After a stellar first night on the Carnival Magic, it was time to explore and rock out a bit more on the first full day of Shiprocked 2023! First up though… ‘Sun’s Out, Guns Out’ – the weather was absolutely beautiful the entire trip, and it was nice to rock some shorts & tees in the middle of January! Plus, I got to meet a lot of our great WMMR listeners from the tri-state area! In fact, Pennsylvania was one of the states most represented on Shiprocked this year. It’s so cool that people come from all over the world to experience this truly one-of-a-kind trip!
Shiprocked 2023 Stats
Shiprocked Day #2 Lineup
The bands began to play at noon and would roll straight through until 1am, and then it was on to live band karaoke until 5am!
Afterlife
Afterlife is an Alt-Metal band from the West Palm Beach area of Florida.
Fame On Fire
Another Palm Beach area band that rocked the main stage early in the day. They played a bunch of selections off their new, sophomore album ‘Welcome to the Chaos’, which was just released.
Shiprocked Sunset
Had to catch a quick pic of the sunset before the nighttime festivities began. The sunsets were beautiful every single day!
Bad Omens
There was a lot of buzz surrounding Richmond, Va metal band Bad Omens. Here’s a pic of their frontman Noah Sebastian rocking the main stage.
Skillet
Skillet was up next, delivering an always powerful performance. Drummer/Singer Jen Ledger constantly amazes me as she beats the crap out of her drumkit while singing flawlessly every time!
Ayron Jones
A definite highlight for me on the first full day of Shiprocked ’23 was the Ayron Jones performance in the Theater. The band was fired-up and sounded better than ever! The energy from the band, as well as the crowd, was through the roof! Towards the tail end of the set, Carmen Vandenberg from Bones UK joined the guys for a blistering rendition of Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing”.
Parkway Drive
Aussie rockers Parkway Drive were the headliners for night #2.
The first time I saw these guys was at the Electric Factory a handful of years ago, and the place was so packed it was hard to get a good sightline of the stage. So, it was great to actually be able to SEE them as they sonically pummeled the Shiprocked crowd. Parkway frontman Winston McCall even came out to join us for a song.
Bob Lovelace - Bassist from Ayron Jones
Ran into my buddy, and Blackwood, NJ native, Bob Lovelace after the Parkway Drive performance. Bob is the bassist from Ayron Jones and grew up listening to WMMR in South Jersey. He was always high fiving anyone that was rocking Philadelphia Eagles gear on the boat. Super cool dude!
Shiprocked Cake
The first full day of Shiprocked ended with this amazingly delicious cake! I definitely needed the extra sugar after rocking out all day in that warm, wonderful sun!
Make sure to check my page each day this week for daily recaps of my voyage on Shiprocked 2023!
Lots more photos and videos to come!
-bp
