I always have a hard time covering the last day of Jam Cruise. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m doing it from my desk in blustery Brooklyn, not a balcony with a view of the Caribbean on the MSC Divina. Maybe it’s that a week’s worth of land life has already transpired since, a stark reminder of just how removed we all were from the world on the ship. Maybe it’s a bit of reluctance to close on that momentary escape from reality. But parties weren’t meant to last…
The final day of Jam Cruise 22 began on Ocean Cay, the Bahamian sand excavation site-turned-island, where Joe Marcinek and Jake Simpson performed sets at the foot of a lighthouse. Back on the ship, the day five music lineup included Eggy, Lachy Doley, Grace Bowers, Dizgo, Jazz Mandolin Project ft. Jon Fishman, DRKWAV, Galactic ft. Jelly Joseph, Lotus, Lettuce, and Here Come The Mummies, plus a Pickin’ Lounge set led by Fireside Collective’s Jesse Iaquinto, a Jam Room piloted by Skerik, an after-hours DJ Airwolf dance party in the Galaxy Disco, and the customary final-day Jam Cruise Super Jam.
With multiple sets running simultaneously throughout the day and long after the Divina docked back at the Port of Miami early Thursday morning it was once again impossible to catch all the music played on the ship. Below are just a few of the most memorable moments from the fifth and final day of Jam Cruise 22:
Revisit our daily coverage of Jam Cruise 22: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 (below)
An Eggy Sunset off Ocean Cay
With the ship still docked at Ocean Cay, the man-made island in the Bahamas, Eggy took the stage on the Pool Deck as sandy fans returned from port to take in one last Jam Cruise sunset (complete with complimentary beer courtesy of Oskar Blues).
Views from the Pool Deck on Jam Cruise are fleeting by nature: a disappearing shore for a few brief minutes, a vast sea in all directions for the rest of them. But rather than sailing away from Ocean Cay to the sounds of Eggy’s set, the Divina remained docked off the shore of the Bahamian island throughout the performance—one of only a handful all week with no other shows scheduled against it. After days of cruising around the Caribbean and running figure-eights around the Divina to catch one thing or another, this performance set a perfect tone for the evening: a chance to take in a surreal moment alongside all the characters from the stories you’ll tell on land before starting the journey home.
While this was Eggy’s first official slot since Jam Cruise’s first day, Jake Brownstein, Mike Goodman, Dani Battat, and Alex Bailey had spent the week hosting and participating in a long list of special performances—from a Grateful Dead tribute set to Brownstein’s all-improv Jam Room and beyond—and their set underscored that settled-in, cup-full context, patiently weaving through moments of peaceful reflection and exuberant celebration as the sun slipped from the sky. A sit-in by both Kanika Moore (vocals), a familiar collaborator, and The Wood Brothers’ Jano Rix (melodica), a new friend from the previous night’s Jam Room, on a “Feelin’ Alright” cover late in the set further embodied that unique ambiance.
“Isn’t this the greatest thing ever?” Brownstein asked the crowd after an enveloping “Razi” jam helped usher in nightfall on the Pool Deck. We’d have to agree. Find the full setlist here.
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Jon Fishman Gives a Jam Cruise History Lesson in the Atrium
After showing off the dynamic range of a string-led quartet on the Pool Deck on day three, Jazz Mandolin Project featuring mandolinist Jamie Masefield, bassist Danton Boller, trumpeter/keyboardist Michael “Mad Dog” Mavridoglou, and drummer Jon Fishman set up shop in the ship’s crystalline Atrium on Wednesday evening.
With the band already flanked by three floors’ worth of fans hanging off every available vantage point, the scene grew more intimate still when Masefield remarked that “it feels like we’re playing in a robin’s nest, it’s kind of cool,” and went on to suggest that it may be cooler if people filled the roped off area in front of them. “Maybe we’re gonna get in trouble for this, but it’s all about the music,” he added as bodies flew over couches to fill the space, most winding up cross-legged on the floor.
It’s rare that you get a chance to really see Jon Fishman’s drum-playing, his legs often cloaked under a muumuu and his body behind a large drum kit and arena-sized production. Watching him play from over his shoulder with hotel lobby lighting illuminating his four limbs’ every move was a quintessential “only on Jam Cruise” experience.
Before closing the set with covers of Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke” and Led Zeppelin’s “What Is and What Should Never Be”, Fishman told an old Phish story that has bubbled to the surface on occasion through the years (see: After Midnight Ep.1, 34:44). While waiting at an airport gate for a flight many years ago, Trey Anastasio saw Fishman reading a book about a WWII-era shipwreck called Abandon Ship and had a eureka moment: “At this point,” the drummer explained, “Phish had done a few festivals or something. We were trying to think of something new. … I’m reading this book, right … and [Trey] goes, ‘Oh my god—a-band-on-ship! … We should rent a boat and play on a boat and call it ‘A Band on Ship!’”
Phish made some inroads into planning A Band On Ship, Fish added, but the project was ultimately deemed unviable. He even joked that the band’s futile plan gave way to Jam Cruise—“That’s a true story,” he said, though his mischievous grin indicated otherwise—before going on to thank the Cloud 9 team, which has “developed this into a thing that is really awesome and wonderful and, you know, so much better than one band on a ship.”
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Craig Brodhead & Sammi Garett’s Super Jam Fits The Bill
Craig Brodhead and Sammi Garett have played with a long list of bands during Jam Cruises past. While none of those running outfits appeared on Jam Cruise 22, the Cool Cool Cool and Remain in Light bandmates made their mark on the 2026 event on Wednesday, fronting the annual Super Jam on the Pool Deck in the early evening.
Brodhead (guitar) and Garrett (vocals) lead a core band featuring Adrian Tramontano (drums), Zdenek Gubb (bass), Tim Palmieri (guitar), Sam Fribush (keys), Reilly Comisar (vocals), and Brittany Beckett (vocals) that welcomed a steady stream of additional guests including The Horn Section’s Chris Brouwers and Greg Sanderson (both longtime bandmates of Brodhead), Mike Dillon, Jake Simpson, Lebo, The Sweet Lillies, Eggy, Kanika Moore, Petar Janic, Nigel Hall, Tony Hall, Ari Teitel, Alex Wasily, Eric “Benny” Bloom, Adam Deitch, Anna Moss, John Medeski, and others.
Highlights of the eclectic and fun-focused setlist included Prince and Sheila E’s “A Love Bizarre”, Modest Mouse’s “Float On”, MGMT’s “Electric Feel”, Björk’s “Big Time Sensuality”, Blondie’s “Rapture”, The B-52’s “Rock Lobster”, 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up”, and more.
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Lotus Spends “Time” With Friends
As the moments that made up day five ticked away, Lotus took the Pool Deck for a high-energy performance featuring a pair of notable sit-ins. First, Lotus bassist/synth player Jesse Miller‘s Octave Cat bandmate, keyboardist Eli Winderman (Dopapod), added some extra sonic blooms to “Flower Sermon”. Then, vocalist Kanika Moore joined in on a faintly reggae-tinged though largely faithful rendition of Pink Floyd’s “Time”. Check out the full setlist here.
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Lettuce Wraps Up The Pool Deck
Veteran Jam Cruise impact actLettuce had the honor of delivering the final Pool Deck set of Jam Cruise 22 after midnight on day five. This sextet, nominally a funk band, may take any number of stylistic routes each time it hits the stage, but they have always had a knack for gauging the moment and giving the people what they need.
Sometimes, that’s deep-space exploration. Sometimes, that’s a dance party fit for a nightclub. On the Pool Deck on night five, Lettuce served up a meal for the moment—a funky jam session featuring family (drummer Adam Deitch’s father Bobby Deitch and bassist Erick “Maverick” Coomes‘ brother Tyler “Tycoon” Coomes on percussion), friends (rapper Chali 2na on the mic), and the kind of easy-going, communal energy that had hung in the air aboard the Divina throughout the night.
Toward the end of the performance, keyboardist Nigel Hall took a moment for words of gratitude, thanking his Jam Cruise family for showing his son a good time on his first voyage. “Thank you for coming,” he riffed as the music picked back up. “Thank you for having fun with your friends.”
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One Last Dance Party with DJ Airwolf
While many of the typical late-late sessions started and ended a bit earlier than usual on the final night, DJ Airwolf kept the Galaxy Disco packed and pounding until 5:00 a.m., when he cooled the steamy nightclub off with a “Tweezer” > “Tweezer Reprise” flip and sent fans scattering for their early-morning disembarkations. Until next year…
Revisit our daily coverage of Jam Cruise 22: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5