By Matthew Bowers  • Photo by Brady Cooling Photography

If you’ve never been on a Jamcruise, it’s hard to accurately express with words the magic that gets created when you put a bunch of like-minded music lovers in the middle of the open ocean with some of the best talent you can put in one place. This past year was my first cruise, and without a doubt it was one of my favorite musical experiences I’ve ever had. Basically if you love music and fun then you need to get on a Jamcruise at least once, you will not regret a single penny you spend to get there.

With music going on pretty much constantly from sunup to sundown it’s hard for me to really say which set was my “favorite,” but if I had to narrow it down there’s a few that really stand out to me. Lettuce’s set in the theatre was absolutely phenomenal, the Electron Floyd tribute to close the pool deck, the New Mastersounds second pool deck set, and both of Lotus’ sets.

Lotus is on a roll right now, and every time I’ve seen them in the past year or two I feel like they keep getting better and better. Jamcruise was the perfect environment for them to shine; their music embodies what being on the boat is all about. Fun and funky, they fully took advantage of the time slots they were given and gave anyone who wasn’t familiar plenty of reasons to remember them in the future. A Lotus set on a pool deck of a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean. I could come up with a bunch of fancy adjectives that describe how it felt to be there for that experience, but I think that pretty much speaks for itself. Luckily for you guys the Jamcruise page just posted a video of the fantastic version of “Umbilical Moonrise” from the pool deck set, so you can experience a taste of what it felt like to be there yourselves. Enjoy!