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Of course, it was too good to be true. The ’90s radio rock wet dream of the Mark McGrath and Friends Cruise (haha, water, get it?) will not set sail. The three-day seaward journey back in time that promised strains of inoffensive alt-rock between rounds of pool deck limbo was given the mayday call Thursday morning.
See also: –Should We Feel Bad About ’90s Nostalgia? A Few Words In Defense of the Summerland Tour
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McGrath and the rest of Sugar Ray were slated to play with soul-patch juggernauts Smashmouth, Phoenix mainstays The Gin Blossoms, and a slew of other throwback acts like Spin Doctors and Marcy Playground. The bill also included acoustic sets by Live’s Ed Kowalczyk and Collective Soul’s Ed Roland, which would have surely included some misty-eyed pre-song banter about bygone salad days, punctuated with sips of blue margarita slush.
While news of the cancellation had me flinging my Pogs all over the carpet, the announcement was made with little fanfare: The cruise’s website mentions the cancelled trip in one sentence. McGrath, replying to bummed fans on Twitter, mentioned that the viability of his cruise was hurt by the recent Carnival Triumph nightmare that left its 4,200 passengers with overflowing toilets and no running water for a week.
“The poop cruise did us no favors,” McGrath uttered softly from the portside vantage, flinging his captain’s hat into the glint of the crimson sunset to be lost forever in the craggy wash below.
