Last week, I put together a list of my Ten Favorite Jam Cruise 8 Sets, but that was only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. There were so many stellar moments – both musical and otherwise – that didn’t make that list. Each hour of every day, it seemed like I experienced something mind-blowing that just doesn’t happen in the real world or at typical music festivals.

So this week, I decided to put together a list of 75 Amazing Jam Cruise 8 Moments to show the breadth of this monumental vacation. Jam Cruise felt like the living version of one of those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books as it was impossible to catch everything that was going on, but I have no complaints with the decisions I made. The beautiful thing is that every cruiser’s list look far different from mine, so if you went on the cruise be sure to leave a few of your favorite moments as a comment after the list.

75. Going through the quick & painless embarkation procedure & walking onto the ship. I knew at that moment how amazing this adventure would be
74. Karl Denson adding some flair to Galactic’s Crazyhorse Mongoose during the New Orleans-based band’s Pool Deck set
73. Turning on Jam Cruise TV to catch the part of The Motet plays Talking Heads set I had missed the previous evening
72. Mikey of Higher Ground/Chocolate Thunder Security delivering a wonderful version of Bill Withers’ Use Me during Rock Star Karaoke
71. Catching Jam Room MVP Zach Deputy get crowned by The Joker
70. Looking at my watch to see the Jam Room had finally let up at 6:40AM
69. Sax wiz Jeff Coffin [Flecktones, Dave Matthews Band] dropping one nasty run of notes after another during his fantastic sit-in with OHMphrey
68. The first time I walked past the “Fucking Your Mom – Do Not Disturb” door sign. I still laughed the 17th time.
67. Chillin’ on a friend’s balcony watching the lights from Jamaica fade away
66. Most of the finest musicians on the boat gathering for a ridiculous Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin throwdown towards the end of George Porter Jr.’s Super Jam on the final full day of action

[All photos by Dave Vann]

65. Cloud 9′s Annabel singing the final song of Sexual Chocolate’s set
64. Watching my Cabin Steward dancing as hard as he could to KDTU
63. Trombone Shorty teasing Let’s Get It Started by the Black Eyed Peas during the Sail Away set

READ ON for my Top 62 Moments of Jam Cruise 8…

62. The Touch of Class crew coming up to win the Smiliest Award
61. Dancing to the Stash > Manteca > Tweezer from 10/31/98 on the Pool Deck as the sun came up
60. Sexual Chocolate busts out Christopher Cross’ Sailing
59. Talking Phish with Relix/Jambands.com’s Mike Greenhaus
58. Watching everyone on the Pool Deck dance as hard as possible to The Motet’s Burning Down The House Boat
57. Gumby strutting his stuff down the Red Carpet during the Costume Contest

56. The Kyle Hollingsworth Band’s cover of Kodachrome
55. Reading Dennis Cook’s Jam Cruise 8 review on JamBase
54. Finally realizing the Jets had beaten the Bengals to make the NFL playoffs about 24 hours after the game ended
53. Walking by four beautiful women in the hot tub and realizing their tops were nowhere to be found
52. The first time I realized I could wear my pajamas to shows and no one would care. In fact, it was encouraged.
51. Running into my buddy Prescott for the first time having not known he was on the boat. There were a few times this happened.
50. My first piece of MSC Pizza, realizing the food wouldn’t be terrible.
49. Will Bernard, Stanton Moore and John Medeski hooking up for a gorgeous round of improv in the Jam Room

48. Maceo Parker’s British manager reciting some Shakespeare during the sax legend’s set
47. DSO busting into Shakedown Street to open to open their theater set
46. Watching my bag come out of the baggage claim carousel first at EWR. That never happens! A perfect metaphor for the week I had.
45. Brock Butler completely changes the vibe in the Jam Room with a fun take on Kanye West’s We Don’t Care
44. The elevator rides were often fun, but my favorite elevator ride was stumbling into a group of kids laughing so hard at Neil’s Jam Cruise Manifesto
43. Sexual Chocolate does Soulfinger justice in the theater
42. Lotus dropping a few jams on Kids by MGMT into their intense late night set
41. Watching musicians of all shapes and sizes battling it out on the basketball court during the 3-on-3 competition
40. Enjoying all the Zebra costumes of those who dressed up for the unofficial Zebra theme night, especially when they were in the Zebra Bar
39. The big roar when the last group of people in Jamaica finally boarded the boat
38. The amazing feeling of being surrounded by like minded people who all came on the boat for the same reason I did
37. The Word’s instrumental hair-raising version of Sex Machine featuring Skerik
36. Watching Robert Walter get a huge kick out of Zach Deputy’s theatrics
35. Tim Carbone’s hair going wild during a typically high-energy version of Head during Railroad Earth’s Pool Deck set
34. Being served a sit-down dinner where if I didn’t like one thing they’d bring me something else
33. Hearing someone talk about Phish and Lost and knowing Neil from the Coventry Blog was just around the corner
32. Waking up on Day Two after a mind-blowing Day One and realizing I still had four full days ahead of me
31. Zappa Plays Zappa launches into one of my all-time favorite Zappa tunes, Muffin Man, for the fourth song in their theater set encore after already throwing down three other gems

30. Lying on a chaise lounge with a fruity drink in my hand watching Zach Deputy play the Solar Stage
29. Realizing harmonica legend Lee Oskar was on the boat when he added some harp to Dragon Smoke’s cover of Slippin’ Into Darkness
28. Kraz rips up The Beatles’ Get Back along with his Chapter Two unit
27. Running into three other guys dressed as Greatest American Hero on Super Heroes and Villains theme night
26. High-fiving one of my favorite musicians on the way to see another one of my favorite musicians play
25. One of the more audacious versions of Brick House ever during Rock Star Karaoke
24. Brock Butler wrangles the other musicians on stage in the Jam Room on the final night for a funky version of Paul Simon’s I Know What I Know – the fourth Graceland song of the weekend from Brock and co.
23. The first bite of my delicious free Ice Cream Sandwich from the Ice Cream Man as the sun beat down on me during Toubab Krewe’s set
22. Ivan Neville and most of The Motet drop a funky Boogie On in the Jam Room on Night One.
21. Kyle Hollingsworth and Keith Moseley singing Sometimes A River for about 15 people in the lobby of the ship for a Relix podcast.

20. Joel Cummins joins Kyle for a four-handed piano jam following #21
19. Cruise director Annabel’s face as the beauty of Nigel Hall’s voice brought tears to her eyes
18. Singing I’m On A Boat and meaning it during Pretty Light’s set
17. Wondering pretty quickly after their first song why I had never seen The Mother Hips before
16. Waking up the morning of the last full day of the cruise to find that my voice had returned after two days of having to whisper
15. Chatting about the best summer co-bill possibilities with Joel Cummins of Umphrey’s McGee over a tasty cup of Sorrel
14. Karl Denson + Jeff Coffin + Maceo Parker = Best Workshop Ever?

13. The Skerik, Kimock, George Porter Jr., Stanton Moore, Kraz, Mike D. supergroup forming in the Jam Room and delivering a nasty Voodoo Child
12. We’ll devote one spot on this list to the numerous times I’d strike up a conversation with someone I didn’t know and leave the table having made a life-long friend
11. Being the Flower Girl for Gumby’s wedding to Amy which was presided over by George Porter Jr.
10. OHMphrey busting out a beautiful version of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Lenny
9. Getting a huge cheer from the Awesome.town folks celebrating the end of my first Jam Cruise
8. Fuzz’s huge smile when making it to the end of an extremely successful final night in the Jam Room just a few hours before we all left the boat
7. Watching Zappa Plays Zappa’s soundcheck and seeing all the hard work they put into their performances.
6. Mikey of Higher Ground/Chocolate Thunder Security fame pops the question to his now fiancee towards the end of the Ryan Montbleau Band’s Pool Deck set on Day Two.
5. Catching my first-ever Fiddle Train as part of the Pickin’ Party when Tim Carbone, Laurence Scudder, Ellie Labar and two other fiddle players each took a one measure solo in succession.
4. Listening to The Motet slip from the slow Crosseyed and Painless intro into the galloping funk tempo just before the first verse.

3. Watching my longtime friend Laurence from the Ryan Montbleau band play a gorgeous set of amazing music (cello and viola) with Trevor Exter from Kimock’s band
2. Tearing up during Brock Butler’s performance of It Starts Where It Ends at about 7:30 in the morning as we pulled into Grand Cayman
1. Hearing the MSC Poesia’s horns blast and feeling the boat pull away from the port as Trombone Shorty took the stage for the Sail Away Party

Scott Bernstein

Scott Bernstein co-founded Hidden Track in October 2006 and was managing editor until taking over as EiC in January 2008. Scotty also writes for Relix Magazine and curates YEMblog.com.

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