) and listened to the end of David Ryan Harris's set. He called Aslyn and Toby Lightman up to help him sing "Yesterday Shutting Down", which was very cool. After that, it was time for the pajama party with the Pat McGee Band. Unfortunately, they started off the set with a lot of very mellow stuff, so we didn't stick around more than a half hour or so. We wandered around for a while after that ... watched whoever was jamming in the casino (either Scott Munns or Francisco Vidal, don't remember which, because they were both on every stage everywhere at all times), then danced to the Zac Brown Band in the Promenade. Always music to be found late at night ... after I crashed, apparently Misti and Lara went back to see Pat McGee again, and saw forty-seven musicians on stage at the same time, give or take a few. The infamous PMB jam session, and I missed it again. Ah, well.
Friday: Started out by hearing, over the loudspeakers, that Carbon Leaf was hosting the bingo game at noon. Debated for a second, but decided I was there to see music, not play games, so I skipped out. Brenda went, though, and said it was fun. Meanwhile, the other three of us headed up to the Lido Deck to watch/listen to Sam Thacker. Sam is very pretty - looks a bit like Heath Ledger in 10 Things I Hate About You, which is NEVER a bad thing - and his music was pretty fun, too. I ended up picking up his CD later, in my orgy of music buying.
After that, it was time to get our seats for the Gaelic Storm show, which was thankfully in Follies, the main room. We were just a smidge too late for the front row, and ended up sitting behind our friends from dinner on Wednesday night, along with husband and brother. Brother is TALL, and blocked a lot of my photos. Oh, well. It was fantastic set - everyone was in good form, having a good time.
After that, Misti stuck around to film a little bit of Better Than Ezra, while the rest of us went back up to the Lido Deck. This was the point at which we caught Josh Kelley, who was sporting a long military-style coat that screamed Jack Harkness to my one-track mind. Heh. Tons of fun, I was really glad we got the chance to see him!
Then, we wormed our way up front for the Carbon Leaf show, and were naturally surrounded by folks we mostly knew. Barry walked out dressed in khakis, an olive green button down shirt, and a straw hat, and I turned around to Lauren and said "apparently, we're being entertained by Steve Irwin today." Barry, immediately: "Hi, I'm Steve Irwin." Hee! Barry was in rare form for the show - every time Chris came on stage to fix something, he grabbed his ass. Ha. They were all fantastic - Carter, in particular, had a ton of energy. Great stuff, one of the better shows I've seen from them, if naturally too short, at an hour.
Food, and to the room to dress for the NYE party, and then I wandered over to the Hole to see Aslyn. A better show for that room, as everyone sat on the dance floor. She was unbelievable, a revelation really. Amusing, too - Cowboy Mouth was sound checking above her head while she played, and she found herself in the unenviable position of having to compete with Fred's drums. She did an admirable job. Hee. I wandered back to the room for a minute during her set, met Lara, and she came back and filmed the end of her set.
Back to the room, and to the Atrium, where Pat McGee and Chardy, his percussionist, were jamming with Francisco. I walked up to the bar for a drink just as Pat was holding the piano bench above his head, while Chardy crawled underneath the piano and Francisco mocked him - "you wanna bring anything else up here on stage with us? Because we have plenty of room!" I don't quite understand, actually, why no one moved the piano off the Atrium stage this year; no one had any room to really do anything on that stage. Oh, well. Maybe the Barenaked Ladies needed it for their cruise, which is out right now on the same ship.
Later, I wandered in to see a bit of Cowboy Mouth's set. Saw Fred get up, climb up into the balcony, and force lazy people to get up and dance. Fantastic. :) We wandered away, though, to see Ingram Hill play down in the Hole. (Well, Misti, Brenda and I, anyway - unfortunately, seasickness clamed Lara for the night.) Our new buddy Chris joined us, despite being a little skeptical about Ingram Hill ... apparently, they cancelled out of TRB V (the one that eventually was canceled due to Katrina) in order to open for some pop act? (He kept saying Jesse McCartney, but he knew that wasn't right.) Anyway, that left a bad taste in his mouth, but he figured he'd give them a chance. I like Ingram Hill's music, so I was excited to see them. They didn't disappoint - they were fun, even got Chris into it. The lead singer was wearing a hat that made him look like Jason Mraz - I saw him later, and the resemblance wasn't there, but that night, I kept laughing over it.
It was very very cold down in the Hole, so Misti and I got up and wandered for a little bit in between Ingram Hill and Zac Brown. Went into Collective Soul for a few minutes, so Misti could film a bit - I have to say, while I didn't see enough to truly judge, what I did see didn't inspire me to stay. Annette later said that CS struck her as a faded band now trying too hard, and I can see that. Anyway, we wandered away, and saw Wideawake playing in the Promenade, and Josh Kelley jamming with Scott Munns in the casino.
As we wandered, we spotted Barry standing in a group of people, talking to some guy in a bright green wig. He was laughing, and told the guy "dude, you are SO not getting laid tonight." It took a few glances to figure out that it was Chardy, drunk off his ass and wearing not only the wig, but a fake paste-on mustache. I laughed. Very hard.
Back to the Hole for Zac Brown, which was a great big party. Highlights included their cover of "Devil Went Down To Georgia" and "Sic 'Em On A Chicken", a song Zac wrote about his Jack Russell terrier and a wayward rooster. Hee. Then, we stuck around while the room filled and filled. On the schedule, it listed "80s Tribute" in the 2am-3am slot. We heard via the ship grapevine that it was going to be a KISS cover band. Chardy and his green wig came in to stand in the crowd and incite rock & roll behavior, along with Pat, dressed more conservatively but possibly only slightly less drunk. ;)
Anyway, KISS was late to go on stage, in true rock style, but when they got there ... oh, boy. Whoever was under that makeup went ALL OUT, full KISS costuming and makeup. Gene Simmons was frighteningly, scarily accurate. Melissa later told me that it was the band Getaway Car underneath the makeup? Whoever it was, they looked and sounded authentic. Heh. We only stayed for a song or two, though, because it was late and none of us were really gigantic KISS fans in the first place.
Okay, currently tired of typing. Saturday and Sunday to come in another post!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-01-17 12:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-17 12:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-11 08:32 pm (UTC)My e-mail is mermaidrain@hotmail.com
My friend is going through a hard time right now and this would really knock her socks off if I could get ahold of a copy of this. I e-mailed you at your LJ address, but I never heard back from you.
I'd gladly pay for shipping and stuff. Let me know.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-17 06:36 am (UTC)