Tourist Shot – Cruise Ship
Strange concept, but maybe interesting with the right mix of passenger and musician. A friend has gone one a Blues Cruise, with Delbert McClinton (she’s a big fan for some reason), and said she had a great time. I could see this being a disaster with the wrong mixture however…
Of course, this was a music cruise, a floating rock festival grafted onto a passenger ship, and a quietly thriving corner of the music and cruise industries. While the music business has been in decline for over a decade and traditional cruise lines have never quite figured out how to attract the cool crowd, music cruises are both profitable and proliferating.
Fans willing to pony up somewhere between $900 and $1,400 — not including airfare or bar tab — can rub shoulders with their favorite acts and enjoy three to five days of food, music, Caribbean sunshine and extras like a photo with the band (no autographs, please).
Everyone from oldies acts like Frankie Avalon to current artists like R. Kelly and Blake Shelton are taking to the seas. Did the fourth annual New Kids on the Block cruise really sell out in four hours? Of course it did! Can death-metal fans really enjoy Cannibal Corpse and 31 other doom merchants while sailing from Miami to the Grand Caymans? They don’t call it 70,000 Tons of Metal for nothing.
If there’s one thing metalheads know, though, it’s how to party. I was less certain about the Weezer Cruise. The headliners — Weezer and Dinosaur Jr. — were alt rock acts that had turned the sound of disconnection into an audience almost two decades ago. Exactly how that was going to mesh with blue skies and umbrella drinks wasn’t clear to me. But as has long been known by vacation planners, piña coladas are a universal solvent. As the sun set that first afternoon and the Carnival Destiny steamed out of Miami, Weezer took the stage outdoors on the Lido Deck to the ecstatic hoots and hollers of die-hard fans. I lingered with seven new friends from Chicago on a back balcony, where concert attendees waiting to be convinced traditionally congregate. The more we drank, the farther up front we gravitated. I finished the show a few feet from the stage.
(click here to continue reading Rock Cruises, Bright Spots for the Cruise and Music Industries – NYTimes.com.)