Earlier this year, Modest Mouse headlined a cruise. Stereogum attended, and delivers a story not only about the cruise, why bands do these, but how the concept of a floating concert at sea came to be.
How do they decide which artists to approach about headlining their own cruise? It’s “a mixture of science and art and just gut,” Cuellar explains. “As a promoter, that’s probably the hardest part. I think you ask any promoter and it’s all gambling.” He says it’s less about finding acts that can headline arenas worldwide and more about finding ones with an extremely engaged fan base. There’s a big difference between asking your fans to kill a couple hours with you in their hometown versus investing the time and money to spend several days trapped on a boat together.