Tortuga Music Festival Recap

Day 1

The First Annual Rock the Ocean’s Tortuga Music Festival was a smashing success on Ft. Lauderdale Beach!  The event took place April 13-14, 2013 in sunny South Florida.  There were several parking options to get to the event, and I chose to take the shuttle from the Riverfront area of downtown Ft. Lauderdale.  Finding a parking spot was a breeze, as there was plenty of signage on the way in to guide you where to go.  I found a spot in a parking garage that was a two minute walk from the shuttle pickup area.

The mood on the bus was jovial and full of excitement.  The excitement for me died out a bit when I realized the shuttle dropped us off what seemed to be a good mile from our destination.  As I was trekking to the Sheraton Hotel to check-in at the media room, a nasty thunderstorm was lurking on the horizon to the west.  I made it to the hotel just in time…within 5 minutes of checking in, all hell broke loose as lightning struck near the concert grounds multiple times, delaying the start of the festival.

There were three stages set up for the event, and luckily for us, all of the country bands were featured on the main Tortuga Stage.  Since we are a country music news site, we didn’t make it over to the other stages, thus won’t be reviewing anything from that end of the concert grounds.

Gloriana finally got the show started after a slight delay, which led to them having to cut their set short.  Their set was a nice mix of unique covers and originals.  Cover songs included Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” and a medley of John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Pink Houses” and Bruce Springstreen’s “Born in the USA.”  Their originals included a mixture of album cuts and their hit singles “Wild at Heart,” “Can’t Shake You,” and “Kissed You Goodnight.”

After being catapulted into the national eye thanks to being picked up by Taylor Swift as an opening act a few years back, Gloriana had to remake themselves after their 4th member, Cheyenne Kimball left the band unexpectedly.  I think with a couple more hit singles, they could give Lady Antebellum a run for being the top 2 guys/1 girl band out there.

Next up for country fans was the Eli Young Band.  They started off with their 2008 hit, “Always the Love Songs,” which is the song that put this Texas band on the national scene when it peaked at #11.  Their set included their other hits, “Say Goodnight,” “Crazy Girl,” and “Even If It Breaks Your Heart,” which they intertwined with Tom Petty’s “Learning to Fly” for a cool little medley.  They also paid tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd by playing “Gimme Three Steps.”

The crowd really started to pack in while the crew got things set up and as it got closer to Kenny Chesney‘s turn on stage.  Finally, it was time for the headliner to take the stage.

Chesney came out and set the mood for the night with “Like A Rock Star,” which was the first of many upbeat party songs that he performed during his 1 hour and 45 minute set.  One highlight of his set was when he brought out Mac McAnally of Jimmy Buffett‘s Coral Reefer Band for a duet on “Back Where I Come From,” which was a top ten hit for McAnnally in 1990 when he had a stint as a solo artist.  McAnnally, the 5-time reigning CMA Musician of the Year, performed earlier in the day on the Sunrise Stage.  Due to extremely strict photography policies by Chesney’s camp, I didn’t get any shots of him on stage and thus didn’t pay as much attention to the set-list as I normally would have.

Once the rain cleared up, Day 1 of the Tortuga Music Festival was a blast.  Despite the delay, they did a great job of keeping the event on schedule.  It was fun seeing a lot of familiar faces from both local radio stations as well as Brian Hartline of the Miami Dolphins and Brett Eldredge in the crowd.  After a long day, I trudged the mile or so back to the shuttle pick-up to head home.

Day 2

After the long walk to and from the shuttle drop off at the beach on Day 1, I decided to let my Day 2 shuttle pass go to waste and instead opted to purchase a one-day Water Taxi pass (still parked in the same easy-to-find spot).  While it took longer to get there, it was a nice scenic ride complete with a tour guide presentation and a drop-off point much closer to the venue.

The crowd wasn’t as big at the start of Day 2, but it was nice to see that they had the awareness to correct a couple of minor problems from Day 1.  In the VIP area, they set up a boundary where chairs weren’t allowed beyond a certain point as you got close to the stage.  They also added more barricades along the catwalk extension of the stage, giving the photographers more room to work in.  Not only was Brian Hartline roaming around again, but on this day, I also ran into the Miami Marlins’ Logan Morrison, who was able to attend due to an injured knee.  It was really cool to meet him and then later to see him playing Bean Bag Toss with a couple of kids.  That will be a lifelong memory for the kids…kudos to you LoMo!

Brett Eldredge got Day 2 started with a great set.  Being a newcomer with just two radio songs, “Raymond” and “Don’t Ya,” his set was a nice mix of cover songs, unreleased songs, and of course the two hit songs.  The highlights of the cover songs included “One Headlight” by The Wallflowers, “Night Moves” by Bob Seger, and “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” by The Proclaimers.

After a short break, Kip Moore took the stage and showed why he is the next big thing in country music.  He rattled off his fan favorite “Reckless,” hits “Hey Pretty Girl,” and “Beer Money,” cover songs such as Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’,” and his biggest hit to date, “Somethin’ ‘Bout a Truck.”  The one part of his set that might make some folks uncomfortable was the amount of cursing he spewed.  Part of his development as an artist will be learning that there is a time and a place for that kind talk as part of his spiel.  In this case, he was performing at a very large family-friendly festival on a beach, a setting not appropriate for that kind of language.  Despite that minor flaw, his set was great and well received by the crowd.

Next up was Southern Rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd!  They came to rock the place, and that they did.  They went through all of their hits, including “Simple Man,” “Gimme Three Steps,” “Call Me the Breeze,” “What’s Your Name,” “Sweet Home Alabama,” and of course “Free Bird.”  While the rest of this day’s lineup was comprised of young stars, Lynyrd Skynyrd fit right in as the middle act of the day to change things up a bit.

Jake Owen rose up from below the stage starting his set with his current hit, “Anywhere With You.”  He was all over the place, going up and down the catwalk and interacting with fans as he sang his hits with non-stop energy.  His set list included his hits “The One That Got Away,” “Yee Haw,” “Alone With You,” “Starting With Me,”  and the feature song from his recent Endless Summer EP album, “Summer Jam.”  He also debuted a couple of new songs called “I Like You a Lot” and “Ghost Town.”  He then called out his friend from backstage because he saw a woman in the crowd wearing a Buffalo Bills hat.  His friend came out also wearing a Buffalo Bills hat.  He brought the woman on stage and had the two Bills fans dance together while he sang, “Don’t Think I Can’t Love You.”

After playing matchmaker, Owen went into the “band intro” portion of the show before launching into a cover of Sublime’s “What I Got” and Will Smith’s “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”  Then, fittingly while barefoot (for the entire set), Owen performed “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” and brought his wife and baby out for his daughter Pearl’s “first show in Florida!”  He closed the set out with “Eight Second Ride” and a cover of Van Halen’s “Jump.”

The Tortuga Music Festival concluded with an amazing performance by Eric Church that started off with “Creepin’.”  If you’ve ever been to an Eric Church show, you know how he relies on and feeds off of the crowd, and with a beach full of people, he had plenty of fuel to give it his all.  He rattled off songs such as his debut single “How ‘Bout You,” album cuts and fan favorites “Pledge Allegiance to the Hag,” “I’m Gettin’ Stoned,” “Keep On,” “Country Music Jesus,” “Lotta Boot Left to Fill,” “These Boots,” and “Jack Daniels;” hits like “Sinners Like Me,” “Like Jesus Does,” “Love Your Love the Most,” “Drink In My Hand,” “Homeboy,” “Smoke a Little Smoke,” “Guys Like Me,” and “Springsteen;” and cover songs such as “Country Boy Can Survive.”  It really was a spectacular set and a great way to end a great event on a beautiful night.

The ride back to my truck on the Water Taxi took longer than expected because they waited until the boat was full, but it was a peaceful ride back with a great view of the stars and the downtown Ft. Lauderdale skyline.  After two long days, it was a perfect ending to a perfect weekend.  I can’t wait for next year’s Tortuga Music Festival!