You know you are not in Kansas anymore when you hear a voice on the load speaker of the cruise ship that says, “This is Fred MotherF*ucking Durst, your captain speaking.” Fred claimed to be driving the boat and getting a blow job at the same time. And so it began, the vacation of a lifetime, ShipRocked 2015. It became very obvious that sleep was not going to happen for the next five days.
When you step on the deck of the ShipRocked boat you realize immediately that this is a special place where artists and their biggest fans can rock the nights away with show after show for five days on the high seas aboard the Norwegian Pearl. In the festival at sea’s sixth year, ShipRocked offered a lineup headlined by Limp Bizkit, Buckcherry, Black Label Society and Sevendust. The lineup was rounded out by Metal Allegiance, P.O.D., Tremonti, Andrew WK, Living Colour, Filter, Lacuna Coil, Nonpoint, Otherwise, Zach Myers, Crobot, Icon for Hire, Thousand Foot Crutch, Wilson, Gemini Syndrome and many more.
ShipRocked 2015 kicked off with a mega Super Bowl pre-party on Sunday where fans could sport their favorite jerseys and watch the game on big screens all over the ship. Zakk Wylde started off the cruise with a full Metal version of the star spangled banner and then Chevelle hit the deck stage performing hits like “Hats Off to the Bull” as the sun set over the port of Miami.
The ship pulled back into Miami on Monday to pick up more passengers and head out to the Bahamas for the ultimate Rock & Roll experience at sea. Limp Bizkit took the stage for the official sail-away party on Monday evening and blew away any skeptics as Fred and Co. got the party started dancing in the crowd on deck and closing out their set with “Break Stuff.” Fred seemed genuinely excited to be on his first cruise, saying how much he loved a “good buffet.” Wes Borland, who never disappoints, was ready to rock the cruise with full clown makeup, cowboy boots, and no pants, as he shredded on his bikini girl guitars. That’s right, ladies — no pants.
VIP guests were treated to rum runners and a private acoustic show on Monday with Nonpoint, Zach Myers and Lukas Rossi from The Halo Method. Zach Myers’ band previewed some new acoustic music off their upcoming album that showed off Myer’s vocals and guitar skills with fellow members JR Moore and Zack Mack.
One band that really stole the ShipRocked show this year was Sevendust. The Sevendust crew has been on every ShipRocked cruise and their shows onboard always bring a packed house. This year fans were treated to three Sevendust performances. For the first time the band played their entire first album live on stage, which was a special treat for the ShipRocked family. They also did an electric set on deck and a more intimate acoustic set in the Stardust Theater that featured guest appearances by frontmen Elias Soriano of Nonpoint and Aaron Nordstrom of Gemini Syndrome, who took the stage to help LJ sing “Angel’s Son.”
Another highlight of the trip was Metal Allegiance performing the entire original Van Halen album start to finish with special guest Wolfgang Van Halen. The ShipRocked Metal Allegiance lineup consisted of Joey Belladonna, Frank Bello, Chris Broderick, Rex Brown, Dave Ellefson, Gary Holt, Scott Ian, Mike Portnoy and Troy Sanders
On Tuesday and Wednesday the boat was docked at Grand Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas and a beach stage was erected to host performances in the perfect weather while passengers disembarked for some beach relaxation while listening to their favorite bands. Over the course of the two days, Letters From the Fire, Thousand Foot Crutch, P.O.D. and Nonpoint took over the beach stage to perform.
Tuesday night, Fred Durst hosted a late night DJ party at Bar City, dancing the night away with die hard fans starting at 2 a.m.
Buckcherry played two sets onboard and have never sounded better. They played classic songs like “Crazy Bitch” that every fan can sing along to and highlighted songs off their new EP, Fuck.
One of the coolest things to see on the boat is how all of the band members are true Rock music fans. They all attend each other’s performances while onboard. Every night you could find Anthrax’s Joey Belladonna rocking out in the crowd, singing every word to his favorite songs. Almost every band on the ship turned out for the performance of Rock legends Living Colour with special guests like Anthrax’s Scott Ian and LJ from Sevendust performing on stage with the band during their set.
ShipRocked is all about the fans and the fan experience. Every single band member was out of their room enjoying the ship, meeting fans, taking pictures and signing autographs every day. I saw fans wait patiently to speak to their favorite band members and they were all very respectful of the artists throughout the cruise. This is not my first music cruise but this is the first one where every band on board did a formal meet and greet so that their fans could have a photo with all band members either onboard the ship or on the island. The most dedicated fans waited in line for several hours on Thursday to get photos with all of the headlining bands.
Many of Thursday’s "day at sea" fan festivities were canceled on deck because of inclement weather but the shows were all moved inside and the schedule was re-arranged to accommodate all the performances that were planned. Black Label Society, Tremonti, Crobot and others rocked the boat throughout the day and Limp Bizkit closed out the 2015 ShipRocked cruise with a performance that laid to rest any doubts that the band is back in peak condition. Fred said over and over how much he loved his experience onboard and now he “finally gets it,” referring to why people go out into the middle of nowhere in the ocean to vacation and listen to Rock music.
Click here for more of Amy Harris' photos from ShipRocked 2015.
