Imagine you’re on a cruise ship for a four-day excursion to the Bahamas. You’ve got your swimsuit, an adult beverage, and you’re ready to relax. As you make your way to the pool deck, you’re hit with the sound of distorted guitars and in-your-face vocals as legendary L.A. punk band X rips through “Johnny Hit and Run Paulene.”

That was the scene on Little Steven’s Underground Garage Cruise, which set sail from Miami on May 9-13 on board Norwegian Cruise Lines’ Norwegian Gem, and the 1,800 or so passengers were in punk rock heaven.

The lineup featured an array of SoCal-based bands, including Social Distortion, L7, Rocket From the Crypt, the Lords of Altamont and the Dollyrots. They were joined by dozens of other performers across the rock ’n’ roll spectrum, from the hard-stomping Fleshtones to the incorrigible Supersuckers, to Tommy Stinson’s Bash & Pop, to the ageless Linda Gail Lewis — younger sister of music icon Jerry Lee Lewis.

As John Doe of X said, “bands you never thought you’d see on a boat.”

The festival-at-sea concept isn’t new. Sixthman, the company that ran the cruise, has been organizing festivals since 2001 and offers more than 25 curated cruise experiences. Upcoming sailings include Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea Alaska, Chef’s Making Waves Boston, Rock the Bells Cruise and Headbangers Boat.

In many ways, the first Little Steven’s Underground Garage Cruise is an offshoot of Sixthman’s Outlaw Country Cruise, which completed its ninth sailing earlier this year. It was a somewhat somber celebration because both its architect, SiriusXM’s Jeremy Tepper, and its ambassador, Mojo Nixon, died suddenly in 2024.

That cruise drew an eclectic mix of performers such as Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams and Dave Alvin, who share musical DNA with many of the artists on the Underground Garage Cruise and vice versa. For example, Alvin’s former band the Blasters played alongside X during L.A.’s first wave of punk, and Social Distortion’s Mike Ness was often in the front row watching them play.

“Jeremy and Mojo were incredibly close,” Alvin said. “They were like soulmates in a weird way. Cultural, artistic soulmates.”

One surprise guest on the Outlaw Country Cruise was Jello Biafra, who released the album “Prairie Home Invasion” with Mojo Nixon in 1994. He played with Nixon’s backing band the Toadliquors during an emotional tribute to his late friend.

“It’s hard,” Biafra said, “because there is a little bit of a pall over this whole event, because Mojo isn’t here, and everybody’s got their memories bubbling up. I have plenty of that.”

Many of the performers, including some who’d never taken a cruise before, had reservations about what the Underground Garage Cruise would be like.

“I thought there was going to be a lot of crazy drunkenness,” said Donita Sparks of L7. “I was thinking it was a booze cruise, but I haven’t seen a whole lot of that. I haven’t seen a single fight. I’ve seen people laughing and hugging and rocking out to the music. I’ve just seen a lot of joyousness.”

John Reis, vocalist and guitarist of Rocket From the Crypt, was concerned about seasickness and feeling “trapped” but neither proved to be an issue, and he found it easy to “succumb to the vibe.”

“We don’t take certain things all that seriously,” Reis said of Rocket From the Crypt, “and festivals can be very regimented. There’s often a lot of stress involved, mainly with the people putting on the shows. The cruise isn’t like that at all. It’s way more casual.”

Even Ness of Social Distortion was seemingly won over by the cruising lifestyle. “Ease into the day, do what you want. No traffic, no hassles,” Ness said from the stage.

X performs on Little Steven’s Underground Garage Cruise

(Eli Johnson)

Punks of a certain age are all too familiar with the phenomenon of looking forward to a show but, once it’s time to actually leave the house, losing all enthusiasm to drive across town, find parking and wait for opening bands to wrap up their sets. On the Underground Garage Cruise, all shows are a short walk away and run from an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes. No openers. No encores.

Although some shows overlap, unlike most festivals, the bands play several times throughout the course of the cruise. So if you missed a band’s performance on the spacious pool deck, you could catch them later at the 850-seat Stardust Theater or one of the more intimate lounges that provide a clublike setting.

That means you can choose where and when you want to see the band — even early in the afternoon.

“We’ve been doing this a long time,” Eddie Spaghetti of the Supersuckers told the crowd at the band’s 1:15 p.m. gig. “But never this early,” quipped bandmate “Metal” Marty Chandler.

Fans cram the deck of the cruise to watch their favorite bands play on a trip sailing from Miami to the Bahamas

(Rich Johnson)

Performers participated in events offstage as well: autograph signings, a wine tasting with the Dictators, a poker tournament with the Slim Jim Phantom Trio and interview sessions that will eventually make their way to the Little Steven’s Underground Garage channel on SiriusXM. An interview with Mike Ness ended with a surprise short set by Social Distortion, accompanied by keyboardist Ben Alleman on the accordion.

There are, of course, drawbacks to the cruise experience. If you’re not having a good time at a festival, you can always leave and go home. Obviously, you can’t do that on a cruise ship. There are also larger concerns with the cruise industry itself, from the impact these behemoth ships have on the environment to the low wages paid to foreign workers, who do the bulk of the cooking and cleaning.

John Doe said he was conflicted about the gig. “As you grow up, you do things for love or money, right? This is for money. But I love the band X.”

Then there’s the elephant in the room: the perception that cruises aren’t for kids; they’re for elderly people.

A lot of these old punks are, well, old. And if you were in the pit with bands like X, Social Distortion and L7 when they were first making waves, then so are you.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

“Rock ’n’ roll is like jazz now,” said Eddie Spaghetti. “Essentially, it’s become a niche art form for older people because most kids don’t like rock ’n’ roll anymore.”

As fans age, their bodies may break down but their passion for the music of their youth remains the same. But a lot of music fans, this writer included, deal with disability, health and/or mobility issues that can put a damper on the typical festival experience. Sixthman, however, excelled at making sure every passenger felt welcome.

For instance, all of the venues on the Underground Garage Cruise had an abundance of ADA seating, with staff designated to assist those who requested it. One staff member I spoke with told me she scans the crowds during the shows and looks for people who might benefit from extra assistance.

That kind of personal attention goes a long way toward explaining why fans, performers and staff members alike think of these cruises as a community. There’s a camaraderie on these trips that you won’t find at your typical festival.

The people you meet at the show aren’t just festivalgoers; they’re your neighbors and sometimes your breakfast companions. The intimidating-looking punk rocker covered in tattoos is a lot more approachable when eating pancakes with his partner at the buffet.

This camaraderie isn’t what leads most fans to sail on a music cruise, but it’s one of the reasons they return year after year. During the Outlaw Country Cruise in February, passengers assembled for a group photo for those who’d sailed on all nine Outlaw Country Cruises.

That camaraderie is important to the musicians too. Everyone I talked to raved about the shows they’d seen. Jonny Two Bags of Social Distortion told me that when he received the schedule, he highlighted the bands he wanted to see — just like any fan. He was especially excited to see Bash & Pop, who he’d played with in the early ’90s.

L7 performs at Little Steven’s Underground Garage Cruise

(Rich Johnson)

Donita Sparks of L7 had fond memories of playing with the Supersuckers in the early ’90s. “We used to sleep on the Supersuckers’ floor in Seattle,” Sparks said, “and we would have a dance party every night.”

That excitement for what L7’s Jennifer Finch called “the buffet of bands” is infectious. It’s also why Little Steven’s Underground Garage Cruise will sail again next April, to Cozumel, Mexico.

“We’re all alive,” Sparks said. “We’re here and we’re still rocking.”

Jim Ruland is the L.A. Times bestselling author of “Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise & Fall of SST Records” and of the novel “Make It Stop.”