If you were involved in underground music in the capital region around 2003 (give or take), then you probably heard the name Rockets and Bluelights. And it was probably said with the kind of reverence and respect that you would generally associate with the first few Clash albums or Fugazi’s Repeater. Their full name, Rockets and Bluelights Close At Hand, a not-at-all-ambiguous reference to Joseph Mallord William Turner’s painting of (almost) the same name, might have implied to any astute art majors that these guys were pretentious indie snobs (but wait, if you’re an art major, aren’t you…?). That presumption couldn’t have been further from the truth. What the reference should have implied was that this band was about the big picture. Not in the ‘music business’ sense of the word, not in the ‘life aspirations’ sense of the word… but more like a beautiful landscape transcribed into music. Often ethereal and almost trance inducing, the mostly instrumental arrangements pre-dated the rise of bands like Explosions in the Sky, while maintaining more of a traditional song structure than post-rock, Godspeed You! Black Emperor types. Yet, it felt just as at home in the confines of a dirty basement or on the floor of Valentine’s as it would have been, at times, soundtracking a National Geographic documentary of Antarctica.

The vocals, shouted or hushed, we’re so infrequent that they served only to highlight specific moments or to help paint a somewhat more focused picture of what was happening in the song. It usually wasn’t much to go on, but at their shows everyone seemed to crowd around, waiting for the moments when they got to shout along with the band before immediately being re-immersed in the music. The limited online press surrounding Rockets uses the term ‘midwest emo’ to describe their sound. Although there are certainly parallels to early Braid, Mineral, or even the Get Up Kids, it’s a pretty unfair branding, especially considering what emo means in 2011. To me they seemed to have more in common with some bands from Plan-it X or No Idea Records: Army of Ponch, I Hate Myself, even Kickball.

I will admit that I wasn’t a fan at first. The first time I saw them they were called Friendshipisterrible, at the first Kissy-Kiss Love Affair at Valentine’s (this would have been… February 14th of 2002? With Amazing Plaid and Kitty Little?). They hadn’t yet settled into their trademark ‘we don’t play on stages’ mantra and, although I’m sure I would appreciate it in hindsight, I wasn’t yet into instrumental music and they were still experiencing some ‘new band’ difficulties with sound and hearing one-another. (I have just come to realize that I have been mistaken all these years, Friendship Is Terrible was not an earlier iteration of R&B, and featured none of the same members… not sure which band I saw this time – sorry!). After they became Rockets and Bluelights I saw them a few times, not disliking it, but also not able to get totally lost in the awesomeness of it. It usually had less to do with the music and more to do with the horde of “sweaty, ‘I-don’t-believe-in-deodorant’, vegan” types that would crowd around the band and shout along (many of those people would later become my friends…). But they also occasionally covered Built to Spill’s ‘Big Dipper’, so I was always cool with that part.

My revelation wouldn’t come until Halloween of that year when, en-route to Valentine’s, my friend Jeffro couldn’t stop talking about how awesome their drummer was. There were a lot of bands playing, but I’m having difficulty remembering most of them. I recall Kitty Little playing with a second guitar player (that was that dudes Halloween costume… the 4th member of Kitty Little) and Madeline Ferguson – complete with someone wearing one hell of a Wolverine costume. And, on the upstairs floor, Rockets and Bluelights played, with their sweaty horde in tow. I kind of hung around in the back for the first half of their set, talking to some friends, and it really started to bug me that there were all these people dancing and having fun and I just didn’t get why I didn’t get it. So, I moved up closer and really watched them intently for the first time. I’d love to say that I had some epiphany in that moment, but it didn’t happen that way. I certainly left their set with a new found appreciation, but it would be a while before I’d make claims about how they were the best band to ever come out of Albany (they are).

Thankfully, many of the other local bands that I loved would frequently play with Rockets, thus exposing me time and time again until I reached a point where it just seemed silly that there was a time when I wasn’t into them. My ever-expanding taste in music eventually grew to embrace their sparse use of vocals, their loud-quiet-loud dynamics and frenetic rhythms. Rockets shows became this kind of cult happening where the band seemed to advertise less and less, yet the crowds would often get exponentially bigger.

Maybe you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, but as there were ever-increasing rumors that Rockets were breaking up, it made every show a monumental experience. They would play off-and-on for several years, people always speculating that it would be their last one, and it got to a point where it seemed like the only people who weren’t talking about their imminent break-up was the band themselves. I was never close to the guys, I met them all on multiple occasions and they were all very nice, but I can’t say from any sort of close, personal relationship what lead to their break up. But it never seemed like a ‘break-up’. They would get together, maybe for the last time, play through some epic jams and then go about all the other things that life is about – work, travelling, girls, other bands, and finding a higher calling in life. I don’t know how much of any of that is true, people who hang around bands and discuss their personal lives usually aren’t known for their sobriety or excellent memory, but that’s what it seemed like from the outside – there were no epic ‘Behind the Music’ type moments, it was great thing that they did, but then they moved on to do other great things. As a fan, it’s hard to take in; you always want something that you like to perpetuate itself (which is why, I suppose, people still cling on to hopes of a new Pixies album?), and as much as I love their recordings, some of the ‘new’ songs they played at their last shows were incredible. If there is ever a way to relive old, worn-out memories those would probably be the first in line for me.

The great thing about it is I know I’m not alone. I talk to people who were there, who were closer to the band than I was, who saw them more than I did, and everyone agrees that they were one of those special, life affirming bands that should have made it out of the (greater) capital region. To some extent they did, with a few tours and some out of town shows, but not to the success that lesser bands have enjoyed. It was interesting for me to see, while scouring the internet for miscellaneous information, was how many people outside of the region were turned on to them either by word-of-mouth, or thanks to the limited promotion of their Redder Records release. But ultimately, they are uniquely our own, no other region can claim them, and no other region loved them more.

Video by Bryan Hamill

Rockets and Blue Lights were:

Rajesh Harde – guitar
David ‘Este’ Estabrook – drumset
Enoch Secovnie – guitar
Andrew Weaver – bass

You can buy their 10″ EP at Redder Records

Download the unofficial ‘Anthology‘. Includes the EP, the Close At Hand demo, and the 7 additional tracks sold at the last show.

All stories are subject to discrepancies that are inevitable when trying to remember exactly how things went down many years and hundreds of beers ago. If you have details pertaining to any of these articles, or would like to add supplementary media, music, personal accounts, or anything else, please email ferguson@b3nson.net. Also, if you were once in any of the bands mentioned and would like to include anything, edit anything, or omit anything, please let me know. If you are interested in contributing your own article about a favorite Capital Region band, please contact me. I would love to get more stories and insight!

Previously on 518 Mixtape…
Foreward/Rewind