Head Banging on the High Seas on the Monsters Of Rock Cruise (MORC)

After returning home from the Monsters of Rock Cruise (MoRC) on February 14^th, I had spent a solid four and a half days after work organizing my photos into a daily chronological order. I was able to post a photo gallery of my favorite shots from each day as a daily best of before leaving for another concert related trip. I wrote four pages of notes for this on the way to my first ever visit to Las Vegas to see my tenth Metallica show and wrote this review up through the cruise’s second day on my way back. For the fourth year in a row of my MoRC reviews, I say it was the funnest week ever and I already cannot wait for MoRC 2023!

Before saying anything about all the fun we had I must give thanks and props to the team behind the scenes for making this year’s cruise go on as planned after the cluster f*ck we experienced with Covid preventing us from sailing in 2021. As Covid re-surged in the weeks leading up to this year’s cruise I was in doubt it was even going to happen. Sure there were band cancellations in the weeks and days leading up to sailing but the MoRC team worked diligently to fill the holes and it turned out one of the very last bands (Nerd Halen) added to the mix put on what I thought was the stand out performance of the cruise for me!

An additional shout out goes to the other behind the scenes teams who work night and day so we cruisers can have a safe outing on board. Between the stage hands and the security team none of this would be possible without their efforts and this being my fourth credentialed time on this cruise I have gotten to know several people on these teams and want to make sure their efforts to keep the schedule on time and venue entry unchaotic are well known. Thank you everyone!

Sadly this year my cabin mate Ben, who I had met on my first MoRC in 2018, was not able to attend and I was in sort of a scramble to fill his slot in the cabin and help him recoup some of the costs involved. Thankfully my longtime friend Brian (B Man) was able to secure the necessary time off of work and for the third time in my four MoRC’s I would get to experience the wonder of this event from someone who had no idea what they were in for!

This was also the second year I was invited onto the photo experience team where I would be taking the meet and greet photos of the cruisers who wanted to get a photo of themselves with their favorite rockers. This year that also included volunteering working the door entry for the private pre-cruise sail away concert, checking in cruisers and directing them to the private area we had at the Magic City Casino in Miami. Attending the pre-cruise party also ensures that we are already in the city of departure the day before, therefore alleviating any day of travel related issues of getting to the cruise port in time for departure.

B Man and I arrived at the Casino and got to the concert area with just a few songs left in Rhino Bucket’s set. We spent that time searching for familiar faces for me so I could introduce B Man and also picking our spots and sightlines to photo the next two bands from the crowd. I knew I had at least a half hour of Vixen’s set before it was my scheduled volunteer time at the door and I would have about the same time, a half hour to see headliner Vandenberg once my volunteer time was completed.

I was so excited to see Vandenberg as I had been a fan ever since my teen years when I had heard his “Burning Heart” song released in 1982. B man and I both got some great shots of Vixen and Vandenberg, then after the show I found out that Vixen bassist Share Ross had announced that she is “taking a hiatus” from the band and her replacement, Richie Kotzen’s wife, Julia Lage, came out and played several songs. This I would have loved to witness but B Man had my back, showing me several photos of the time I was away. After the show on our drive back to our hotel, I could already hear the excitement in B Man’s voice over what we just experienced, me knowing he still had no idea what he was in for starting the next day.

As in prior MoRC years, the embarkation process was a breeze and the next thing you know, we are feet onboard the ship heading to do a luggage drop off before exploring the ship. Next step is to try and recall the fastest way in between the various venues where the bands would be playing as there is often set time crossover where one must decide which band you want to see more.

Thankfully this was the same class of ship as prior cruises so I was already familiar with the layout. Onward to our first show of the cruise, Enuff Z’Nuff was the first of what turned out to be forty two shows seen this year. Then it was time for the photo experience team meeting so we knew what to expect of us before, during and after each of our scheduled shoots. Since we all had been on the team in prior years it was more of a catch up session with the photogs that had not been able to attend the sail away show the night before.

As I have done in prior years I will share personal highlights of each day and the performances I saw or else I would be here writing for weeks on end there is so much to do and see on MoRC. I will end this with a chronological order of the bands I saw on each day.  Seeing old friends and starting to make new ones always seems to be the highlight of the first day as all of my MoRC friends live in different cities or even countries. I have made some lifelong friends on these cruises, as we are all there for the same reason, and MoRC is the only time I get to see them.

In the days prior to sailing away the day 1 set time schedule was released and I knew the highlight for me this day would be seeing Beasto Blanco again. They were one of my ‘discovered gems’ of a band from the 2018 MoRC and I had been yearning to see them again ever since. Their set was a must see for me! What turned out to be utterly amazing was that our photog group got let into the venue ahead of the fans while the band was just starting their sound check. The band sound checked for rather a long time and we got to photo the whole sound check as well as the first three songs from up front once the show started.

It was an awesome experience as the band members interacted with each of us photogs and left nothing on the table once their show started – giving it their all with a kick ass performance. Other musical highlights for me this day include seeing MoRC staple band Kix and my 2020 ‘discovered gem’ H.E.A.T. By the time B Man and I sat down for a late night snack of pizza we had seen seven shows already and now B Man had a better idea of what to expect in the days ahead.

As expected, the breakfast of our second day aboard was filled with conversation between B Man and me about how killer the previous day was and pouring over the schedule for the day to see who all we would see and figure out the best times to try and acquire food between shows. This day was also the first of my three scheduled photo experience sessions.

Today I would be doing the photo shoot for Lillian Axe. As a photographer and a fan, these photo sessions give us extra time to hang out with the band as I organize who will be where in front of the backdrop and take a few practice shots to get my camera settings dialed in as once the doors open up, it is a steady stream of cruisers who want to get their photo with the various bands.

Once the photo session was done, B Man and I headed to the stage on the pool deck to get the day’s rocking started. After the first three songs with Crazy Lixx performing I take a wander to the second level of the pool deck to get a few test shots from the opposite railing just to see how they would come out so I could plan for future bands whether this was a good vantage point to photo from. Even though every MoRC I have been on has been the same class of ship the pool stage set up has been different on all four cruises so it is always an experiment of where to shoot from once we exit the photo pit.

This was also the day of our visiting CocoaCay island in the Bahamas and while I did get some great shots of the island from the ship we opted not to get off the ship. Mostly because there was some killer rock in the hours ahead but also because B Man and I already live in an island paradise so I am used to seeing palm trees and crystal clear blue water at the beach.

This day’s musical highlight for me was seeing Slaughter. I have been a fan of this band forever and I finally got to see them on the 2020 MoRC and was blown away back then about how great they sounded – many times over the years, these lead singers from the 80s start to lose their vocal range over the years and rely on the crowd to carry certain parts of songs but man, Mark Slaughter still has that golden voice and their set in my opinion was near perfection.

They played every single one of my favorite Slaughter songs and started off with my favorite, ‘Mad About You’. The rest of the day musically for me was a mix of new bands I had never even heard of before (Nestor and Firewind – again, this is where my ‘hidden gems’ are discovered) and bands I have previously seen (Winger, Dangerous Toys and Jeff Scott Soto.

I had just seen Soto play in Tampa with Trans-Siberian Orchestra back in December). This day was also a good example for B Man of why food had to be acquired on the run as it was a non-stop rock schedule for us, taking in nine shows this day.

Prior to this cruise I had taken the photo experience photo I had gotten with Beasto Blanco back in 2018 and merged it side by side with one of the favorite photos I had taken of them and got it printed out in the hopes of getting it autographed. Wouldn’t you know, that as B Man and I approached the pizza location for a late night snack, there are three of the five Beasto Blanco members just sitting there relaxing and I approach them and inquire if they thought they would be there for at least five minutes, if I had time to go and retrieve the photo for them to sign.

They said sure, no problem and in a tear off I go. It was a surreal moment upon my return as I got to chat with Chuck (rhythm guitarist and main vocalist), Calico (both lead and backup vocals) and Chris (lead guitarist) and share my story of how I ‘accidently’ discovered them onboard in 2018 and was blown away from the first note of their show I saw back then. They had quickly become one of my favorite bands in those years since. All three of them gave me props on the portion of the photo that I took and gladly signed my print and it already has become one of my most cherished autographed items of rock memorabilia that I have.

Our third day started off much like the prior day did. Breakfast conversation started with how killer the day before was and then we started pouring over today’s schedule to see who all we could see and again, try to figure out when there would be time for sustenance to keep us going. Again today I had another photo experience shoot, this time with Nerd Halen. After the fact, let me just say oh my gosh these guys were hilarious. I did not get to see their first set onboard and really knew nothing more about the band than they were a Van Halen tribute.

The hilarity involved as cruisers came up and I heard several yell out “NERD” as they approached the band, much like ‘Ogre’ did in the “Revenge of the Nerds” movie. It was a really fun time doing their shoot and I got to spend quite a bit of time with Caleb, their guitarist, at my next photo experience shoot on our last day. More on that to come.

Another note, one of the security guys later in the day mentioned Nerd Halen’s lead singer was a voice actor in his son’s favorite cartoon and that made B Man and I look up who it was and we discovered their lead singer is Hal Sparks, who has had parts in many moves, and one of my all-time favorites “Dude, Where’s my Car?” B Man and I made it a point right there that we HAD to see Nerd Halen’s second show the next day.

The musical highlight for me this day was seeing Vandenberg.  This man is such a guitar virtuoso it is amazing to watch his fingers fly over the frets. After being a fan for more than thirty years, here I am seeing him play a second time in the past four days! This day I also saw a second performance in as many days with Winger, Lit, Dangerous Toys and Crazy Lixx. During the H.E.A.T performance this day I had to laugh because of my photo positioning for part of their show.

Their lead singer, Kenny Leckremo, came out literally almost naked for this set and there was a more than once where I had a great shot of the action on stage lined up only to have his, um, junk, get in the way – as we photogs would close in for a shot, he seemed to close the distance between us and what we were trying to photo. So I stepped back to re-position myself and photo from a different angle. I know I was not the only photographer who encountered this and I do not think it was overly intentional as that is a very high energy band and Kenny is all over the stage as he sings. I also had a little bit of a ‘time mishap’ this day.

I had mentioned prior about band sets overlapping and somehow I guess I forgot how to tell time and missed two thirds of the allotted time in the photo pit to photo Dangerous Toys. I totally cannot explain this one – was I busy getting more ice cream or something – how the frick did I momentarily lose the ability to tell time – I can laugh about it after the fact but I was a little bummed at the time I did not get the full three songs to photo them from up close.

During our late night snack this day, we were sitting next to someone who had a killer beer and heavy metal related shirt and I asked if I could take a photo of the shirt and struck up a conversation with the person wearing it. I have met so many great people on board these cruises from conversations that start this exact same way – a comment about a shirt – and met this wonderful couple (Arthur and Andrea) from Arizona who travel the country doing reviews of breweries as the Heavy Metal Beer Club.

As a personal project a few years back I had documented establishments around the country that had metal themed menu related items and it segued our conversation even further, me offering to share my list. We have been in contact multiple times after the cruise already, and I am looking forward to seeing my new friends again, either with a meet up at a metal themed brewery coinciding with a concert somewhere or even if it has to wait till MoRC 2023.

Our fourth day onboard we decided we would take a stroll into Cozumel where we had docked earlier before we had even woken up. Breakfast conversation again centered around highlights for both B Man and I from the day before and we had the Nerd Halen set at 3PM highlighted as one we could NOT miss.

While we were strolling around the port shop area we encountered the entire Beast Blanco entourage and then ventured our way out of the port shop area into ‘town’. I thought it was funny how as we walked past the locals and they hawk their goods, be it tours, t-shirts, Cuban cigars, or whatever, it was always their last ‘offering’ after we walked past that made me laugh. “Good ganja or primo marijuana” was the offer and while it made for some funny conversations with them as we kept walking, we did not take them up on any of their offers as we had no time to dally, rock was waiting for us back onboard.

It is literally impossible for me to pinpoint a musical highlight on this day – there simply were too many to choose from today.  But I will have to say that a performance that left B Man and I still talking about days after the cruise has to take the highlight show of the whole trip. Nerd Halen was the most entertaining show I saw on this cruise. Amazing musicianship, mixed with witty, nerdly funny humor with a foundation of all things Van Halen including the Sammy Hagar years.

I was able to be in the photo pit for the first three songs, then made my way to the next level up directly across from the stage for their next few songs, then ventured on the same deck to a view above the back of their stage. This view gave me the vantage point of seeing how literally every single person on that pool deck and the deck above watching and listening was thoroughly enjoying the show and got me a point at by drummer Jeff (The Professor) Page who recognized me from the photo experience shoot the day before. He had turned around to address the crowd gathered above and behind him and he spotted me. This is a band that I seriously cannot wait to see again live!

Other musical highlights this day included seeing Alice Cooper, the headliner of the cruise, as well as second shows for Beasto Blanco, Faster Pussycat, Kix, Nestor and axe man extraordinaire Mr. Vandenberg. When the full schedule of the cruise was released, seeing Beasto Blanco on the pool deck at 11 PM on a Saturday night sure seemed to be a highlight as a must see and the experience was nothing less than incredible.

Alice Cooper put on a must see theatrical show and the set list spanned across all of his anthemic hits with a set that lasted well over an hour (the normal set times for bands onboard was 45-60 minutes).

For Alice Cooper, B Man and I were seated in the second row of the balcony in the ship’s theater, near center but right behind legendary rock photographer Mark Weiss. He (Mark) came to his seat ‘double barreled’ (having two cameras) and B Man and I made a noted point right then and there to go to his socials after the show and see what he posted from basically the same vantage point we had. I will say I was happily pleased with the shots I got at that distance as several from that show were among my favorites of the entire cruise.

After the fact and once I had gone through my photos, after seeing the photo that Mark Weiss posted from that show, I had a shot which was literally a split second after his and I got darn near the exact same shot he did. I laughingly say that his was framed a little better but in no way are my words here of any sort of comparison to the legend behind the lens, more like holy sh*t I got close! Once again this day ended with late night pizza and another conversation with our new friends from the Heavy Metal Beer Club.

Musically the highlight for our final day for me was once again seeing Slaughter perform that same set list magic and I captured one of my top favorite cruise shots. Sure, it would have been nice for Slaughter to mix up their set list some, but that first go round was perfection for me so absolutely no complaints.

Second shows from Geoff Tate (where he played the entire ‘Empire’ release from Queensrÿche), Lillian Axe and Soto. During the Lillian Axe set, bassist Michael “Maxx” Darby recognized me in the photo pit  from the photo experience shoot, and played to my lens quite exclusively for my three songs up there.

This being the day of the Super Bowl, the game was shown on the pool deck screen and we on the cruise had our own halftime show consisting of some kick ass tunes as Black ‘N Blue hit the pool stage the second halftime started. Near total physical exhaustion succumbed as I heard the last notes of my last show onboard after going nonstop for the last five days but the experience is so worth the recovery time once we get back to dry land and the reality of regular life.

Sadly there comes a time when this fun had to end and B Man and I walked the Promenade deck as the ‘see you next year’ party took place and of course we took the opportunity for one more stop at the pizza place and you can guess who was there, our Heavy Metal Beer Club friends. I would say it is always sad to say good bye to friends but we MoRCers do keep in touch as we all share the same passion so I want to hear about the shows my friends go to and they want to hear about my adventures.

That is one thing that is so awesome about a cruise like this is that we are all there for the same reason – a brother/sisterhood of rock and this is such an immersive experience as you are continually surrounded by the same people who you are watching and cheering for up on stage. B Man and I did take in a few of the other activities the ship has to offer, like mini-golf and ping pong. I visited the soft serve ice cream stand WAY too many times, but I also walked over thirty miles during this five day period (those numbers are from B Man’s watch app, but there were not many times when he and I went in different directions so I know my total is very close to his).

I would like to take a moment here and give a shout out to my peeps who I got to hang with, to my new peeps that I met this year, and specifically to two of my peeps who unfortunately were not able to join us this year – Allyson and Ben – you both were missed and I look forward to rocking out with you next cruise!

For as much work as there is on the backside of the cruise for me, organizing photos and documenting which bands I saw and such it is so worth the effort as the cruise is literally nonstop fun from the minute you step onboard.

And of course this write up took me an additional week as Metallica did not check with me about my schedule before they announced last October their February show date in Las Vegas and that was a trip I had to take, but that is a whole story on its own. I highly suggest for any rock  concert going fan who has never done an event like this – do it – you will not regret it, in fact you will want to go on MoRC again the next year, and then again each and every year after. Booking starts soon for MoRC 2023!

Bands I saw listed by day.

Sail away party:
Vandenberg, Vixen, Rhino Bucket

Day 1:
Beasto Blanco, Kix, Electric Boys, H.E.A.T, Enuff Z’Nuff, Rhino Bucket, Ted Poley

Day 2:
Slaughter, Tokyo Motor Fist, Dangerous Toys, Winger, Eclipse, Lit, Nestor, Firewind, Crazy Lixx

Day 3:
Vandenberg, The Quireboys, Buckcherry, Faster Pussycat, Richie Kotzen, Geoff Tate, Winger, Lillian Axe, Lit, Crazy Lixx, H.E.A.T, Dangerous Toys

Day 4:
Beasto Blanco, Faster Pussycat, Kix, Alice Cooper, Nestor, Vandenberg, Nerd Halen

Day 5:
Slaughter, Geoff Tate, Black ‘N Blue, Pat Travers, Soto, Lillian Axe

More Photos From the MORC From Randy Cook