The holiday season—from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day—is quite possibly the best time of the year, filled with friends, family, presents and parties. And then one day you wake up and it’s just winter. And it’s freezing. And you think how long will this last? What you need is to get out of town and go where the weather is hot and the music is cool. That’s right, starting on FridayHoly Ship!, a three-day cruise sets sail from Fort Lauderdale to the Bahamas and a private island (with a beach party and music by Fatboy Slim, above) filled with some of the world’s hottest electronic-music makers, like Diplo, A-Trak, Skrillex and plenty more. The ship has five venues and music around the clock. Plus there’s a casino, spa, yoga, all-you-can-eat dining and a special burlesque performance by Dita Von Teese. What are you waiting for?
One song, two hours and just one man behind a laptop. While this may sound like an awful performance in its simplicity, it is a formula that still works for the 45 year-old Fatboy Slim. Removed for the better part of a decade from his last big radio single, he put the sold-out crowd at Terminal 5 through a never-ending ride of beats, infamous samples and even an air horn or two. He rarely left his spot behind his massive soundboard setup, save for a few times to share fist pumps and yells with the crowd from the edge of the stage.
Amazingly, Fatboy Slim never once played full versions of any single that made him so popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The show was much less about greatest hits and much more about various artists. His set started with a 20-second tease of “Praise You,” but that was all he gave of that song until it resurfaced at the end. Along the way he used every kind of music imaginable, ranging from mariachi to DJ Kool’s “Let Me Clear My Throat.” He even sampled the “Fatboy Slim? Just a band!” lyric from Dan Le Sac’s hilarious tongue-in-cheek “Thou Shalt Always Kill.” The full house enjoyed every minute of it, even screaming for an encore after the lights came up. Fatboy Slim never returned to the stage, leaving everyone to wonder just what an encore would be when the set was only one song. —Sean O’Kane
