Mix Live Blog: Rocking The Rock Legends Cruise XIII—Part 2

Blue Öyster Cult recently took to the high seas to play the Rock Legends Cruise XIII and now FOH pro Steve shares the experience here with his in-depth gig diary. Don’t Pass Up Part One!

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2026 (Day 2 of the cruise)

8:15 A.M. Somewhere in the North Atlantic Ocean

My alarm sounds and I wake up relieved that I don’t have any pressing business. No mad dash to the airport today. Yay! What a concept! Showtime is 10:30 p.m. on the Deck Stage, which is outside. Yuk. Outdoor shows were invented by people who never had to work an outdoor show. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate, and, at the moment, it’s encouraging.

The Gene Simmons Band is up before us, ending at 9:30 p.m. (which is when we’ll get the stage), so it’ll be another grab and growl scenario. Luckily, this venue has an ample backstage work area where we can build our drums and amp rigs. My crew and I don’t have to be on-site until 8:00 p.m., so I’m going to have a leisurely breakfast and catch up on some paperwork. Maybe I’ll work on my blog for Mix!

In the meantime, I take amusement from the Royal Caribbean staff, who are wishing me a happy vacation and making funny-looking animals out of towels.

I guess they have no clue as to what us “band people” are doing here, but here’s my faux vacation: I don’t have to pack because I’ll be in the same room for three more nights. I can go to the dining room and have breakfast. I don’t have to wake up at 4:00 a.m., take two flights and drive 90 miles to the next gig. I suppose this is a vacation.

5:00 P.M.

I head for the Deck Stage, where the Guess Who is performing. They’re one of the few acts on the cruise that I’m interested in seeing because this year marks the first time in 23 years that core members Burton Cummings (lead vocal) and Randy Bachman (guitar) have toured together. It’s amazing to take inventory on the number of hits that Bachman wrote or co-wrote for either the Guess Who (“American Woman,” “These Eyes,” and “No Time”) or Bachman-Turner Overdrive (“Takin’ Care of Business,” “Let It Ride,” “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” and “Hey You,” to name a few). Anyway, I want to see if Cummings still has any gas left in the tank, and he sure does. He sings his arse off.

5:45 P.M.

Knowing what the remainder of the evening looks like, I head for an early dinner. It’s ridiculous: pork bao tacos, garlic-herb buttered shrimp, and blueberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream for dessert. It’s no wonder people gain weight when they go on a cruise!

8:00 P.M.

I meet my crew at the Deck Stage just around the time that Gene Simmons starts his set. Skies are fairly clear, but the wind is starting to become noticeable. Uh-oh. I’m having PTSD from the January 2013 Rock Legends Cruise II, when similar conditions forced BÖC off the Deck Stage and into an impromptu unplugged set. Simmons and band start promptly at 8:00 p.m.

8:11 P.M.

Simmons’ band plays a few songs and then Gene stops the show. The wind is really starting to whip and—though no cymbal stands have become airborne as I recall they did in 2013—it’s not safe to be on stage. I’m getting a bellyache.

I immediately text the band’s manager to alert him, thinking it could affect our set later that night. The stage manager informs me that the production manager is aware of the situation, and that the news is on its way up the flagpole.

Time is rapidly ticking by, and my crew and I need to know if we’re playing a show or not. Simmons’ gear has been removed from the stage, and we’d like to get our gear up there so we can have a shot at hitting 10:30 p.m. on time. The stage manager asks us to remain in a holding pattern. Still no response from the band’s manager.

8:42 P.M.

I get a call from the production manager of RLC, and he asks me to meet him in the production office. I’ve now sent several texts to the band’s manager, but given the sketchy onboard Wi-Fi, I’m guessing (correctly) that he hasn’t seen them. I call him and ask him to meet me and the PM in the production office. I ask my crew to please be patient.

9:00 P.M.

We’re in the production office discussing our options. There’s no possibility to reschedule the show into one of the other venues, unless we start at, like, 2:00 a.m. Um… no. The Captain has offered to maneuver the ship relative to the wind direction as a means of reducing the net wind on deck. It’s a nice idea, but we’re not confident that it will work, and if it doesn’t, then we’ll have a real problem. The band is contracted to perform three shows, and doing only two would make things messy to say the least. So, I state what (to me) is the obvious: move us indoors to the Star Lounge and let the band play unplugged. We agree that this is the best move. Wait until the band hears this(!).

9:14 P.M.

It’s confirmed that Blue Öyster Cult will play an unplugged set in the Star Lounge. Start time is set for 10:30 p.m., but I’m not optimistic we can hit that time given the amount of work that needs to be done. I frantically text my crew, telling them to grab what they need from the Deck Stage and get to the Star Lounge ASAP. The Star Lounge is like a big living room that holds a few hundred people. It’s too small to use for shows, but RLC uses it for memorabilia auctions, meet and greets, etc.

9:30 P.M.

My crew and I are in the Star Lounge, figuring out a way to make this work. There’s no time or space to put up a proper P.A. system, so we take a good look at the house P.A. It’s permanently recessed into the walls behind the “stage” (a 4-inch platform), and any effort to start pumping live music through it will surely be met by intolerable feedback. We’ll need a “P.A. on a stick.” Ugh.

The PM gets the folks at Bauder Audio Systems on the horn and they’re in the room so fast it’s like they tele-transported ]. The installed P.A. also includes a 12-channel snake with possibly a few return channels for monitor mixes (if we can find the lines), and an Allen & Heath SQ5 located way in the back of the room in an open booth. Not my normal standard of living, but I’m familiar enough with A&H desks.

Good news: My monitor/stage left tech Drew (soon to be Saint Drew) is a whiz on the SQ5. In 73 seconds, he creates a new scene, names and color codes the inputs, sets me up with sends for reverb and delay, and names three auxes in case we find the return lines for monitors.

Bad news: We can only find one of the return lines, so it might be one monitor mix daisy-chained to three powered speakers, run from my FOH console.

Brian from Bauder asks me to create a list of what we need: three acoustic guitars, a stage piano of some sort, keyboard stand, a bass amp, a keyboard amp, shaky toys for the drummer, DIs, mic stands, XLR cables, ¼-inch cables… His crew is so on it that I’m not even finished writing the list when gear starts miraculously appearing in the room: QSC K12s for the P.A. and monitors, Taylor acoustic guitars, a Roland RD700 piano…

Meantime, St. Drew has sussed out some of the return lines, and at the moment we have enough lines for a mono feed to the P.A. plus a few lines for monitor sends. We use another K12 as a bass amp, and our drummer, Jules Radino, opts for kick/snare/hat in lieu of shaky toys. The house snake has 12 channels, so that will be the maximum number of inputs. Who needs 12 inputs? I can do it with 11: five vocal mics, three acoustic guitar DIs, more DIs for keys and bass, and a mic for the kick drum. Rock and roll baby! Yikes!

As I’m flailing away at FOH, some of the inputs are being connected so I’m checking them in my cans. I’m also trying to ring three monitors from 75 feet away, so Drew is helping me by calling frequencies. He would later attach his phone to the router/network for the SQ5 and run monitors from his phone. Yay! The ship’s comm has made the announcement that the Blue Öyster Cult show has been moved inside to the Star Lounge. It’s a fan frenzy as people queue up to get in. Sorry to say, most of them will be turned away.

10:00 P.M.

My inputs are patched and the band is getting acquainted with the instruments, figuring out who will sit where, and working on a set list. We do one or two quick songs for soundcheck.

10:30 P.M.

The venue opens to the fans, and they start piling in. The hardcores are psyched, knowing they’re going to see something rare: Blue Öyster Cult, sans amps.

10:45 P.M.

The room is packed and we’re ready to go. Drew is acting as my ears, walking back and forth between the mix position and the seating area, feeding me information because I really can’t hear the P.A. from the booth. It feels like the P.A. isn’t filling the room (because it isn’t), so I slowly notch it up a bit until Drew warns me that we’re nearing critical mass: The band is so close to the P.A. that if I push it any louder, we’ll probably step into feedback. I pull it back a bit, not willing to risk ruining the vibe. I can see that the band is nervous, but after a few songs they settle into a groove.

11:55 P.M.

The show is over. I breathe a sigh of relief as I watch fans exit the room, smiles on their faces. Time for a midnight snack!