BELLEFONTE — There’s a certain kind of night the Bellefonte Cruise does better than just about anywhere else. It hums before it ever roars. Chrome gleams in the fading light, families drift between food stands and storefronts and somewhere between nostalgia and neon, the music starts to take over.
This year, that sound belongs to The Rocket Blasters.
Headlining Friday night on the main stage, the four-piece band isn’t arriving as a polished, pre-packaged tribute act or a one-era nostalgia machine. They’re bringing something looser, louder and more alive. They’re brining a full-spectrum, power cord driven, decades-spanning set built on instinct, chemistry and the simple idea that music should make people move.
“We wanted to be more of a top 40 radio hits kind of band,” drummer and manager Bernie Oravec said. “So the people hearing music from the 60s, 70s and 80s till today would have heard 90% of these songs on a radio or on a 45. We want to be more hit space because that’s what people really want to hear.”
The Rocket Blasters — Oravec on drums, Stephanie Daratany on lead vocals and auxiliary percussion, Nash Turley on guitar and vocals and Martin Sheridan on bass — came together in early 2023, not through childhood friendships or long-laid plans, but through the kind of winding, chance connections that seem to define the best bands.
“We’ve just met each other through mutual friends and other bands,” Oravec said. “None of us were childhood friends or anything.”
What they did share was a vision. Not just to play music, but to play the right kind of music. The kind that fills dance floors, sparks recognition and keeps people lingering a little longer than they planned.
“We’re not a jam band. We’re not playing long virtuoso solos,” Oravec said. “We just want to be there for people to dance, have a good time.”
That philosophy shapes everything they do, from their setlist to their sound. With a repertoire of more than 150 songs, the band pulls from across eras but for Bellefonte, they’re leaning into the classics. The songs that feel like they’ve always been there.
Artists like The Rolling Stones, CCR, The Kinks, Pat Benatar, Blondie, Madonna, Bryan Adams, John Mellencamp, David Bowie and T. Rex are all part of the mix.
“We’re gonna kind of hone in for the Bellefonte Cruise on the 1960s, 70s and 80s,” Oravec said. “It’s the type of crowd we expect to be there. We’re gonna do our very best to give them what we think they’ll really enjoy.”
But what makes The Rocket Blasters stand out isn’t just what they play. It’s how they play it.
Stripped down to guitar, bass, drums and vocals, there are no backing tracks, no safety nets. Songs that were once built around keyboards or layered production are reimagined into something rawer, heavier and unmistakably their own.
“What you see on stage is what you hear,” Oravec said. “There’s no backing electronic tracks. There’s no karaoke music being played. I mean, what you see is what you get.”
That approach gives even the most familiar songs a new edge. A synth-heavy anthem becomes guitar-driven. A country tune takes on a rock-and-roll bite. Everything carries a little more grit.
“It’s going to sound like a rock and roll version of a country song,” Oravec said. “We just play and we play hard. We have fun together.”
The band practices only a handful of times a year, relying instead on the energy of live performance to sharpen their sound.
“We may only get together three to four times a year to practice and we play 70 shows,” Oravec said. “It’s baptism under fire. You play it two or three times and either it works or it doesn’t.”
It’s a philosophy that embraces imperfection, and in doing so, makes every show feel alive.
“There’ll be times where you’ll be in a show and somebody will foul something up or there’ll be an argument,” Oravec said. “But you get over it. It’s just part of the business. Part of what makes music so interesting.”
That authenticity is part of what the band believes connects with audiences.
“There’s a time and a place for everything,” Oravec said. “But we’re like a live pub band, if you will.”
And maybe that’s the heartbeat of it all. Not perfection. Not precision. Just presence.
It helps that the band itself is anything but ordinary. Daratany brings roots from New York City, Turley from Seattle, Sheridan from Manchester, England and Oravec from Johnstown — all now anchored in central Pennsylvania, all bringing their own influences into a shared sound.
“It’s kind of just destiny,” Oravec said. “We all just came together and there’s no rhyme or reason for it.”
That mix of backgrounds shows up not just in the music but in the voices. While Daratany leads, multiple members step into the spotlight throughout the night, giving the performance a dynamic, ever-shifting feel.
“They’re going to hear at least three different lead vocalists throughout the show,” Oravec said. “Which we think is fun.”
For a band that plays upward of 70 shows a year across central Pennsylvania — from Johnstown to Lewistown, from Arts Fest to the Grange Fair — the Bellefonte Cruise still carries its own weight.
“We’re excited about it,” Oravec said. “I think what this allows is an opportunity to see and hear a whole lot of different songs played in a whole lot of different genres.”
But beyond the setlist, beyond the decades and the dance floor, the goal is simple.
“When the amps go quiet, we want them to go away feeling happy,” Oravec said. “We want someone to come to our show and go home feeling better than they did when they came in.”
And that’s the thing about nights like the Bellefonte Cruise. The cars eventually roll out. The streets quiet down. The lights dim.
But if the music does its job and if it hits just right, something sticks.
A song. A moment in time. A feeling you carry home with you.
For The Rocket Blasters, that’s the whole point.
