Here are two important facts about me: I am in a band (In Virtue), and every year I take a nice little vacation on the greatest thing on the high seas: the 70,000 TONS OF METAL concert cruise. 60 bands on one boat, metal around the clock – you can’t beat it.
But 2026 is the first year I got to combine these two things that I love so much. In Virtue had just dropped an album (Age of Legends), and we were lucky enough to be invited to play. This was kind of a dream come true for me – I’ve been on the cruise so many times as a passenger, watching my favorite bands (often from a hot tub while sipping a milkshake) and now I was gonna be up on those stages, playing. Felt like a dream!
There was just one problem – we hadn’t played a show in 6 years. Okay, 2 problems – both our guitarist Rami and bass player Jamie were gonna be unavailable because in a staggering coincidence they each had babies due right around the cruise (their wives did not agree with my assessment that “it’ll be fine, it probably won’t ACTUALLY happen that week”). Make that 3 problems – we don’t currently have a drummer.
So, easy – line up 3 fill-ins, get the set together, book plane tickets, done (kill me). I’m lucky to be friends with some real pros, so Jason Berlin (drummer of Alex’s other band The Mourning) volunteered to step in, my pal Alon Mei-Tal took over on guitar, and Devin Reiche (Anubis, ex-Hatchet) jumped in at the last minute to play bass (actually his second stint in the band). We had a lineup!
Since Jason lives in Florida, we scheduled 2 days of rehearsals in Miami the week of the cruise. Since nothing ever goes according to plan, our flights were canceled due to severe storms happening throughout the country. We arrived a day late – which meant we had One. Day. of rehearsal. A single day of the full band playing together to get the set dialed, our in-ear rig working as it should, and everyone on the same page. How hard could it be? We booked a rehearsal room and spent 8+ hours making it happen. Luckily, we’re all (more or less) professionals, and we had been woodshedding our parts individually, so we got it done.
We piled into the car with all our gear and headed to the port, dropped our stuff with the porters, and boarded the boat. They took all the gear to a designated gear room where we could access it whenever we needed, and then we actually got to relax a little. The staff were all very helpful and friendly, and they made it really easy to feel like we didn’t have to worry about any of the logistics.
It was pretty crazy getting to see the other side of the event – I’ve seen the public-facing part as an attendee and a little of the background workings as a media partner, but it was quite a different perspective as a performer. Luckily, everything was very organized, and we knew where to go and when to be there. The weather problems actually granted us a bit of a stay of execution – the sailing schedule changed to put us on the island destination of Nassau, Bahamas, a day earlier than planned. This meant we would play on days 3 & 4, which gave us an extra day to prepare. I holed up in my stateroom and made sure the automated MIDI patch changes for each song were working correctly, in between practicing the songs unplugged style with the boys. Not exactly glamorous, but I knew it would be worth it when I stepped on that stage with the confidence that everything was ready.
When the time came to play the first set (every band plays twice on the boat), we headed down to the venue (there are 4 on the ship), the Star Lounge. It’s the most punk rock of all the stages – low ceilings, a smaller stage, right up against the crowd – perfect for a band like In Virtue. We arrived an hour before our set time, and boy did we need that hour. I didn’t even really have time to be nervous, because we used every second getting our gear up and running with enough time to do a quick line check, and then we were on.
All things considered, the first set went pretty well. Our first time performing in over 6 years, with a ragtag crew of hired guns, a set half made of songs we’d never played live. A proper miracle, really. And it was fun as hell. We had to cut 2 songs because I talked too much and didn’t even notice there was a giant red clock telling us how much time remained in our set until it was too late, and my voice was pretty shot (I had just spent 3 days at the NAMM show, which is mostly yelling on no sleep in a bacteria stew of 100,000 people bringing exotic contagions from around the globe), but none of it mattered. We played.
One of the great things about playing on 70000TONS is that even if you’re a band as small as In Virtue, people will come to see you play. People on the boat are pretty hardcore music fans (I can’t imagine going on a cruise like this if you weren’t) who will research the bands beforehand if they’re unfamiliar, and then go see them play onboard. The community is pretty spectacular, incredibly positive and supportive, and everyone just wants to party and listen to metal. So even though there’s always cool stuff going on all over the boat and we played at the same time as Anthrax, we still had a really decent turnout.
Our second set is the one that I remember the most fondly. I actually thought it was going to be a bust – we were scheduled to play at 10:45 in the morning. I figured everyone would be hungover and sleeping in, but what actually happened really reflects the spirit of the cruise – there were a TON of people there!
Since we were the first band on that stage, we got there early. Two hours before we were scheduled to go on, we arrived and started setting up and dialing everything in. We learned from all the mistakes we’d made the day before, and this time, we nailed it. I sang better, we played better, kept the stage banter tight and didn’t have to cut any songs – but most of all, we had a blast. There was even a dude in the crowd singing along to most of the songs! It doesn’t get much better than that.
It was the most stressful, and also the most rewarding, week of probably the last decade of my life, but either way I am looking forward to getting to just enjoy my vacation on the cruise this year. The 70000TONS OF METAL cruise leaves Jan 14th, 2027, so book your spot today, and I’ll see you on the boat!
