Itchiversary: Shiprocked 2026 Recap Part 3

[Music] You're listening Leitch. My name is Casey. My name is Dan. And I'm Aaron and this week we're scratching the itch. Finally we're wrapped this thing up. We haven't actually mentioned this in the previous parts of this Shiprock recap, but February is Itch aversary where we celebrate the formation of the show way back in the 2000s. And I didn't intend personally for this entire month to be taken up by celebrating Shiprock, apparently. At least three episodes recapping it. But here we are. It happens. I'm not mad about it. But as long as we keep entertaining this, you know, that's part of it obviously. And informative so that hopefully if you are curious about the experience, well, we're going to be giving you the whole nine yards. Have a lot to say. We've even kind of kept condensed a little bit. But you know, happy anniversary to us as a show. It's weird because we have this and then the podcast started in the month of May. And so it's a little bit of a second anniversary. Yeah. But February is officially the birth month of the itch. So this is a cool way to celebrate. Just want to let you guys know I'm not getting you shit. I still owe you your birthday present from last year that I haven't made that I had the idea to make like a year ago. Oh, geez. No, I feel loved. Oh, when you when you get when you get it though, you will be like, oh, that was worth the wait. Yeah, I'm sure it's cool. It's cool. We have some cool things coming up, including what is about as much of a palette cleanser from Shiprock, as you can possibly get in the coming weeks as well as some other things that are both in the works. Man, there's one I don't want to actually say I'm not going to say no, it's not been recorded, but it does seem to be on the calendar and that's exciting. Yeah. It's the first time we've gotten this far with that hope. So we'll just yes, keep that out there. Yep, just need us to say we're excited. Been working on it for like four years. Right, right. As promised, though, we have two more days of Shiprock to cover and we are going to get right into one of the cool things about this boat that is not the concerts. And that is the games. There's a game that has become a tradition on the boat and probably on most cruises. I kind of get that impression. And for some reason, they don't like you to say what it is or take video or pictures for some type of liability and yet it's very open what it is. It's a game show that's currently hosted by Steve Harvey, you know, or in this case, team who Steve Harvey as Chris motionless referred to cookie ass, which is cookie lost it at he loved that. Yeah, it is funny because every time we've seen it, they play the same video, the same little clips of the show. I don't know if they do that for the audience that may or may not know what family feud is or if they just I don't know why they play it. It seems kind of strange, but you're fun though. Last year was the infamous Hollywood undead versus Parkway Drive family feud battle, which made a legend out of King Don. You can go back and listen to our recap of that if you want to hear the full story there. This year's participants were motionless and white and avatar. You know, so it's funny because when this event, well, when I first started going to this event, I should say because obviously I was not around when it first started when I first started going though, it was held at the limelight lounge and on the magic, which didn't hold that many people. The last year that we were on the magic, they held it in the theater and that's when King Don, you know, made, made legend. And I think one of the reasons why it was so legendary was because of how many people were there to witness it because that theater was much, much bigger. As we have stated prior, this most recent theater, not so many spaces, not so many spots. Yeah, so when we knew that we weren't going to be able to attend because it was pretty much full when you guys had got there and they were their way ahead of us. We we promise to set it to skip unfortunately. I wanted to see it, but I'm not going to sit on somebody's lap to see it. We almost had to. Yeah, I was going to say we were fortunate to snag some empty chairs really quick. This is a fun one. I don't I won't spend too much time on it because rehashing jokes doesn't usually go that well as seeing them live, but maybe one or two, you know. I will say my favorite things about this was Johannes of Avatar, who was just so charismatic and fun and claimed to be the captain himself of the game, I guess. Yes. He introduced all of his teammates individually as from Sweden. This is such and such. He's from Sweden. He is from Sweden. He is from Sweden. And that was delightful. And they were all wearing matching hats and a few other. I guess a tropical shirt or something. I think he was translating for a couple of them because I don't think they all speak English that well. I'm not sure. So at least maybe there was some phrases said that didn't make sense to all of them because you know, there's a lot of slang and in you endow in these games. If you don't understand the American English terms, you know, terms of phrase. And that that's what made it so different this year compared to last year because last year you had Hollywood and dead and Parkway drive. And they were all about the in you endow and the trash talk this year was no trash talk. Even if you know cookie tried to like force them to do trash talk and neither side barely would. It's because motionless and white were pretty much all just awkward. And Avatar was all too nice. They didn't want to say mean things to the other team. And so it was it was some real week trash talk. Let's just put it that way. Yeah. So there were actually still two Hollywood and dead moments carrying over from the past. First of the very first thing they did was introduce King Don just again because he's now a legend. That's all he just came up and said his catchphrase and that was it right on right on. And then during the game. They asked the question if your neighbors were nudists name something you wouldn't want to see them doing in their birthday suit. And from somewhere way off side stage. J dog from Hollywood on dead goes listening to Avatar. At which point your honest goes, baby, you can wear whatever you want when you listen to us. That was awesome. So. How I went and dead went from from playing the game to heckling people playing. And King Don was way less trest this entire shiprock that I saw him. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he really kind of took on that like the ambassador role really like. He was just he was having such a great time. Everybody was was happy to take pictures with him. He was happy and super kind to take pictures with everybody that asked. So yeah, I thought it was really cool. He was he was really taking on that ambassador role. I was like, yeah, I am going to fucking rock this king role. Yeah, he was a lot more alert the ship rock. I think my favorite answer from like I said, the motionless and white guys they were mostly a little bit awkward. And they feel kind of uncomfortable unless you got to loosen up. This is cookie. It's a game show. But I think my favorite answer that any of them gave was one of the questions was what might have brides made take home from a wedding and Chris motionless ghost and overwhelming sense of loneliness sadness and despair. And he pauses for a second and he goes, but I guess the proper answer would be photos. I think he was right. I think photos was on the board. I doubt that the other answer would have been so. That makes sense. Right. Yeah. So that was again worthwhile. Real quick. Since we are talking about game shows. We actually attended the beers and bingo later that afternoon. It was hosted by Lyle Lack. And I'm pretty sure I talked about it a little bit prior. Yeah. Because it was very they were all very interesting characters and and but the singer was really the only one who was kind of coming out of her shell and talking all the time, taking taking over the mic. They were kind of forcing the other ones to talk. But my takeaway is that both myself and Hannah were one number away from winning and she was one number away from winning the cover all. And when they like the $1,200 prize that I was really bummed. I think we said that's the last episode. But yeah. So we also participate. That's one thing I absolutely love. You know, the schedule's not just filled with concerts and things like that. It's there's also Q&A. There's beer pong. There's belly flap contest. There's all kinds of weird off the wall stuff that they're not going to be on your typical festival for sure. You know what now that you mentioned that I feel like maybe maybe I'll skip past a couple of the shows and stick to that theme for a minute with a quick mention of a couple other things that that I got to participate in on Thursday. One, well, participate in a tent. One was the artist Q&A that they do every year that I think is really cool. This year is featured Aaron Bruno of a wall nation in barbarians of California. Brian Garrus of knocked loose. Those two did have a little bit of a mutual admiration thing or at least a teasing. Aaron Bruno said that his favorite band right now is knocked loose and then that's Brian from knock loose his favorite band and Aaron Bruno was like you better save me. That Dustin Bates from star set, Philly from Shepherd's Rain and Jill and Jules of the pretty wild. I won't recap really the specifics on that. But I just think it's a neat experience when you get to it here and even ask yourself these artists questions about the kind of things that we ask people when we have a month. You know about how you got into this about where your motivation is about how you made certain stylistic choices or career choices. And they're riffing off each other and kind of comparing stories as it were and it's just a neat time and a rare thing. The one interesting question from that grouping was like any memorable bad sets. And so they're like oh lord and then they they all had like a couple stories that instantly came to mind so they got to rattle some of those off and they're kind of funny. So if you are thinking about starting a band, you're very likely to suck it first and have some real bad gigs. If you can push through it, there's a good chance you will get better and the gigs will get better as well. I'm not going to say you'll end up on the main stage of ship rock like some of these bands, but I mean reach for the stars right. Hey, never know Mr. term. It could be one I got one more and I think you guys had a couple as well non concert things to bring up and that was that I got to see Marcos Curiel a POD do they called it a guitar summit. It was basically just him and he was sort of introducing this new like custom like sponsored guitar that he had coming out, which was gorgeous by the way. It was black and gold and which he said he chose because they he says and I quote it's both badass and sexy. That's the way you put it. So black and gold. So in this way. But yeah, it was basically a Q&A about his gear and the stuff that he liked to use and a little bit of his guitar history as it were. I loved seeing how many bands were there. Shepherds rain was there. How's the protection was there. Bobby from saliva. Bumble foot was there. You know a guitar virtuoso himself. And then the whole POD crew was there. So you had this was and I didn't I was sitting on this bench and then. At first I for didn't realize who I was next to and then. It turned out that to my right was Marcos's girlfriend who they just announced that they are having a baby. So I got to congratulate her on that she was very sweet. And then to the left of me after I came in. Came sunny and his entire family. And just seeing them they're just watching Marcos and you can see these looks of pride on their face and that just made me so happy. It's all the sand of all. The whole sand of all crew is this wife. It was his kids. It was I don't know maybe some of their significant others. And interacting with son he's such a such a joy. There's a couple times on the cruise where he'd see us and he'd be like, what's up fellas? I love that he remembered us a year later from primarily from that conversation and the whole book thing that we did last year. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go back and check out our conversation a year ago. I'm the book guy now. The book guy. Yep. I'm fine with that. Yeah. Totally fine with that. For a guy I've been following for 25 years. Shoot. So what did you guys see and do that was non concert. That was so cool. It's really funny because like I don't ever intend to be at this. But I always end up at the finals for the 30 seconds to shred. And this year I will say it was a lot better like in the years past. I mean, you can tell that it's amateurs and then they always haven't followed up by like one of like the best guitar bands on the boat or something. Yeah, like that. And it's and it's funny because like the one year I remember specifically and I think I've talked about this a lot. But like these two amateur kids come out there and they give their heart, you know, they pour their heart into the performance and it's 30 seconds. They shred on this guitar and shit and you know, everybody's excited. They award the winner and like not even 10 minutes later. Sam Bamquil and comes out and just blows their performances out of the water in his like first 10 seconds of being on stage like it was. I was like, dude, you really made those kids look like amateur hours. He's like, oh, I didn't even see their contest. Like I'm sure you yeah, I'm sure you didn't. But this this year was very really interesting because they had this guy who went by the name of Shreddy balls. And this other kid who I'm pretty sure was 12 and at the list. Yeah, he was either 11 or 12 or something like that. And the kid, I mean, he was good for his age. I'm even wrong. But Shreddy balls was definitely a much better guitar player. He was obviously a professional guitar player and some kind of a band. He's stupid ass name like that. He's you know, he's some kind of a band I'm sure that was a ship rock. If ever there is one right there. Yes. And and so it was it was really funny because Shreddy obviously was way way better than this kid. But like the crowd really wanted to give it to the damn kid because they were given away a guitar. I'm like, man, give it to the damn kid. Give the kid have the guitarist that he can get better. And they gave it to Shreddy anyway. I was disappointed. It was funny to me because nobody said that out loud. But you could entirely tell that was the vibe. They're like, we should give this to the guy who's better. But how do you do that to a child? Right. They did, I think two different votes of an audience applause. I think they were hoping that it would lean kid. But it just was funny because like they did like a second round. Like the first round the kid goes out there and played this. Yeah, you played a pop-a-rich lick. Yeah, that's right. And then this like the Shreddy goes out there and just lays down a sick freaking 30 second solo. And there was another finalist too. And she was also really good. But she didn't make it to the final final or the final duel where it was the kid and Shreddy. Shreddy was a little better and you know she wasn't going to and the kid's going to make it to the final. Yeah, right, right, right. That's really what it was. So yeah, exactly. It was entertaining. I always I always love watching that. But I thought it was a little weird to like, I don't know Shreddy was just probably too good to be in the contest. Like he does. That's like Sam Bamminger in the contest. Like, come on. I bet that the kid ended up getting something. I heard through several comments and Facebook posts that the music experience the, I guess it's like kind of a company or something that runs that whole thing. Yeah. I heard they were they were very generous and a lot of instruments and all kinds of things were given away by the music experience from what I understand. The music experience by itself is a super cool thing because it was literally just this small like hallway in room. And there was there's just instruments laid out. I mean guitars and basses. And so like you would walk in there. It would just be people sitting there jamming with each other. Like you could literally just have your own little mini jam session on the boat. That was so cool. That's really cool. Yeah. And these people were good. I was just like, I'm just passing through. And I kind of want to sit and listen to you. Random stranger. Sure you didn't want to get on that base. Show him some stuff. I did pick up a base. I just just to do it. When nobody was around because my skills are wack. That was all the non music events I attended. There were still more shows to be seen. I don't know about you guys. My first show of the day was 68 on the deck. Mars was two. Yes. Yeah. And they did not disappoint. They were amazing. I think we kind of talked about them prior. But like their setup was, you know, they're very quaint. And they're very like real necks, like real close to each other. Real close quarters. And they have the guy with his kick pedal, like basically facing the drummer. And the drummer's got a really small drum set. It's maybe like a four piece. It was a five piece. I counted it. It was five piece. And I mean, their chemistry together is fucking amazing. Like they literally, like the drummer watches the guitarist and like he'll play his beats based on what he sees the guitarist do. And like it was, it was incredible. Like watching them feed off each other and play with each other. It was, it was awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The funny thing for me watching this being the second set that I saw there is, you know, they come out and they have like suits on. And the first, the first time they played, they kept the suits on longer than, than this deck set at 2 p.m. Right. Being rather hot on stage. And so they're, you know, going pretty hard. They go, you know, 100 miles an hour when they start playing and they don't slow down. And the drummer was quickly taking off as much of the suit as he could. We mentioned it before, but these guys are so fascinating because it's really, it was really performance art style. So like pretty early in the set, Josh breaks his, his, his smallest string. Yeah. And he doesn't really care. He just goes, he's like, listen, I just broke this string. I'm not going to replace it. If it sounds out of tune to you, you're wrong. And he keeps playing. Yeah. Great moment. Yeah. It was fun. And so like I heard somebody mentioned that he had said previously that they wanted to play a whole different set. An entirely different set than their one a few couple days earlier. But the problem was he doesn't write down their sets in advance. So he forgot what he played. I wasn't sure if he was playing the same things or not. I looked it up later because somebody did put it all on set list. And it was like 90% different. So I mean, mission accomplished pretty much. Probably the only band on the boat that had that different of a set. Yeah. Probably. Yeah. And so I think it was a great thing. I think it was a great thing. I think that these guys are like one album away from like a spotless set list. It's a very strong set list already. It's a good one. It would have been cool. It would have been cool to get that debut. But I'm glad that that song is out there. Go check it out if you get a chance. Yeah. Yeah. I wish that they would have played I wish that they would have played at least a different cover for each set. at least a different cover for each set. And the only happy one at rains would have been awesome. But maybe they have been having practice that one enough. Who knows. Maybe. Or did someone someone rep in it before they were able to actually or did someone before they were able to actually release it. Also while we're on this topic, as Casey mentioned, the drumstick got me thinking. Low lives is the band that we got the most stuff from. Yes. Because I'm pretty sure I got a set list for one from the first, I think from the first show. And then on Friday, on Friday, they, a number of bands were doing this. The pretty wild mention that they had hidden vinyl throughout the ship. I have no idea. I would love to see if you, oh listen to this and you found one. Tell me where you found it. I'm very curious. On Friday, low lives, a drop of a drop, a signed and you know, drew some stuff on a drum head. And posted on their social media, hey, we left this out for somebody to find. There's a big clue as to where it is. By the way, the big clue was just an enormous photo of exactly where it was in full context where if you, it was impossible not to know exactly where it was. It was just, was in the lounge. And. Yeah. Isn't like a back corner though. Again. So. Yeah. So my thinking is, man, I want that. But also, I want to give other people a chance. We have had so much like low lives time on this boat. So we left it there for that post was up for an hour or two. And at that point, I'm like, you know what? You all ahead your chance. I'm going to go look if it's there. It's mine. And it was. And so. Nice. We got some cool souvenirs. Yeah. And we told them about it. And we told them that story is like, I felt kind of bad because I feel like I should share the low lives wealth. And they're like, no, we're happy that you got it. So. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. Just watching, watching the lives. And, you know, we've been championing them pretty hard since we had the first conversation. And so to get to hang out with them as much as we did. Really meant a lot to us. And I think it really meant a lot to them as well. So. Yeah. So as I stated, I was not at low lives. We were trying to make sure we got a good spot for sleep there because we weren't able to see them in the theater. And I sleep theories. One of the bands I was really excited about seeing. We were lucky enough to have Colin and Paulo on the show. The first time that they were on shift rock, I really had extensive like our, I think it was our long conversation with the drummer and the guitarist Dan and Ben. And like they're really, really, the whole entire band is really cool guys are really down to earth. Yeah. And so I wanted to make sure that I got to see this, especially since I was, I was talking with Dan earlier that week. And, you know, they had just released this new album this past year or so. And I loved the album. And one of the things I loved about it was his voice. Like he's the screamer. He's the, the harsh vocalist in the band. And one of the reasons why I loved it so much is because Colin and Paulo have these beautiful harmonic voices. And just throwing that, that harsh screaming in the, that Dan does very well, I might add, just really gives it that, that grit that another element that a lot of bands that don't have. And so seeing that live is incredible because he pulls it off very well. You know, he doesn't even seem like he's straining to scream very hard at all. Like it's, it's very, it's just awesome. And then, you know, like I said, and Colin and Paulo, they always sound amazing live. So if you love sleep theory, I definitely recommend seeing them live. And the other thing too, I noticed what, because like our view where we have like, I have the greatest view on the drummer. And, and Ben, he's hilarious because last sleep theory songs, they go pretty hard, but he always just looks bored back there. Like he no matter how hard he can be drumming his ass off and just look like, uh, like, uh, just going through the motions. Yeah, but it just, I think it just like, it's, because it looks so easy, like it for him. Like he's not really, he doesn't have to try hard. So there are a lot of fun to watch. And I'm, I, every time I get to see them, it makes me more excited in the last because they just continue on this upward trajectory. They continue releasing amazing music. So, um, nothing but positive things towards that band. Yeah. And they keep landing epic tours with a lot of people. Yeah, agreed. Yeah, they got great management. That's for sure. But we did have to, we did have to leave that set early though. I will say that like I was the one disappointing part is we didn't get to see all of it because we had to make sure that we were down in front of the stage for our friends and Aurora wave at the oceans pleasant. Yes. So, you know, after we saw low lives and then Aurora wave was sound checking and getting set up. So I think Aaron might have done a few other things for a minute, but I kind of hang back and just kind of chatted with the Aurora wave crew as they were getting stuff going. I, you know, try to stay out of the way and let them do their thing, but it was, it was good having conversations with all of them. And they were, they were just so appreciative of the whole week. So the fact that it was wrapping up, they were just kind of blown away by the whole experience. So it was just really cool to be a part of it. I think that was when we got to have a nice little chat with with Sam. Yes. I believe. I also got to have a really good talk right before the Aurora wave set with John Ross, who was part of Rubik's groove, the cover band that was on the boat last year. He and his wife came back this year. And they just had such a great time and they we had multiple conversations throughout this cruise and they're just such nice people. I was, I was big fans of them like we enjoyed what they did and they brought something really unique to the boat last year. And you know, if they can get back on at some point, I don't know what the context would be, but they would, they'd be great again. Yeah, I'm glad you brought, brought John up because it was awesome when he saw us in the cafeteria like the day before that. And just wanted to reintroduce himself and it was like, I remember we sat across each other on the ferry, you know, going to, going to Ireland. You remember us for that and because we had very positive things to say about them last year and that really seemed to mean a lot to that whole group. Yeah, it did. Yeah, that's what I remember. Like when you said that like, oh, he enjoyed our episode last year, I was like, wait, what he listens like what? Yeah, yeah. And that blew me away like we had a lot more people this year than any year in prior history, like reaching out and saying that they were listening to the show. It was, it was so awesome, so incredible. Just walking past people and like, the inch like what? Like it happened like three or four times. It was usually Taylor Carroll, but you know. Yeah, that's true. Stop Taylor, we know. Sorry, anyway, it was fun getting recognized by wearing the logo on the t-shirt and then and then not only not only that, but then to have people say that we do that we do good work. And then we had a similar conversation with Brandon from Crowbot and he, he like remembered specific parts of the interview and was like, you know, we do a lot of interviews and sometimes they're not always good. That was amazing. You remember the name of one of the bands that we told him to check out. Yeah, like a year and a half later. Like 30 minutes on zoom, like that's crazy that you remember that. It was just incredible feeling the support from everyone and I truly appreciate it. And I, even without alcohol, I was talking to people a lot more, just trying to be a little bit more present. Yeah, and leading up to a role wave, taking the stage, I got a chance to have a chat with Brandon Salar and his wife for a minute. Oh, nice. He was there, you know, preparing to do the first song with him. And so it was nice to have a moment with Brandon as well. So I want to set the mood real quick because avatars in the theater, Shepard's reign is in the limelight lounge, which mind you is under us. Okay. Yeah. The floor under us. And then a raw wave is an ocean's plaza. And I don't know about these other places. Like, I don't know how busy the theater was. I'm sure it was packed. It always was. The limelight lounge. I'm sure that was packed too. It always was as well. I know oceans, plaza was, was full. Where we stood. I couldn't see anything granted. I was in the middle of everything, but I couldn't see anything but people from like the left side to the right side of the whole room. Yes, it was pretty incredible. Yeah. And the one thing that I really enjoyed just just being a part of that was hearing the crowd sing a lot of the lyrics. If not great, like all of them. Yeah, it was like a headliner set. It was so incredible to be a part of that. And like, you know, you're you're singing like the whole crowd is singing Nathan's just blown away and like, you know, getting into it and like having, you know, the crowd sing a lot more because he's recognizing that we all know the fucking lyrics. It was so awesome. And then to start to set off like you said, you know, Brandon Salar was there to do and for no he comes out. That sets the mood and like, everybody is just as fucking ready. Like that we're all just ready. And to get to to Aurora's credit, they knew the assignment when they are on the beach. They played a little bit more of their reggae, their reggae songs. When they were in the oceans plaza and they start off with Brandon Salar, they were ready to bring the metal. And they did. Yeah. It was a fantastic set. And yeah, the crowd was fully there for it. You could just tell they had. They had a lot of people that were curious about them before the cruising started. And I think after that beach set, they definitely won over even more people. So it was like, oh, well, now they're on our must see list. We got to go check this out. So. Well, what happens a lot on shiprock does that people talk, you know, you go to the days dinners, you go to the buffets, they're talking with strangers. One of the first things that you say is like, what's your favorite band you've seen so far? And like so work mouth gets around when you when you enjoy a set like the beach set two days prior. Yeah, that's going to get out and people are going to show up for that next set. And that's another reason why I absolutely love that. Especially for these smaller bands that they do get two sets. So that way if you maybe miss their first set, you can still try to make it to their second one. Yeah. And Aurora wave killed it like it was it was so cool. Singing all the lyrics with all the people was definitely like a headlining set for them. Yeah, we pretty much touched based on motionless and white. We saw a little bit of their songs that, you know, we didn't say for the entirety of their set. We did go see the pretty wild late at night, started midnight at the theater. And I am not going to lie. I felt a little bit. Dan, Dan cannot help it. He's got a fall asleep at least during one set randomly. And it's got to be one of the heaviest bands on the boat. You were you were worn out at this at this point. I was. I tried. I was trying so hard. Which by the by I mean, you mentioned one of the heavier bands in the boat. Pretty wild opens their set with a song called paradox, I think. Jill literally walks onto the stage screaming to start the song. That is how their set begins. And Dan was still like, you know what though. I was the only one Hannah was snoozing right next to me. Okay. That's great. I definitely so. Longer, but I fell asleep last year in the theater to abandon. So I get it. But I felt like two. Yeah. Same here. These guys were not boring though. In fact, I liked this set more than I liked their deck set. I feel like they were having more fun playing and talking with the crowd because at this point, they they specifically called out some people they had met throughout the week. And I thought that was really neat. Like they were really building those relationships. Yeah. It was it was a cool set. I mean, Jules couple of times in that set. Because I was like, not quite on the barrier, like at the beginning, but like second row or whatever. I'm pretty sure she looked right through my soul a couple of different times during that. That's kind of what they do. And so that was that was a horrifying experience. Like I said, they kind of juxtaposed this like scary demon doll thing with like actually being nice playful people. Yeah, they figured out exactly where they're going to go with that. But it was a cool set, especially for being at midnight. It kept my attention enough. And throughout their set, they they were just so appreciative of this full experience. And actually I saw on social media a couple days ago as of this recording that they're like, man, I miss I miss screaming in the in the ocean or something like that. Yeah, they definitely had a lot of fun and from what I tried to stay away for it was great. Yeah, we got a lot of good sleep. I did anyway going into Friday. And again, got to sleep in late. And the first thing that Casey and I did was hit up the hailstorm meet and greet because hailstorm was doing a thing this year because we were docked for they called it ship docked. They were not on the boat per se, but on Friday, they me andered on to the boat for a set. And then RJ and someone we would meet that made this a great experience stayed for chemical fire and into Saturday and and completely the rest of the journey with us. So yeah, it was very wild how that whole situation happened. It's definitely not been done like that since I've been going on the boat. Looking at the amount of crew and the amount equipment they brought on, I can definitely understand why they weren't able to stay on the boat for very long. You got to what you have to get off the boat. So much. Like at this piano off the off the boat. Yeah, it was like a crew of like eight to 10 people. They had all kinds of boxes way more than star set. 17. Yeah, way more than the 17 star set brought for sure. The hailstorm was listed as like the headliners of the boat, which is crazy because they were only on the boat for like five hours. It was cool though. What my favorite part about this was that so we were in NASA that day and I didn't get off the boat in NASA. There's from what we researched there really wasn't that much reasons to get off the boat. But we were in a dock with four other, you know, three other cruise lines, one of them being the 70,000 tons of metal crews, which was two boats over from us. And then there was like a Norwegian in between the two boats. One of these things is not like the others have to people on the Norwegian are taking videos of them watching hailstorm and stuff on our boat. It was hilarious. Yeah. So Casey and I did the meet and greet for hailstorm, which was much bigger longer line and much bigger space than the other bands that had solo once. But we thought it was a cool opportunity to, you know, say hi to those guys. So this, this day, like right, right before this mama hail was sending us messages on Instagram. And so it was just kind of, it was just kind of funny that she, she was liking certain posts that we had made. And then she commented on one and we're like, hey, we get this, we get to see your kids today. She's like, give them a hug for me. So that was the first thing I did when I, when I walked up and saw him is like, hey, these hugs are from Mama hail or Mama stormer. And they all had a laugh about that. Lizzie appreciated that. And then we were like, oh, yeah, we will see you guys on the decade, like for whatever. And then RJ were like, yeah, we'll see you later tonight. I don't know, like seven or whatever. And from like, from like behind us, we hear seven thirty. And we look over. And there's RJ's lovely wife Emily, who we have heard about. If you listen to our conversations with him. And so we got to meet her for the first time, which was also really sweet. And she was a complete sweetheart. And he's a very doding husband. I respect that a lot for him. So. Yeah. Yeah. It was awesome getting to chat with everybody. Yeah. I was going to ask you, were you guys at the set? Yes. We did go to their set. And it was probably the most packed deck set that I saw or at least recall my angle. Yeah, I agree. It was definitely so many people there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, everybody that has been on ship rock for a long time. And, you know, I think because a lot of demographics were like 30 to 40 and plus. And so I think the hailstorm was definitely the band that a lot of people were there to see. Yeah. And I mean, rightfully so and it made sense for them to be like I really wish that they weren't shipped docked so to speak because I think it would have been made made sense for them to play later that evening. But as you know, the future would hold that wouldn't work out anyway. So. Right. It all lined up how it was supposed to. But yeah, because there were there were a ton of people out on that deck. There was so many people. And like there wasn't like there were some people that weren't even like watching because you couldn't even see it. They were just sitting there hanging out and listening because that's pretty much what you can do at that point. But he also knew the assignment. They played a great set. I will say that. I was a little disappointed because it was fairly the same set that I had just seen them play back in September or whenever the house on. Yeah, it was very Everest heavy. Yes, exactly. And so like, you know, the new albums great, but I would have preferred more of like a greatest hits type of set list as opposed to half Everest, half greatest hits. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, a couple songs that for Everest wouldn't have been bad, but like they literally played like half the fucking album. And this is usual for me with Halestorm Arges, my favorite part. I was running around like getting different vantage points during this set. And one of my favorite little little sites, I think of this whole day was watching Brandon from Krobat with his young child watching RJ drum from like backstage. I was I thought that was really neat. And then you guys can confirm because I know this is a bit that he does with the big the big drumsticks, right? The big solo in the big drumsticks, the big sticks, but during this one, I don't know if this is how it always goes, if this is just ship rocked, he's like, all right, guys, can we get a mosh pit going? Yeah, yeah, yeah, even though there's been some pits on this boat. Nobody really moves. Is that can we get a pic going to go, okay, plan B. Can everybody bounce up and down and everybody bounced? Yeah, yeah, as you guys having seen this band more than I have him seen this bit. Does it always go like that? Or was this a normally they mosh, but they weren't because of the boat? Yeah, I mean, I don't I don't think there's tons of pits at Hellstorm that I've been a part of, but they're not that pretty of a man in my opinion. So right. And but I think I think he was just kind of I don't know. When you're an artist, you try to make the crowd do something, but at the same time, there was so many people on the deck. I don't think you could have done a mosh pit. Yeah, I definitely think that was part of it was that there was not enough room for a mosh pit for one. There's a little tiny holder shake mosh pit just. And the other thing is like that was like the talk of the town for three or four days since the first not loose set. And you know, I think people were kind of like scared like, I don't know. I know it was really the rumor going around was that it was only allowed during not loose like so other artists like kind of were almost condemning it or at least trying to stray people away from from mosh pitting. And so like when he said that it was a very funny reaction because like everybody just kind of looked around was like, uh, no. Plan B. Yeah. The other funny thing about this set was about halfway through it. It kind of started to rain a little bit. So that was a precursor. The precursor of the night to come. Yeah, thankfully they were able to finish. Yeah, the hill storm. The hill storm you get taken out by the tropical storm. Yes. We want to just go right into that to the band that did play in the rain. I can I can backtrack to some other stuff later because I'm interested in this. Yeah. Yeah. Friday was a unique day because there were three bands that only had a single set. And he also was the first barbarians was the second and we'll get into the third in a minute. Yeah. But these guys played their whole set on the deck in the rain. And I had a blast. It was hardcore. You're out there bouncing around dancing, getting wet. It was cool. Bruno was being weird again. It's just now he was being weird to have your music. Yes. He was wearing a Michael Bolton t-shirt. I destroyed Sully's guitar. Sully would jump up on stage at random shows with his little blow up air like blow up guitar. And he would just pretend to jam out. And then he would just pretend to jam out. Yeah. What was fun with Rob being on this cruise and, you know, Amanda being a stowaway and Rob just kind of being there to support her. And to, you know, be a part of it was we ran into Rob quite a bit. And it was just enjoyable to have more moments with Rob. And so I just want to take a moment to appreciate those. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. We weren't able to see the entirety of the Barbians California set because I wanted to make sure that we got a good spot for chemical fire at the Ocean's Plaza. So we did end up believing a little bit early and high-tailing it down so I could be front and center. Because Ocean's Plaza is one of those places if you're not standing up, you're probably not going to see. Right. And then the other thing I wanted to mention is like this was also, I mean granted, it's not a, it wasn't a really hard decision for us because of the show and the amount of like time that chemical fire has given us on the show. So this was an easy decision. However, dead poets society against chemical fire was not fair. That's not, that was not kind of them to do. I would have loved to be able to go see dead poets society, but you put them up against chemical fire. And I had the choice was made. It's like the matrix like the choice was already made. Right. Yeah, I had to, it got worse because a couple songs into chemical fire set and alert comes out on the Shiprock app that says Aurora Wave is going to be shooting a music video in the atrium in like 30 minutes. So like come down if you want to be part of it. So I'm like crap, the only chemical fire set. But how am I going to not go be part of a music video? Now it wasn't like a full on music video like three minute thing. It was, it was like a minute long clip and ended up being what I did it anyway. I was like, I texted these guys and they stayed and I was like, sorry, I'm going. Went out to participate in that it was a, it was a quick video for kindness. But there was so many people that atrium was packed on a impromptu video shoot. So who knows to the shiprockers for showing up who does to Aurora Wave for taking that initiative and for the boat for letting them do it. You can find that video on their socials. They've posted it a number of times, I believe. And I'm not going to say you can see me because you barely can. I can, but I'm in there. Yeah, I can see you can see my blue bandana for a split second as I'm waving it around. If you found me, you need to send me the screenshot because I don't think I saw my face in there at any point. But it was still a really cool video. And so, and made it back in time for the last few songs in chemical fire set. The whole thing was only like a 15 minute process. So, yeah. Best of both worlds. I felt so so fortunate on that one. Yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing chemical fire. I mean, you know, they both have so much energy. I will say that the second time around, like some of their stuff is, is a little, I mean, it's expected. But it's kind of gimmicky. Like the switching of the guitar and stuff. Like, you know, it's funny. If you haven't seen them, I think it's hilarious. But like, you know, I think this is like a second time seeing them. So it was just, yeah, I was kind of expected. And I was like, oh, no. Is Taylor can't play drums. No way. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He only plays guitar. But there's such phenomenal musicians. I honestly wish there were more songs that they switched and Taylor played drums and RJ with a guitar. But Taylor's such a great frontman. Like, he, you know, he just gets the assignment. He understands like trying to draw the crowd in. And it was just, it was an incredible set. Well, and like a lot of the two piece bands that were on this boat, you know, they do a phenomenal job of filling the sound. But like, RJ's phenomenal what he does with Hairstorm, but it's a completely different type of experience when he plays with Taylor. Yeah. Because he's singing a lot more. I loved his background vocals for chemical fire songs. And just they have so much energy together that it just works. And it's wild to watch. But it's so entertaining. And then, you know, having DM Ate come out, come out and do grave is always it's, it's a tempo switch because it's one of their softer songs in the set. But they, they're so good at what they do on that song. Now, since you guys did see the whole set, curious to your recollection. Now, I know we're dealing with almost three years ago. So to your recollection, did it seem like more or less the same set as we saw in Nashville? Did you see him learn anyway? Yeah. Yeah. I believe they played one song that I had not heard. Like there was one new new song. The reason I ask is because chemical fire is only released like four songs. So like most of what you hear when you see them live, you will only be hearing it live for now. Right. I still maintain, I said this before and if Taylor or Jay listens, that Academy is the song that they should release next and that will do quite well on the radio on acting and whatnot. Agreed. Put that out there as a prediction. Yes. So, you know, chemical fire ends their set and get to kind of congratulate them. I got to congratulate them before they went on stage. Got to congratulate them after they were done. And then we got to chat with RJ and RJ is such a just like Taylor. He was so appreciative of us just being there. And so it was, it was awesome hearing him say that you go ahead. He announced it's the whole room after the set. The itches in the house. Yeah. Yeah. But in many contexts is not something you want to hear. Right. In this case. But yeah, we got to get to take a picture with RJ and then we had had Emily in the picture as well. So yeah, it was just awesome. She was surprised that we wanted her in the picture. She's like, what, oh, I never get to be in the picture. I'm always the one taking the pictures. Yeah, you're getting in this one. We have it. It was funny. It was really cool. Well, it was really funny too. Because I told you guys like before that experience, like she kept coming up on my friend's Facebook, like suggestions. Like, this is a friend you might like. Like, I don't know that person. I don't want to not going to send her a friend request. Now I have a reason. Right. Yeah. Now you might know how he did. I did not. Yeah. It's just funny because it was it's one of those things like the suggestions are like, you may know this person. Like, I don't think I do. She's, she's where RJ is incredibly extroverted. She's a little more the opposite. She's a little quieter and more introverted, but also still very approachable and very kind and nice to talk to. So it's they work well together in public as well. So you're going to have the yin yin yin for sure. Right. And that's that's the one thing that that I noticed, you know, even leading up to the the meet and greet thing like right before you get there. The first thing you hear is RJ's voice. And then the last thing you hear is RJ's voice. So it's funny though, because if you think about it like DM on Taylor or kind of like that too, like he's he's high energy. She's just yeah. Cool as a cucumber all the time, like it's just just very like smooth talking just very laid back. It's so funny because they're just like the yin yin yin and we said like yeah, yeah, I won't I won't spend too much time on this. But I kind of just want to mention as a cameo one more quick game thing that we saw was guest the groove where idea and Taylor were co kind of hosting with cookie, which indeed was another opportunity or another time when she was cool as a cucumber. Because the the riff the idea of it is that I think cookie had a team and then they had a team. Yes, yes, people just random ship rockers and it was you know they play a little bit of a song and you have to name it and whatever. At some point cookie basically challenged her the amante and he was like you're you're not going to get this one. And he plays like I know exactly what that is. Knocked it out the park like saying a whole verse of the dang thing. No problem. Yeah. And he wins at these things. Yeah, because cookie was mad because she beat him the year prior. So he wanted to rematch. So she beat him again and he was like, what did you learn? Not going to be a demon day. So as we're leaving chemical fire after talking with RJ, you know, we're walking through what's kind of like the casino area back towards the stage because as far as we knew the next set was this was the still ways of the next stage. And we're walking that way and I'm like, hey, there goes half of Hollywood and dead. There was Brandon Salar. There was Brandon Yagley. Like where the hell is everyone going? Like, that's pulling off. And so like I then like get the app and then like the stowaways sets canceled because the rain or something I'm like, what it's raining and sure enough, I got it's pouring down rain outside. Yeah. Well, that gets that makes sense that they canceled it. But they put out this like weird ominous alert and they're like, the stowaways may be canceled, but we're going to come up. We're coming up with something quick. And I was like, well, they're going to, they're obviously going to have people down at the oceans plaza because it's where everybody was just headed. Like right. I saw I saw stage manager for a friend of the show, Hi, um, was was organizing some things and they were they were taking some gear down the elevators. And so she was coordinating that and it was I in hindsight, I kind of wish I would have gone that way. And so in my head, I was like, it's going to be so packed and I don't want to be stuck. I don't want to be stuck there. So I chose not to participate in that at the oceans plaza. Yeah. Yeah. So basically what ended up happening is they sent an alert saying that the stowaways said they're going to try to do what they can and have it at oceans plaza. And as I heard that, I was just like, no, I'm good. Way too many people at oceans plaza. And so yeah, we pretty much made our way to the next artist. I didn't see any of it either. Well, before we go into that, I do need to mention an interact pair of interactions. I have we previously talked about how much how so protection was amazing. You guys, I have to admit, I did break a faux pas on this boat. I broke one of the cardinal rule, kind of a double rule. One of the sort of unwritten rules of of ship rock is you generally leave people alone while they're eating. A general rule of life is you leave people alone while they're wearing headphones. I go ahead and I just wanted to add to that. I think that after seeing so many ship rock, I do think that like we should add to that rule that if an artist is watching another artist. And the artist on stage is playing music. Don't interrupt it. That's right. That happened. That was so fucking rude people are sitting there trying to enjoy like the set list or wherever they're there to enjoy. Yeah. And people are like, hey, I love you. Sign my shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Seeing that happens so many times drove me nuts. Yeah. And like don't give it wrong. Like artists are going to, you know, they're going to still do it. But at the same time, right? Let them watch that band that they're there to see. Right. The lesson that I learned from this experience was that if there are people you know you're going to want to say hi to at some point. Try to do it early on because the reason I ended up breaking this rule is because it was Friday and I knew that the clock was ticking. And House of Protection is a band that we have been wanting to get on the show for two years and they've been very difficult to get a hold of. So I see Eric in the cafeteria by himself eating with headphones. Normally 100% leaving that guy alone. This time I just had to. I was like, this is probably my only chance to talk to him. I have no idea if I'll ever in any context find an opportunity to talk to him again. I'm going to do it. I'm going to lead with an apology because I know this is bad form. And so I did. And he was perfectly fine with it and perfectly happy to sit and talk for a minute. And because it was just him by himself and me by myself, we actually got to have a nice little conversation for a few minutes, which was really cool. A little bit was business because I did kind of ask him about you know what's the best way to go about trying to get you guys on the show. And so he told me some stuff about that. But one thing that was fun that came up was he was like, where are you from? And I said, well, St. Louis, our show is based out of St. Louis. I'm from there originally. And he's like, oh, that's interesting. I was just watching a documentary about St. Louis last night. And it turns out he was watching a documentary about the man who created the city museum, one of St. Louis's coolest things. And I highly recommend checking that out if you're ever in town. And he said it was recommended to him by Phil from story of the year, who we know, mostly as moon from the point and have talked about multiple times. So it was a weird little like kind of a small world thing. Yeah. Where he's like, yeah, just looking at this thing about your city recommended by a guy that is popular in your city. And so that was a neat interaction and worth worth the interruption. But Eric, I do apologize because I know it was bad form if you hear this. On the flip side, a few hours later, I got to have the most perfect interaction with Stephen from House of Protection. Wherein, I'm just on a gotten on an elevator. I don't even remember where I was going. And he walks in. It's just me. And he even walks into the elevator. And it's just us. And I'm like, well, definitely taking this opportunity. So I didn't pitch him anything or anything like that. But literally just in the brief amount of time going from, I don't know, floor 10 to 5 or 5 to 10 or some such. Got to express to him how much I appreciated their set and how special I think what they're doing is and the elevator door opens up. And I don't remember which of us left, but one of us got off. And that was the end of the conversation. And so that was perfect. I got to have like one of the most like, I wish I didn't have to do it this way conversations with one of the most. Here you go. Have this opportunity conversations with the same band. Yes. I had to tell how some protection how much I appreciate what they did on the ship because they're I just thought their sets were that good. Right. So mission accomplished again, lesson learned though. Try to do that stuff earlier instead of waiting till the last day. Yeah, I do agree with that too. And that's it goes with everything like taking pictures and stuff like that too. Like don't don't wait. Yeah, every time I'm like, Ah, shit, forgot to take pictures. The one picture that I regret not taking was one with lead Jennings of the funeral portrait when we saw him right before he went to the brunch. Which because we had the opportunity to do so, but I didn't want to bother him. And at that point, it was only like the second day. And I just assumed that we were running to him again, but we kind of didn't. Yeah, that was the one thing that I will say was definitely a bummer like there wasn't one particular area where all the artists were congregating. Like there was prior and the prior ship like last time you could go to the casino and there was always an artist there like almost always run into somebody. Yeah. I mean, grants that there were some people hanging out at the atrium bar on three, but I think mainly he actually noticed it. I remember it was just him, but yeah, it was definitely a different vibe this year because of that. Like you couldn't just go where the artist went. Yeah. Right. But speaking of continuity and how to finish off the ship. I mean, I was really excited because you know, the late night Friday night band is always going to be like a toss up. Like it really depends on if you're asked out or you need to maybe go pack and get ready to because they don't mess around on Saturday. They're waking your ass up and they want you off that fucking boat like eight o'clock in the morning or however the fuck early they can get you off. They want you off the damn boat. So they really don't screw around with that. So just if you're ever on any kind of cruise and whatever embarkation, you know, your debarcation day is plan on getting your ass up early in the morning because they're going to get you off that boat. Like you got to be out of the room, I think by eight o'clock. They're in the air. So they don't mess around either. They'll charge you money. They'll knock on your door. It's a fuck out. And so like it's wild too. Because like if you've got bags, you're waiting for them to be checked. You're just like you're just sitting around with a whole bunch of people. There's just people everywhere on the ship. No matter where you look, there's just people standing there with their bags. Like just waiting to be called off the ship. And it's wild. So usually the band before that that night, it has to be like a really good band to make sure that you want to go and stay for that whole damn set. Yeah. This was a band that was worth it. Which for us was the band gang. There were technically suicidal tendencies played started a set later than them. But we were our main event for the end of this was was gang and it was a great way to go out. So previously on the it's ship rock recaps, the vocalist from gang, loosely attempted to eat a bunch of pickles that were allegedly stolen and was arrested and taken off stage and locked away in ship rock jail after their previous set. Yes. I'll look you guys can take it from there. I just wanted to show me covered previous context. So this one was in the limelight lounge and and we're just like, OK, obviously he's going to be led in to the room by security. But is he going to like escape security or is he like how are they going to do this? And so Dan and I were sitting towards the back. And the first thing we see is security guards leading the lead singer of gang through the entrance in handcuffs. And so we were we started busted up laughing immediately and and then from there he was he was led to the stage and released on stage very dramatically. Yes. He would later inform us that he the terms of his release from ship rock jail or that he had to read a written apology for his actions, which he he did and then and then said that he apologized for nothing. And so. That he got a he needed a thousand signatures to be released and he got a thousand one. Yeah, a thousand of one signature to get out of ship. So he didn't even thousand pickles, but he got a fast and signature to be released from ship rock jail. This is the set. They're so fun. We talked about them in the previous episode. And so the set was more or less the same as the previous one. They only have like eight songs and that's totally fine. I have been listening to all of their songs, by the way, since then it's a 20 minute playlist. I don't even know how I don't even know how they stretched it to 30 or 40 or I like they definitely I don't know how they did it. Well, they have been I guess were a lot of it. The bits the bits of between songs really played a lot of it, but but what was awesome was, you know, we got to see the Aurora wave guys in there because they were all about it. I think I think gang in a rural wave really kind of became buddies quite a bit. So yeah. But but yeah, watching watching them perform the songs again was just as entertaining as the first time and then. I don't know how you want to. How do we write how do we explain how the show ended? Yeah. They have a song called kick flip. He has a very tiny skateboard. Yes. And when they play that song, he likes to attempt a kick flip on that tiny skateboard. You want me to keep going? Are you guys what do you guys want to take it? So Dan and I didn't get the greatest vantage point of this, but I do know because they do this. Well, they had that vantage point. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. But but if you watch if you watch some of gang's YouTube videos during some of the songs that he'll attempt a kick flip and usually trip and fall. This particular trip and fall. He eats it and then grabs his head and then the rest of the band is playing. And the bassist shuts it down after he after he doesn't get back up. He's like, guys, hold on, hold on, hold on. I think he's hurt. And so that was effectively the end of the set. So they brought the house lights up and then they bring him the gurney. They called for a medic. So they brought in a gurney loaded him up, wheeled him out of the lounge. And that was the end of gang set. Aside from the act of God thunderstorm on the bad flower set a couple years ago, it has to be the best ending to any sharp reset that I have seen. To which I believe you have an interaction with Nathan. Around that time. I mentioned it in the previous one, but yeah, after that Nathan was like Nathan was like, well, it's been a good run boys. Like this band is he loved their stick and I did too. Yeah, they were hilarious. They were great live like the you know, their songs were very catchy. They were very quick. It was it was pop punk rock basically. It was it was fucking awesome. Also quick congrats to gang for getting on warp to Orlando. Yeah, I know like we went last year to that and like as soon as they're announced I was like, damn it. Don't give me reason to go back. I'm hoping to see them again because they also have they're also doing support for a tour with Bill Murray. And so I'm neither here nor there on Bill Murray, but right this point, I will go see gang. Right. Agreed. So that was the way that ship rock ended. Literally was just this man gets wheeled out on the gurney and the whole crowd is just in shock. And that was that. My favorite was somebody somebody posted a quick video because they were sitting kind of where Dan and I were. And then they're like, why is it whenever I see gang they're always pulling some shit. And I just as he's getting wheeled away, which is also funny because as we as we mentioned and learned immediately afterwards, this was their third show ever supposedly. So even that line is kind of a joke because you can't see them many times doing anything. But I totally believe that they're pulling something every time you see them. And they're like, I'm just going to have a little bit of a chance to see the whole show. And then we're going to have a little bit of a couple of things that we're going to do. And then we're going to have a couple of things that we're going to do. And then I'll just go back to the point where you guys are going to have a couple of things that we're going to do. And then we're going to have a couple of other random people that we have a chance to kind of chat with. Ian from the UK. It's awesome to have people that have listened to the show for more than a few years across the pond. And then come to Shiprock and be able to see him, which I wish we had a chance to see a little bit more. Right. Yeah. So thank you to everyone that was there and makes Shiprock what it is. Yeah. It's an incredible and it's definitely incredible because of the people that have a factor in it. Yeah. Thank you very much for listening to all of this. We truly appreciate you making it through the end. We truly appreciate you listening. Thank you very much for listening to the Edge Podcast. My name is Dan. I'm Casey. And I'm Aaron. And until next time, Rock Hard, Vacation Harder. If you enjoyed what you heard in this episode, please subscribe and tell a friend about the itch. Check out the show notes for links about the episode as well as our new music playlist and where you can hear us every Sunday night. And you can interact with us at itchrocks.com or on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Gmail, all at itchrocks.itch. R-O-C-K-S. (upbeat music)