The story of Rocket from the Tombs is one of ups and downs. The punk pioneers formed in Cleveland in 1974 but never recorded an album. They then disbanded after only a year to work on other projects.
The original lineup featured Peter Laughner on guitar and vocals, David Thomas (Crocus Behemoth) on saxophone and vocals, Gene O’Connor (Cheetah Chrome) on guitar, Craig Bell on bass guitar and Johnny Madansky (Johnny Blitz) on drums.
Laughner and front man Thomas went on to form experimental rock band Pere Ubu, which started a significant alternative rock movement in Cleveland and throughout the country. O’Connor and Madan-sky started the Dead Boys.
Ten years ago, the surviving members of the original Rocket from the Tombs lineup gathered bootleg recordings and lost recordings from “back in the day” and produced the album The Day the Earth Met Rocket from the Tombs. The band really wanted to produce a cleaner version of the 20-year-old bootlegs.
“The recordings had been passed around on fifth, sixth, seventh generation cassettes that basically kept our name alive and kept a lot of people interested in Rocket from the Tombs, even though we had ceased, technically, to exist in 1975,” said Bell.
After the Day the Earth Met Rocket from the Tombs released, Thomas convinced Bell and O’Connor to play a one-off show in Los Angeles. The surviving original members agreed to regroup for this singular show, recruiting Pere Ubu, drummer Steve Mehlman and Richard Lloyd from the post-punk band Television.
“We were honestly thinking, ‘We’ll play one show; it’ll be great, that’ll be it,’” said Bell. “Well, the show was phenomenal. We played out at UCLA, and we had people coming from as far as New Zealand just to come to this show.”
The newly reformed Rocket from the Tombs quickly set up a small tour after the response from the Los Angeles show.
“We said, ‘Let’s do a little six-city tour,’” said Bell. “So, we played New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Philadelphia and a couple other places. Everywhere we went, people came out in droves. We were amazed.”
The band knew Rocket from the Tombs fans still existed, listened to the music, and spread the word, but never realized the commitment of old fans and new converts.
Rocket from the Tombs scheduled a longer national tour after the mini-tour, starting on the West Coast, visiting Cana-da, traveling across the United States, down the East Coast into the South, ultimately playing 28 shows in 31 days.
“The band kept getting tighter and tighter,” said Bell. “And we thought, well, ‘Here we are, I guess we’re a band again, let’s try to do some things.’”
After the “reunion tour” and national tour in 2003, Rocket from the Tombs visited Europe and completed several more national tours.
“What turned out to be just one show has turned into 10 years of some really great times and some really incredible music.”
For those who may not know, Rocket from the Tombs essentially laid the foundation for the punk music scene. The band gained small notoriety in 1974 and 1975 and the legend lived on through Pere Ubu and the Dead Boys.
“Well, when we started [in 1974], there really wasn’t such a thing as ‘punk,’” said Bell. “We always thought of ourselves as just a rock ‘n’ roll band. We just wanted to play music, and we wanted to play the music that we liked.”
The band originally found influence in groups like Velvet Underground, The MC5, The Trogs and The Kinks.
“Whatever influence someone brought to the band, we tried to meld that into the sound,” said Bell. “It just so happened that we became a… I don’t know the word I’m searching for… ‘icon’ is a bit too pretentious, but we were a model for when the punk scene did hit.”
Pere Ubu and the Dead Boys–the two bands who evolved out of Rocket from the Tombs–continued to play songs originally written and performed by Rocket from the Tombs.
“The punk movement sort of picked up on this ‘legendary’ band where all these great songs came from,” said Bell. “But really, in the be-ginning, all we wanted to be was, I don’t know, Foreigner or Blue Öyster Cult. We wanted to be rock stars,” said Bell with a laugh.
Fret not, converted fans, Rocket from the Tombs plans on working on another album very soon. Next weekend, the band plans on visiting a recording studio in Cleveland and recording some songs for a single expected to be released by the end of the year. The band then hopes to write and record a second full-length album before the end of 2013.
“We’re definitely looking to record with this new lineup,” said Bell.
Now Appalachian fans can get a taste of the band’s live show. Rocket from the Tombs have booked a show in Athens at The Union for Saturday night of Homecoming Weekend.
The band readily awaits the younger, college crowd.
“We’ve been getting a very varied audience at the shows we’ve done in the past year,” said Bell. “I think that we’re going to get a great response.”
The band hopes to be a treat for the alumni in town, too.
“I’ve had a lot of people come up to me after shows, young and old, who are very knowledgeable about the band and very knowledgeable about the songs,” said Bell. “I feel that the younger audience is aware of us and that they’re into it.”
Expect a mixture of new material from the album Barfly and the old material from the bands formation in 1974.
“I think they’re going to find that we are one kickass, guitar-driven rock ‘n’ roll band in a great tradition of the bands from Cleve-land, Ohio,” said Bell. “That’s how we like to think of ourselves: one kickass Cleveland band.”
The band plays at The Union this Saturday at 10 p.m.
Current students and alumni need to make it out to the show. Rocket from the Tombs truly deserves recognition in rock history and a packed Union for the show.
Bell offered one last piece of advice for concertgoers: “Bring two pairs of socks, ‘cause you’re gonna be leaving with one. ‘Cause they’re coming off.”
Originally published on ACRN.com.
Jacob Betzner 