There are few things singer Monique Powell of Save Ferris loves more than the winter holidays.

“I celebrate all the holidays,” says Powell, who for 20 years or so has thrown an annual Christma-Hannu-Kwanzaa-kah party. “I love them, and I love having a reason to celebrate life, you know?”

This year, though, Powell’s taking that holiday spirit on the road, with Save Ferris’s first-ever Skalidaze Tour around the Western United States.

“It was the brainchild of our agent, Mike Kelly,” Powell explains. “When he suggested it, I was like, ‘First of all, another ska pun is not needed, but I’ll take it because it sounds like a lot of fun.’

“It’s just a couple of weeks,” she continues. “We’re going to take the same spirit we’re going to have at the Yächtley Crëw show on this tour.”

That show, with headliners Yächtley Crëw and Save Ferris at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Saturday, Nov. 29, launches both bands into the holiday seas of artists performing holiday music.

“We’ll start this show off with a couple of Christmas songs, then play a bunch of yacht rock songs, and then some more Christmas songs,” says Yächtley Crëw’s guitarist Thomas “Tommy Buoy” Gardner. “It’s going to be back and forth a bit.

“Keep it Christmas-y, you know,” he says. Yächtley Crëw released a Christmas EP in 2024. “But obviously, we know people want to hear yacht rock when they come to see us.

“So we’ve got a different stage-set people can expect and some other surprises, too,” Gardner says. “Surprises on stage, which I can’t talk about yet, but we’re excited.”

Save Ferris, meanwhile, will play its 2024 Christmas single “Xmas Blue,” as well as covers of other Christmas tunes such as the Kinks’ “Father Christmas,” Powell said. Its set will include holiday props, she added, and her stage costumes will include “very short skirts and lots and lots of sequins.”

After the Peacock Theater show, each band will head out for more individual shows through the rest of December.

Save Ferris’s Skalidaze tour travels through California and the West before wrapping up at the Belly Up in Solano Beach on Dec. 18. Yächtley Crëw has a lighter schedule that ends for the year at the Sound in Del Mar on Dec. 27.

In separate interviews, Ferris and Gardner talked about their bands teaming up for a night, how yacht rock and ska fit together, highlights of their busy year of touring, and more.

Q: How did your two bands team up for the Peacock show?

MONIQUE POWELL: It was actually a surprise. Our agent was like, “Hey, this might sound a little weird, but I think it could be cool.” And as soon as he told me it was Yächtley Crëw, I got really excited because I knew it was going to be a fun show.

Q: Had you met them before?

POWELL: I know them by reputation. When the press first came out saying that we were playing with them, I had like 10 of my friends reach out to me and say, I’m coming. That is so cool. I love them.

THOMAS GARDNER: Our agent and manager said, “Hey, we’ve heard from the people at Save Ferris that they would be on the show.” And I’m like, “I love Save Ferris,” that would be awesome. I’m a huge fan of that scene. I love Reel Big Fish, and I grew up listening to Sublime and all those kinds of, like, ska punk bands.

And also, you know, Save Ferris was in “10 Things I Hate About You,” that’s what everybody knows, and also their cover of “Come On Eileen.” It’s a different genre. I wouldn’t say everybody likes ska, but a lot of people like Save Ferris, and they know them.

Q: Both bands seem to me to fit together in some strange way. How do you see these genres complementing each other?

GARDNER: People just want to hear good music. Like you said, you can’t really explain why it makes sense, but you’re like, “Oh, yeah.” I just feel like our fans will like them, you know what I mean?

Q: You’re both kinda beachy, and it’s feel-good music so it crosses over maybe.

GARDNER: I think most yacht rock fans will, because the thing about yacht rock is like it wasn’t the cool music like Metallica and AC/DC and stuff like that. You weren’t really wearing the T-shirt in high school of Ambrosia or something like that [in the ’70s and ’80s].

I think fans of yacht rock [today] don’t care what other people think about their music choices. And I think ska has that same thing where it’s like some people are just die-hard ska people, and then other people are like that meme or email I saw: Ska music is what teenage boys listen to while their mom’s cooking pizza rolls or whatever.

Q: How about for you, Monique, with Yächtley Crëw?

POWELL: Well, they have horn players, and so do we. I don’t know, they’re both their own scenes. Like getting into yacht rock is almost like a style of music, like a scene. Ska is its own style of music, has its own scene.

I think what ties it together is just the fun aspect. Like we really have a lot of fun on stage, and from what I can tell from Yächtley Crëw, so do they. So it’s going to be, I don’t know, people are so jazzed about it.

Q: Has Save Ferris done a Skalidaze tour before, or is the first time?

POWELL: This is the first time. And I know we’re playing areas that may snow and a little bit nervous about driving through that. We don’t usually tour in winter for that reason, but I think we’re going to be OK.

Q: Yeah, I mean, Reno, that’s up in the mountains. Denver. You better pack the chains.

POWELL: We’re packing chains. We’re practicing putting them on. We’re just going to be really prepared.

Q: Yacht rock is based on soft rock from the ’70s and ’80s. I wondered how old you are, Tommy.

GARDNER: I’m 42.

Q: Oh, so you may have been conceived to yacht rock.

GARDNER: It’s possible, it’s possible. I don’t want to ask my parents that, but yeah, I was born in ’83, so that’s it was the height of all this happening. Honestly, I grew up, and this was the music that was on in the car. It was on at the laundromat or the grocery store. Even as I got into yacht rock as I got older, I was like, “Oh yeah, I remember this song.”

Q: Your bands both have really busy touring schedules in the United States and overseas this year. What were the highlights?

GARDNER: We went over to Australia to kind of do the international thing for the first time, and it was incredible. You never know how cultural differences are going to translate. Like, OK, our show really works well in the United Staters, but are people in Australia going to think it’s cool or are they going to think this lame? We don’t know.

They just loved it, man. We definitely tailored our set list to the Australian market a little bit. Played Bee Gees and Little River Band and threw in some Australian artists. But honestly, we do those bands anyway, so it worked out. They’re just vocal when they sing, and so that was a great experience, and the country is amazing.

Q: I was going to ask if you played Little River Band there. Also, Air Supply?

GARDNER: Yes, we did Air Supply. “Even the Nights Are Better,” isn’t that Air Supply?

Q: What Little River Band song?

GARDNER: “Reminiscing.”

Q: And Bee Gees?

GARDNER: We do “How Deep is Your Love.” I know a lot of people will consider that disco, but it crosses a little bit into [yacht rock].

Q: What about for Save Ferris?

POWELL: We played Slovenia. It was rad. It was so great. One of my favorite festival shows I’ve ever played.

Q: What made it so? You don’t think of Slovenia having a big ska scene.

POWELL: It was so beautiful how they had the stage set up. They didn’t have barricades; instead they had a platform about two feet below the stage, so people could go up there and dance and crowd surf. Everybody was so kind and responsible and just so considerate of each other and me.

I had all these great moments with people in the audience during the show. This guy came up who was dressed like Jesus, and he was so drunk. We just kinda sat there and hung out for a minute. Then he kept asking me questions like what kind of bass amps my guys use.

I was like, “I’m playing a show, bro,” and I had to tell Jesus to get off my stage. But it was really fun.

Then there was like a lazy river, a river that connected to the back of the stage. So we went to go see this, because it’s supposed to be really beautiful, and all these punk rockers in there, strapping their inflatables together and jumping on the inflatables and floating down the lazy river to get to the stage.

It was like a flamingo, a unicorn, an island oasis. All of these incredible inflatables with these punkers sitting in them with their beers, just floating down. I was dying. It was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. Dude, it was awesome.

Yächtley Crëw with Save Ferris

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 29

Where: Peacock Theater, 777 Chick Hearn Court, Los Angeles

How much: $40

For more: See peacocktheater.com/events