2010

Two months from tomorrow, on January 4th, the MSC Poesia will depart Ft. Lauderdale filled with music fans and musicians who are about to have one of the best vacations of their lives. The reality of how quick Jam Cruise 9 is approaching hit home today with the release of the schedule. For five days the music goes from afternoon until extremely early in the morning with some sets due to end at 5 in the morning.

As many people told me before my first Jam Cruise last year – this trip is a marathon not a sprint. The schedule allows you to pick and choose your spots. Luckily for me, there don’t seem to be any major conflicts, though getting from venue to venue on the boat couldn’t be easier allowing you to sample all of the acts if you want the equivalent of a musical poo-poo platter.

Big Sam’s Funky Nation gets the coveted sail away slot as they will perform on the evening of January 4th as the boat departs Port Everglades. HT contributor and turntablist extraordinaire Wyllys closes things out on January 8th – actually the morning of the 9th – as the Poesia pulls back into Ft. Lauderdale. READ ON for a look at the Jam Cruise 9 schedule…

Michael Franti & Spearhead w/ Bobby Long @ Terminal 5, October 28

Say what you will about Terminal 5 and all of its quirks and issues, but there does come that rare time that the multi-level industrial venue affords fans an extraordinary experience that you can’t get anywhere else. This past Thursday night, with the unique pairing of Bobby Long and Michael Franti & Spearhead, anyone who spent their Franti set up on an upper level looking down on the stage saw what I saw: a bird’s eye view of Michael Franti’s gigantic bare feet.

[All photos by Rob Chapman]

At 6’6”, Michael always looms like a giant over the crowd from the stage, and even more so when he takes a seat on the stool for an acoustic ballad, but holy shit, those feet from above look like naval bases out to sea.

A fitting allegory perhaps, as with the release of his latest hit factory studio release, the Sound of Sunshine, Franti & Spearhead officially make the jump to larger than life. If All Rebel Rockers broke the seal to mainstream success, the Sound of Sunshine turned on the spigot. Many longtime fans take this as a negative, and cite the newer material of hope over strife as a sellout or even a losing of religion, but for fans who just want to go out, dance, and listen to some good festive music, Franti’s live still show offers plenty to enjoy. READ ON for more about last Thursday’s show…

God Street Wine guitarists Lo Faber and Aaron Maxwell are set to perform at Mexicali Live! in Teaneck, NJ on Friday night. The pair throughly rocked Sullivan Hall a few weeks

By now, anyone who follows sports on the interwebs probably already caught a glimpse of this excellent Randy Moss tribute by DJ Steve Porter, the mastermind DJ behind the Allen