Yachtley Crew sets sail for Fantasy Springs in January

The captain-hatted L.A. yacht rock band plays the Special Events Center in Indio on Friday, Jan. 22 — smooth-music season in the desert, right on time.

There is no ocean within a couple of hours of Indio, and on Friday, Jan. 22, that will not matter in the slightest. Somewhere around the second chorus of a Michael McDonald-era hit, 3,700 people in the Coachella Valley will be swaying like they are on the deck of a sailboat off Catalina, and a band in captain's hats will be the reason.

Yachtley Crew plays the Fantasy Springs Special Events Center in Indio on Friday, Jan. 22, 2027, at 8 p.m. Tickets are available through Fantasy Springs Resort. The show was announced Oct. 27, and with the Special Events Center holding 3,700, this is a big-room booking for a band that started as a club act.

If you have not caught them yet, the premise is simple and the execution is the fun part. According to Wikipedia, Yachtley Crew is a Los Angeles band formed in 2017 that plays 1970s and 1980s soft rock in full nautical attire. The members go by names like Baba Buoy, Sailor Hawkins, Philly Ocean and Tommy Buoy, per Phoenix New Times. Within a year of forming, OC Weekly voted them 2018's best cover band and dubbed them "the Steel Panther of the high seas." They have since played Bravo's *Watch What Happens Live!* and were signed to Jimmy Buffett's Mailboat Records, which is about as on-brand an endorsement as a yacht rock band can get.

No ocean within a couple of hours of Indio, and on Jan. 22 that will not matter in the slightest.

The joke would wear thin if the playing did not hold up, and that is the part that keeps them filling bigger rooms. This music is harder than it sounds: tight harmonies, slippery chord changes, saxophone solos that have to land exactly right. A seven-piece band that can make "Ride Like the Wind" and "What a Fool Believes" sound like the records, then wink at the audience in between, is doing two jobs at once. In an interview with What's Up Newp, Tommy Buoy's pitch to fans was a promise to "make your dreams come true," which tells you everything about how seriously they take the not-taking-it-seriously.

The band has been touring its Seas the Night World Tour through theaters around the country, and January in the desert is exactly the right port of call. Season is in full swing by then, the snowbirds are back, and the valley's audience has a soft spot for the radio hits of the late '70s that this band lives inside of. Fantasy Springs' Special Events Center is the kind of room where a show like this works: big enough to feel like an event, built for a crowd that wants to sing along with a drink in hand.

Practical note: January weekends at the resort get busy, so if you are driving in from Palm Springs or La Quinta, give yourself time for parking.

Wear the boat shoes. Nobody will say anything. They will probably be wearing theirs.

Sources: Special Events Center – Fantasy Springs Resort (fantasyspringsresort.com); Yachtley Crew at Fantasy Springs Special Events Center – JamBase (jambase.com); Yachtley Crew – Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org); Cover band Yachtley Crew sails into Tempe Marquee Theatre – Phoenix New Times (phoenixnewtimes.com); What's Up Interview: Tommy Buoy of Yachtley Crew – What's Up Newp (whatsupnewp.com); Yachtley Crew: Seas the Night World Tour – CTvisit (ctvisit.com)