Interview: RRX Speaks with the Founder of Rocksackie Music Series

Interview: Brian Jakusik (Rocksackie Music Series) Founder

By: Rob Smittix

Photo By: Stephanie J. Bartik

RRX: You just did a couple of the first installments of Rocksackie down in Coxsackie and they look to have been pretty successful so far with more shows on the way. And I know there’s a lot of work that goes into that, but how’s it going?

BJ: You know, it couldn’t be better, honestly. It’s a little labor of love. The whole thing came about actually as an entrepreneurship project for my high school students to work on. It just happens to be the right market, the right opportunity and the right venue (The Wire Event Center). So we put this music series together, invented the name Rocksackie because it’s in Coxsackie. We happened upon this big beautiful hotel and event center that was just recently built. It’s primarily a wedding venue or has been, it’s only a couple of years old. It was dead for the winter. I said, oh cool… I can help you guys bring some people here, put some eyeballs on the place if you can give me a cool place to put something together and they did. We started working on it and developed Rocksackie.
Fortunately, I was lucky enough to meet the love of my life about a year and a half ago, who lived in Cobleskill and introduced me to this music scene. Coming from Boston, I was blown away about how amazing the people are, the bands are, the talent and the venues all over the place. It all just kind of came together as life pointed me in the right direction and we got the series started. I wouldn’t kick it off without Tommy Love, who happens to be my favorite rock star of all time and the Tom Atkins Band. We opened a Friday series on a Saturday, which is ludicrous but you do what you gotta do to have Tommy Love kick the show off.

We were lucky, we had like 171 people on a brand new pop-up. I call it a Cinderella series because come midnight it’s gone. It turns into a pumpkin. Raven Events gives us a fantastic light show with arena sound. We had it in a smaller room, which was all glass. I mean, we rocked it with Tommy Love and Tom Atkins! We were probably at 120 decibels of beautiful sound in that room. And quite honestly, we made maybe 40 older people leave and I was okay with that because it’s rock and roll. If you’re not here to rock you gotta walk, right? Our second show, which was Johnny Clifford, had already sold out of VIP tickets, which was a raised thing we had behind the bar in the smaller room. I started to get calls and the hotel started to get angry calls asking why aren’t there more tickets?

I’m like… okay, so we moved it to the big room, which was scary because this is a 12,000 square foot ballroom. I mean, it is stunningly gorgeous. It’s in a five star hotel, it overlooks the Hudson River and it is beautiful. It got too big, too fast but somehow we put over 300 people at the second show, which is a testament obviously to Johnny Clifford and The Brokenhearted band. And man, did they put on a show. What I was able to actually see was the image in my head from the first time I walked into this facility. I had this image in my head of what it would look like only if everything comes together perfectly. And then at 8:01PM It happens. There was 100 people on the dance floor in front of the stage, rocking out with Johnny Clifford and The Brokenhearted.

RRX: I saw photos from the last show, it looked highly successful, tons of people out in the crowd. I was so happy for you. Coxsackie, I’m very familiar with because I’ve lived down that way before. I mean, it’s a cool little town but they’ve never had anything like this before and I think that’s part of the beauty of it. A place like Coxsackie, needed something like this. Up here in the more populated region where we’re located, I mean.. there’s a lot of different venues to choose from but down there that’s something that they’ve never had. And for people that don’t live down that way, I also know you got a bus deal going on, where you bring people down.

BJ: We’re creating the best experience possible and I’m giving it that much more. We created the rock bus because we have our circle of friends that are in the music scene in Troy, Schenectady and Albany. They’re like, oh man, it’s like 35 minutes away… we want to enjoy a cocktail. We want to be able to dance. We’re going to be tired. What do we do? A lot of people want to go but their stumbling block is I don’t want to drive 35 minutes. So I said, we can fix that. We have a great partner in Coxsackie Transport and we’ve got some party buses. King’s Inn is gonna be our Schenectady location with a 24 party bus every Friday and a 40 party bus out of September’s Too will be our Albany/Colonie pick up. For $40 you get a party bus ride from Albany or Schenectady to Coxsackie to this big beautiful 12,000 square foot facility with stadium sound, where you can dance, jam and have food at restaurants. You’ll have a good time, not have to drive and you get a VIP Table seat. I’ll reserve the tables for all my bus folks and it will be stage front. Then you get shipped back when the show ends. We’re gonna drop you back off at 12:30AM at the pickup location and each pickup location is gonna have an afterparty until God knows when, at least 2AM.

RRX: Absolutely and Coxsackie’s gotta be thankful because you’re putting them back on the map for this sort of thing.

BJ: (Laughs) I mean, no longer just known for the virus.

RRX: Beforehand, if you were a band and you were mainstream enough, you would maybe play in the gazebo and there was one bar on the main drag that bands could play but besides that… now you’ve got yourself a real venue. Keep the momentum going!

BJ: And listen… Xperience has as much to do with it as anything else. You guys have been great in helping us promote this and all the extra things you do for us. I could not be more thankful.

Upcoming ROCKSACKIE Events
For Tickets or More Info Visit: rocksackie.com

2/7: MIKE & THE MONSTERS w/s/g ON THE EDGE
2/14: KISSTORY -LOVE GUN VALENTINE’S DAY SPECIAL
2/21: GINGER GEEZUS w/s/g JOE ADEE & THE LUG NUTS
2/28: BIG EMPTY w/s/g PSYCHO MUTTON CHOPS
3/7: SOUTHBOUND RENEGADE
3/14: BLACK CAT ELLIOT w/s/g: DAVE GRAHAM & THE DISASTER PLAN
3/21: SHADOWS OF THE NIGHT w/s/g: FORCE OF HABIT
3/28: THE CYNZ w/s/g: DMITRY WILD