Starting Week Two and the Band

So I’ve cheered up a bit since those last two posts. I’m starting to find a rhythm to this job, and while I’m still working on building a social life and connecting with my co-workers, the challenge of the job has gone down a lot now that I have a week under my belt. As I get more comfortable with the material, I’m beginning to open it up and have a bit more fun with it. I’m still not sure if I can see myself being happy on the boat and haven’t ruled out quitting, but the worst case scenario is I keep my head down and six months later I’m a much better musician and have some money in the bank.

So this week started off yesterday with a coast guard inspection of the boat. Ever since that Concordia mishap, the cruise industry has gotten more serious about safety. We had a fire drill at 10:30am, and then an evacuation drill around 11. It mostly consists of us standing around until we get dismissed. I spent the drill with the Brit from the test the day before, and he spent the drill talking to me about all the ladies he’s chasing and how into him they are. He’s a friendly guy, I like him and we signed on together, but he’s a bit too girl crazy for my tastes. Once the test was over I got off the boat and walked around Tampa a bit. The area near the boat terminal was very corporate, most of the shops and restaurants around it were closed because it was not a work day. I called home, and then settled into a bowling alley to eat and read a bit.

I got back on the boat around three, and we had a guest safety drill. I still haven't finished my training so I get to sit these out for now. After the drill was over we had an entertainment department meeting. Unfortunately, I wasn't told about it, and I showed up late for it. The cruise director has a nickname for the new employees, FNG or F***ing New Guy. There was a new entertainment employee this week, but since I showed up late to the meeting, I'm still the FNG. The assistant cruise director started slapping me on the back when he greets me and exclaims "FNG! How's it going?!" I have a feeling that the nickname will stick for a while

We had rehearsal at four. The band played a few songs with one of the production singers. I introduced myself to him and found out he used to live in my home town. He had a good voice and the songs we played were fun. It was eye opening to see the band looking at new charts and not getting the songs at first, it made me feel better about taking some time to get comfortable with the material. Once rehearsal was over, I skyped for a minute before we had a karaoke set. It went well, some little girls came on stage and sang Kesha; I had a hard time keeping a straight face. We got a new Karaoke host this week, so she came up and sang a song, looked like she had a good time with it.

Then it was the welcome aboard show again. The cruise director did the EXACT same thing this week as he did last week. I guess that’s to be expected, but the show was starting to get old after just the second time, can’t imagine what it will be like in a few months. The comedian that came on this week was not as good as the one last week, but at least she didn’t single the drummer out. Once the show ended we set up for the show today, and then I went to my room.

Today I got up pretty late as per usual at this job. My cell phone does this thing where it sets itself to five hours later than it actually is when it is outside of the service area. That, plus the total lack of natural light in my cabin added up to me being really confused when I woke up. At lunch and did nothing for a while, blah blah blah. Sound check was at 5:30, everything was fine and I went to dinner. As I ate, I tried to strike up a conversation with the pianist unsuccessfully, so I left and hung out in my room.

The production show started at seven, and then again at nine. These shows are really silly for me because I don’t get any room to actually play; I just have to mimic what the guy on the recording is doing as best as I can. This is tough because on my score it usually with just say “fill” or “solo” and I won’t have a notation for what I need to learn. Now, I’m used to bad charts, but this is just beyond frustrating. It left me feeling down after this show because I didn’t play what the recording has on it well. E told me that he doesn’t really play the shows at all; he just plays his solo parts and ogles the dancers…gross.

After the shows we had another dance set and yet again I channeled the negative emotions I was feeling into my playing. Now that I know most of the songs that we play this set is a piece of cake. I switched to some heavier implements and they really helped with the fatter sound the band is looking for. At the end of the set the entire band complimented me about how I played. While it was nice, I was a bit bitter about the whole thing. It feels like most of the band really didn’t believe me when I told them that I would need a week to really get a hang of things. Now that I have they seem surprised about it. I guess I can’t blame them for wanting to sound good but it still irks me.  

After the show I was invited to the crew bar by the singer. It was the birthdays of two crew members who I don’t know, so I figured that I would head there to try and meet some people. Unfortunately, I always seem to forget that I don’t like crowded noisy bars. I got there and didn’t really want to stay, so I had a drink had a few brief conversations and left for bed.

So I guess I should tell you a bit about the band. We have a four man rhythm section, five horns and one female singer. There used to be a bari sax player but he left a few weeks ago and it seems like we’re not going to get another one. The band on my boat is one of the only large bands left it the fleet. Most of the other boats have pared down quintets with just a rhythm section and a saxophone. Having a big band is really nice for the live sets, but it’s kinda silly when it comes to playing the production shows. As I said earlier, all of our shows have a full band backing track that we play underneath, which makes a large band superfluous.  

Anyway, the band is led by P. He is a trombone player who has been on cruise ships for years now. He reminds me a lot of my friend Josh O. He is goofy and loves to talk but gets flak for it from the other musicians. He means extremely well but is a bit awkward and people hold that against him. He’s married to a kind but shy Japanese woman who he met while working on boats. He seems to keep to himself most of the time and his intoxicant of choice is coca-cola.

My roommate is a darker, mid-forties, stocky bass-player with a shaved head. He’s jovial, perverted and I’m guessing he’s a bachelor considering the nomadic lifestyle he leads.  He gets short snippets of songs stuck in his head and sings the same line for days at a time, for the past few days it’s been “I’m so excited,” and “I feel good.” He also loves the phrases “yeah dude” and “let’s do this” and will mutter them to himself constantly. He snores very loudly, spends most of his time in the room watching CNN.

The guitarist is a shorter Russian man who is probably in his mid-thirties and lives in England. His accent is very thick but his English is great so he’s not hard to understand. He’s been the friendliest to me on the bandstand but is hard to get a read on. When he asked me about the music I liked, he seemed intrigued by math rock.

The pianist is a tall, younger, American guy who is cerebral and loves to play video game music when he’s warming up or during a break at practice. This is his second contract on a boat and he seems depressed. I have tried talking to him several times but he seems reluctant to get into an involved conversation with me. However, he has been very helpful with letting me know things about the job that no one else has, especially concerning the terrible charts that I have.

The drummer is a shorter, mid-twenty something who’s aloof, cynical and independent. He has permanent stubble on his face and smiles infrequently. He doesn’t speak much, and when he does it seems like he is holding something back, I just don’t know what that is.    

The alto sax player is an Argentinian ladies man with a chubby face and is around my age. He is on the last week of his contract and he seems happy to be leaving, but also nostalgic about his time on the boat. This week he has been carrying a camera around taking videos during performances and rehearsals. He is smooth, outgoing and has great taste in music. He seems like a good guy but I don’t really have a chance to get to know him better.

The tenor sax player is a cold Russian giant with a stone gaze. He talks with an air of knowing everything and could be anywhere between 25 and 42. He swaps between seeming warm and very distant pretty regularly, and like the guitarist, he is hard to get a good read on.

There are two trumpet players and both of them are American. One of them is quiet young man with spiked hair who is dating a dancer and they are quite cute together. I don’t really know, but I get the feeling he likes to talk trash and is a bit sarcastic. The other is talkative, boisterous and wears glasses. He was a member of the reserves and is finishing up his military contract. He likes to joke around and has a long list of video games he wants to play during his contract.

The singer is an extraverted, giggly blonde who seems to have a bunch of friends on the ship. She routinely tries to strike up conversations with me when I am not feeling my best and I feel bad about not responding better. She has a great voice and a boyfriend on the mainland that she misses very much.

So that’s the band, not much else to report since the last post, still struggling with the same things. Miss you all, g’night.