We got a healthy 6 hours of sleep, hit the buffet, changed into our Garden Party attire, and off we went into day 2!
Our musical journey started with J & The Causeways singing their soul infused funk to us. A rocking first set of the day that also featured a sit in from Galactic’s Angelica “Jelly” Houston.
From there we relaxed and grabbed ourselves a good spot for Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country. This was my first chance at seeing them live after they added hometown hero Will Clark, notably of Funk You, to the mix. The jam world’s country darling wowed the crowd with their amazing blend of country songs and heavy jams sending the boat into the sunset.
We hit the buffet again and hit a quick change of clothes before dancing our hearts out to the “funk force” that is Cimafunk. After seeing Cimafunk at Resonate last year we all knew they would fit the Jam Cruise vibe perfectly and they absolutely delivered. Captivating grooves, infectious vocals, whether you can understand them or not, and energy you could drink up — Cimafunk always delivers the dance party.
We made our way over to the Pantheon Theater for my Set of the Day (SOTD)– Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew “Remain in Light.” The old-school men with the backing of the entirety of Cool Cool Cool absolutely DOMINATED. Everything from the vocals, the set list, and the JAM were perfection. I don’t consider myself to be a huge Talking Heads fan so I fully thought I would be walking away after 30 mins and go see something else but I couldn’t tear myself away if I wanted to. Truly unbelievable stuff — the Remain in Light songs will continue to live on as the Jam Band world continues to keep the songbook of the Talking Heads alive and it was absolutely wonderful to see them recreated like this!
We kept it rolling on walking around to various things like Eric Krasnos Jimi’s Dead, saw a song or 2 of Lyle Divinsky in the Atrium, and ended up getting set up for jam favorites Lotus. Lotus started super hot with the funk nastiness of Middle Road followed by the highlight of the set Shimmer And Out > You Should Be Dancing > Shimmer sandwich. The other highlight was the set ending Spiritualize that sent us with our spirits high past the midnight hour.
We stopped in for a quick session of Eddie Roberts & the Lucky Strokes in the Golden Jazz Bar for Eddie’s blend of rock and roll. The small jazz bar was packed to the brim and a proper sweaty dance fest for Eddie and the gang.
Another stop in with funk titans Lettuce. Their 2nd set started in wild fashion with a 20 plus minute sound check jam that blended into their first song. The band recognized that their starting time was approaching fast and Adam Deitch used slick funky beats to allow the band to soundcheck while simultaneously jamming. Truly some unbelievable stuff. I got a 14+ min video when I realized what was happening that we will try to upload here at FunkCity.net ASAP. Once the band locked in the Funk Masters took us on their signature voyage.
We made the painful decision to walk away from lettuce and set up for the late night 2:15 am session of Franc Moody. This was my first time seeing this group and they delivered so perfectly for the late night spot. Continuously thanking all of us for the opportunity and saying it was their first show on any sort of boat. The UK funk pop group had all of dancing our booties off into the 3 am hour.
We stumbled our way into the Kanika Moore and Isaac Teal jam room for as long as we could to finish our insane day 2 off.
Come back for day 3 recap tomorrow!