moe. Guitarist Turns Restless on Vacation

Following his band's New Year's Eve show at Radio City Music Hall, moe.'s Al Schnier went on a cruise ship to vacation for a week in the Atlantic. And by '"vacation," we mean he performed in various collaborations and spontaneous jams between more traditional recreational activities aboard Jam Cruise.

"I had dives planned at the port calls," Schnier tells Spinner. "So, I'd get up at 6 in the morning to run on the upper deck and there were still people up from the night before, having just finished the jam sessions, and there were people in the hot tub cheering for me running. There are people awake for 24 hours on the ship and you wonder if some people actually sleep during the five days they're here."

This was the sixth voyage for Jam Cruise, which sailed this time from Florida to islands in Honduras and Mexico. With around-the-clock music on multiple stages packed alongside all the luxuries of a cruise ship, you could say that it's a bit of an upgrade from the muddy concert fields and tent-cities of traditional festivals. It's an atmosphere that lets even the artists relax and intermingle freely: the backstage is usually empty.

"There actually is one artist lounge, technically," Schnier says. "And I forgot about it until the last day of the cruise. So that just tells you what my perspective was on the whole thing."