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REVIEW: SHIPROCKED 2012 DAY 4 – 11/30/2012
Gweedo
The fourth and final day of ShipRocked was spent at open sea. What lay ahead was a day of sun, drinking, meeting, greeting, and rocking. The day started out with a quick breakfast before people hopped right in line for an 11am Meet & Greet. This Meet & Greet consisted of Godsmack, P.O.D., Lit, Helmet, Geoff Tate, and Gilby Clarke. Sully Erna of Godsmack was still looking a little ill, but fans were very excited that he showed up. Most of the bands were happy to meet their fans for the photo op. Concurrently throughout the ship, the morning brought a 10am show with Tory Stoffregen and Java Monster drinks along with Ben Moody hosting a yoga session. At the time of the Meet & Greet, there was Noodle Jousting, Mini-Golf with Pop Evil, and Beer Pong Finals.
Gweedo
The fourth and final day of ShipRocked was spent at open sea. What lay ahead was a day of sun, drinking, meeting, greeting, and rocking. The day started out with a quick breakfast before people hopped right in line for an 11am Meet & Greet. This Meet & Greet consisted of Godsmack, P.O.D., Lit, Helmet, Geoff Tate, and Gilby Clarke. Sully Erna of Godsmack was still looking a little ill, but fans were very excited that he showed up. Most of the bands were happy to meet their fans for the photo op. Concurrently throughout the ship, the morning brought a 10am show with Tory Stoffregen and Java Monster drinks along with Ben Moody hosting a yoga session. At the time of the Meet & Greet, there was Noodle Jousting, Mini-Golf with Pop Evil, and Beer Pong Finals.
 |  Filter |
Richard Patrick of Filter
The Letter Black was supposed to play the Monster Energy Deck Stage at noon but kindly moved to the Pigalle Lounge later in the day to accommodate the schedule change of Filter playing the night before. Due to the late night storm, Filter took the stage in the middle of the Meet & Greet. I was able to catch them right around the middle of the show, and as always, it was excellent. They were very lively, and it was a nice sunny day. Lead singer Richard Patrick snagged a patrons straw fedora and tried to crowd surf. Towards the end of the crowd, he opted for just being carried around. At that point, he got down and took advantage of his wireless microphone – travelling around the boat and greeting people on the upper rim before continuing on out of sight to let people know there was a Filter concert going on. It was very fun to witness. Eventually, Patrick made it back to the stage to continue on with the show. Like most bands on this stage, Filter was not immune to technical difficulties. Bassist Phil Buckman had his guitar stop playing. Getting pissed, he ended up throwing it and grabbing a different one. I was unsure of the actual cause and fix of the problem, but it was eventually solved. Entertaining shows like this makes me glad when they invite a band back for another year.
 Richard Patrick of Filter |  Jonathan Radtke of Filter |
The next Meet & Greet was approaching at 2:30pm. I skipped the Wet T-Shirt Flip Cup and the Q&A with Matt Pinfield to watch the end of Filter and get my place in line for the Meet & Greet. I was very disappointed to miss the Q&A because a great part of the boat is interacting with the band members and hearing their candid responses. The last Meet & Greet for the trip had Korn, Sevendust, Pop Evil, Fuel, and The Halo Method. Most of these bands were great. Sevendust was very appreciative of the fans coming through the line. Fuel was very nice and awesome to briefly chat with. Pop Evil were a humorous bunch of guys. They went into different poses and interacted with people during the photos. Unfortunately, Jonathan Davis of Korn was ill and unable to show up. Drummer Ray Luzier was great but guitarists James “Munky” Shaffer and Reginal “Fieldy” Arvizu seemed kind of over the whole thing and ready to head home.
Due to the Meet & Greet and needing to grab something to eat, I missed Helmet and Geoff Tate playing their sets on the Monster Energy Stage and Team Pictionary. After refueling, we caught Fuel putting on an amazing 5pm show on the Monster Energy Deck Stage. Singer and guitarist Brett Scallions is extremely talented and has an excellent band behind him. They played all their hits and had a great crowd to support them. I’ve never been disappointed at a Fuel show. From what I can remember, I don’t recall any technical problems, which is a huge surprise with this stage. At the end of Fuel and stretching into the next show was the Charity Auction selling a lot of signed items and some various other things, like tickets for next year.
 Ken Schalk of Fuel |  Andy Andersson & Brett Scallions |
John Connolly of Sevendust
The next period of rock was brought to you by Sevendust in the Carlo Felice. There was a big turn out for them; they sounded great in the theater and rocked even harder. Drummer Morgan Rose was further recovered from his illness at the beginning of the cruise and was pounding it out hard. Towards the end of the show, a young man was pulled on stage to shred Clint Lowery’s guitar for a song. I’m not sure what that was about, but it was pretty interesting. Singer Lajon Witherspoon invited some of the ShipRocked kids onto the stage to rock out behind Morgan. It was another awesome time, and Witherspoon just connects so well with the audience. He makes it feel like we are all family and appreciates everything that people do for the band that allows them to continue to do what they love. Like with prior shows here, it sounds great, but there is no room to cut loose and get crazy. All the seating is in the way, but people up front tried their best to push each other around.
 Sevendust |  Sevendust |
P.O.D.
After Sevendust, everyone was cleared out to set up for P.O.D. and walked into the middle of The Halo Method’s last show at the Zebra Lounge. For the venue, they were sounding good. If you’ve read the previous days reviews, you are fully aware of my distaste for this stage. With an hour changeover, we were back into the thick of it with P.O.D. now manning the Carlo Felice. This being my second time seeing P.O.D., I was still impressed. There is so much positive energy up there, and it is just great. Their show went off without a hitch. Lajon Witherspoon even stuck around to watch these guys. Overlapping this show was 10 Years in the Zebra Lounge, so I was unable to see them again.
 Sonny Sandoval of P.O.D. |  Marcos Curiel of P.O.D. |
I ducked out of P.O.D. a little early to grab a spot for Korn on the Monster Energy Deck Stage, who started at 10:15pm. This was a great climax to the last evening of the trip. Korn had more energy than their first performance, which rocked since the first performance wasn’t bad at all. Despite Jonathan Davis being ill, he put on an amazing performance. You couldn’t tell he wasn’t at top health, so hats off to him for putting the fans first. The show was pretty much a carbon copy of their first one with a few of the new dub step songs and some of their greatest hits. I guess if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! These guys were a great addition to the boat and really put it over the edge to make it the best year thus far.
 James Shaffer of Korn |  Reginald Arvizu of Korn |
To wind the evening down (for some), Andy Wood played in the Zebra Lounge, and there was a second night of comedy in the Pigalle Lounge. I decided to go with comedy and watched Nery Saenz, Dave Smith, and Jay Oakerson. The comedians were funny but Jay Oakerson still took the cake. He had a whole new set for everyone. Jay poked fun at himself again and then dove into the audience to fill his set by picking on various people. I hope this continues in this future. This was also a theme night called Shiprockalypse that had a lot of people participating. You saw zombies and even Jesus walking through the boat. The finale was the late night deck party.
In closing, 2012 has been the best ShipRocked yet. The theme nights were creative, and there was a lot of effort put into giving the passengers plenty of activities for interacting with each other and band members. The lineup was killer this year, and the ports were fun, too. It would have been a little less stressful if there was an extra day so more time could have been spent at Key West, FL. Also, an extra day would have helped spread out all the shows and activities so you didn’t face so many difficult time conflicts. I skipped most of the new activities because I either wanted to meet a band or see them play. It was also hard to find times to get some food in. Overall, I’ll never miss a ShipRocked and highly recommend people give it a try.
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