The Rock Boat is a five-day floating music festival. Bands play concerts as the ship travels to its destinations. This year, our cruise went to Key West and Nassau, The Bahamas. Believe it or not, the destinations do not matter. The trip is all about what happens aboard.
Because it's a Friday, and I blog about something other than Autodesk technology on Fridays, today I am blogging about The Rock Boat. Last Friday, I blogged about day one. Here are some notes about day two that included the voyage's first stop which was in Key West.
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Dan Rodriguez
Dan did a solo, acoustic show at 10:00 am. He was shocked at how many responsible adults had gone to bed early enough the night before so that they could make this show. Although it was early in the morning to be singing, and Dan had been partying all night, it did not affect his performance. It was a great show. His songs tell interesting stories.
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Key West, Florida
Sheryl and I were traveling with my college roommate, Tim, and his wife, Marie (like all previous Rock Boats). Years back, Tim and I worked with a colleague, Terry, at GTE where we developed telecommunications software. Terry and his partner Rich have a house in Key West and happened to be in town. We rented bicycles and met them and visited Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, DJ's Clam Shack (so I could get the lobster roll), Louie's Backyard (so we could have a drink by the water). It was great reminiscing about the old days.
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Alan Doyle
Alan Doyle is my favorite artist on The Rock Boat. He played a rousing set in the ship's atrium. I say rousing because although his catalog is loaded with introspective, mid-tempo ballads, for this show, there were only two slow songs. Everything else was up-tempo. Party on!
With so much audience chatter, it was probably fortuitous that there were only two ballads.
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Matt Nathanson
Even though Matt Nathanson is a singer/songwriter, he is more of an entertainer. A good part of his appeal is the banter between songs.
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Hannah Wicklund and the Steppin' Stones
I was really looking forward to this show. Hannah only has one album, so I thought she'd play every song with a few covers to fill out an hour. To my dismay, a lot of the time was spent jamming on instrumental songs that I had never heard before. A good portion of her stage presence is her long curly red hair that she flips back and forth as she plays guitar. Despite my disappointment at the song selection, this band can rock. She did play "Crushin'" which is my favorite song from her catalog.
This marked the end of day two. In retrospect, day three was my favorite day. Stay tuned to the next three Fridays to see how the voyage unfolded. Previous voyages have been documented in The Rock Boat category.
Rocking is alive in the lab.