70,000 Tons of Merch Preview

On Sunday, I'll fly off to the sin city, Miami, to baord the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise once more.  This is my second year, my third metal cruise and second time doing merch.



For the uninitiated, the cruise is a five day trip (destination is different every time!) full of bands, booze and metalheads.  It's truly a unique experience that doesn't start or end in the port.  Cruise spirit is high year round via the forums and facebook, even people flying in days early for pre-shows and a week or partying on South Beach.  It's really a unique little group of people.  With a cap of 2000, you can feasibly meet every cruiser.

The cool thing is that each band plays twice (sometimes unique sets!), the booze never stops flowing, there's all night karaoke, signings, band members wandering around, a belly flop contest...no other fest on land can compare.  Truly.

When I worked the Barge to Hell, I was a mere roadie, which was more like being a cruiser.  I got to watch tons of bands, drink until my face fell off and spend a ridic amount of time with Nick Barker.

Not drinking

So yes, I am on the boat where all this madness happens.  And yes, I do make a lot of friends and drink a lot and sleep very little.

But I do merch and work about 16 hours a day.  Last year I lost 10 lbs in the week because we walked 7 miles A DAY.  JUST doing merch.  So it's not that glam.  (Cue stage crew piping in "IT IS SO TOO GLAM!" I love those guys.)

Anyway, if I can make it out of the dungeon, I look forward to cruising the high seas with a beer in my hand, laughing at karaoke singers in the middle of the night.  Our own private island, where the biggest care is not oversleeping and missing a band.

I hope to catch Death to All, Cynic, DRI, Carcass, Pungent Stench....

This is why I do merch, I have seen or will see all of the death/thrash'black metal bands.  And that's cool.

Two days away!

If you can't tip your merch girl, buy us drinks and bring us snacks.  And high fives.  It gets lonely down there while you're all partying on the pool deck!

I guess this is a stupid post to highlight the uniqueness of the cruise AND the non-glam-ness of my role on it. Oh well.  Hopefully pics and stuff when I return at least! :)