Monday, February 13, 2017

Monsters of Rock 2017 Cruise Loves Karaoke Kev?

This post is mainly for the members of the "Everybody Loves Kev" Facebook group and I debated just individually uploading the 7 videos within to the group, but I felt there had to be a bit of a connecting story around them (so I could break balls...or ball for those in the know).  So if you already know Kev, enjoy this look at our hero. I was laughing out loud for real numerous times while re-watching some of this mess (the memories were a tad hazy)...and if you don't know Kev, if you see him at a show after watching this, come up and say hi, he'll love it and if you're at a hard rock/metal show in the Tri-State area (or M3) keep an eye out for the him, he's hard to miss and often more entertaining than the band on stage.  Now, on with the story...

So me, Jimmy and Kev flew down to Tampa two days before the Monsters of Rock Cruise set sail last week on Thursday February 2, 2017.  The first night was a mellow hang, the second night was a bit of a drink fest at the pre-party concert at Ferg's Live in Tampa (with D-A-D, Saigon Kick and Vince Neil - I'll do a separate full review of all the shows shortly, this is about one specific event on the boat).  

We got up early on Thursday, returned our rental car, packed our crap, wished we could sleep more as we fought various levels of hangovers, got to the port, checked in, got our drink packages (we each had 60 drink tickets - 40 good for drinks up to $12 - which covered basically any mixed drink and cheaper - plus 20 for drinks up to $7 - basically beer or cheaper) and boarded the ship sometime between 1 to 2 pm. 

First stop was the room to drop off our carry on's (and tell them to separate the queen bed into two singles as well as lower the bunk Kev would sleep on) and next stop was pool deck to grab a drink.

So again, I'll get into the bands we saw and all that goodness in the next post, but let it be known the the drinking and rocking started immediately and continued through the last band of the night (we had a choice the first night to see either Black n Blue on the Pool Stage or Beasto Blanco in the tiny club...we went with Black n Blue)  Show started about 12:15 and probably ended around 1:30.

Things are a bit foggy at this point, but I'm pretty sure we went and got some late night eats (At that hour all they they had was soggy crappy pizza basically available at all hours after everything else was closed. If sober it would have sucked, but after about 11 hours of drinking, it was damn tasty).

Now at this point each night, there's basically two options. Go to bed, which on this first night, the majority of cruisers did just that, or go up to the Viking Crown club on the top deck for the late night Karaoke with Izzy Presley and Brian party, which we did this and every other night.

We headed up to deck 13 to find the few hardcore partiers singing some good tunes and some really really awful ones. 

Now these videos are in order and take place between 2:45 to 4:00am.  There was supposed to be a last call at 2:00am, but we found basically in this club each night, they would just serve til the last person left (which often was 5am or later).   

This was supposed to be a bit of a gong show Karaoke where the hosts consistently make pretty damn funny sarcastic comments about the singers and would sometimes gong them to stop the performance.  I have to say there were funny as hell and this was a blast each night.

So we got there, we continued to drink and Kev had the itch...

Now instead of signing up for Karaoke, Kev went into his multi lip sync/air instrument routine as he does at every show he attends.

Now at a show, it's kind of understandable.  The music and talent on stage take over your mind and body and you have to rock out, but it's rare to see that happen at karaoke (but again, drinking going on 12+ hours at this time so, there's that)...especially karaoke like this.

Now this first video...Kev tries to "air sing" along which is hard because this is an awful version of Welcome to the Jungle where the vocals are not being sung where they are supposed to be.  You can also see the club is pretty damn empty, so Kev had full use of the "stage."  On most other nights this club would be insanely packed, so this is the night Kev truly was given the room to shine.  You'll see this woman gets "gonged" soon after I start shooting:


I almost feel like I should save this for a get together to watch it together to see the reactions of a certain few of you (Anthony - I'm looking at you).

So yeah...there's your first short sweet taste...I think I hear you asking in your best Oliver Twist-esque voice "Please sir, May I have some more?"  How can I deny that?



Now let me call something out here.  We all saw Night Ranger kill on this song on the Pool Stage earlier that night and I swear that Kev is even rocking out harder to this version then when the actual band was killing it on stage!  I do believe that's me and Jimmy yelling "motorin!" to of course egg Kev on.

Also - have you ever done Karaoke?  I've done it tons of times, and I'm trying to think what it would be like doing it to a pretty close to empty dance floor except for one maniac who is WAYYYYYY too into it and in your face.  Well you know what they say...everybody loves Kev!



Kev makes a friend here about a minute later into the song.  This guy is a member of the "Squid Row" gang, some of whom we met and had dinner with in the restaurant one night.  Within 5 minutes of coming into the karaoke earlier in the night, we witnessed this dude slow dancing bare ass with his shorts around has knees.  Welcome to the Monsters of Rock Cruise.

By the way, I think around this point is where me and Jimmy are discussing how long it will be before Kev breaks that barrier and joins in the singing...I mean you all see it, you know it's coming...let's see what this next short clip brings:



Yes I know...it's STILL "Sister Christian" but everytime I stopped recording he brought it next level...I mean he's on his fucking knees here...hell yeah!!!  Rock on!!!

Okay so this next one is a full song and the one where Kev finally gives in and grabs the mic...and it's probably at least 3:30am at this point...and with the lying on the floor and all that, you can see basically all of us are in the same inebriated state of mind...I give you "Creep" by Radiohead as you wish you never heard or saw it



Now Danny from Faster Pussycat wanted to do a little Neil Diamond and needed some help from Kev and others.  Danny walks off about a minute into the tune and lets Kev and gang finish it.  Perhaps my absolute favorite moment of all of this is at the 5:10 mark in this video when Kev hoarsely screams "I'm On A Boat Mother Fucker!!"

I take that back.  My favorite moment is when the song is cut short and Izzy and/or Brian  tell Kev and the other singers to jump off the back of the boat.  




This last clip is just for the diehards.  Nothing as epic as the above, just the last two minutes where Kev jumped in on a guy singing "Balls to The Wall."



I'm not sure what happened after this.  This was supposed to be the last song and I think Jimmy left after the performance with Danny and then I went to the bathroom after this and Kev thought I left so I came back and they were gone and I ended up doing "Bohemain Rhapsody" with a bunch of people before heading to the room about 4:30.  but about 14 or 15 hours after we boarded and probalby close to a third of our drink tickets used up, that was how the first night ended.


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1 comment:

meddlingkidd said...

These videos make me wish I was a fly on the wall at the Karaoke Bar LoL! Glad you guys had fun!