Close your eyes and Ballbreaker sounds just like AC/DC. And for years, that's pretty much what the band was trying to achieve: it covered AC/DC's music with alarming accuracy.

Call it redemption if you want, but on record Ballbreaker finds its own voice within the genre that it used to emulate, and now blasts off into a world of uncharted originality. The original hard rock on the Rochester quintet's latest release, "Daddy Long Legs," rivals the tribute stuff it has been known for.

The talent was always there - it's hard to re-create something like AC/DC without coming off as a lampoon - but the band wanted, and still wants, more. There are riffs and hooks and lyrics burning to get up, get out, get down, and get under your skin. You don't scratch that itch as a cover band.

The boys in Ballbreaker - singer Ed Spock, guitarists Mark Stevens and Steve Felerski, bassist Jerry Harkins, and drummer Todd Tracy - have been at this game for 15 years and have attained an enviable plane; a bar-band Zen, if you will. A place where the music takes precedent over everything else. Rock 'n' roll's youth-driven collision course with oblivion sounds good, but often burns hot before burning out. Ballbreaker continues to rock steady regardless of the size of the payday or the venue.

Spock stopped by to discuss the original vs. cover dichotomy, not being swayed by your limitations, rockin' the outskirts, and how to, well, break some balls. An edited transcript follows.

CITY: So 15 years without killing each other?

Ed Spock: I wouldn't say we've never had a fight; we're just old enough to get past it at this point.

How'd you stumble upon covering AC/DC? I'm guessing it was your voice...

Well, we were trying to figure out our direction. Should we do Scorpions, Judas Priest? And we knew we were going to be a hard-rock band. We hit on AC/DC, and when I sang it they were like, "We need to do this."

When did the urge to work original material come into play?

We had always kicked it around. When Todd [Tracy, drummer] joined the band in 2000 that's when the original ideas really started kicking around. He threw it out there: "Maybe we should start doing original music." We all brought our own different ideas down and worked on 'em.

How'd that work out?

Well, that's why the first CD is all over the board.

Did fans of your AC/DC material bitch?

No, they absolutely loved it. The response we got from it - not just from the fans, but reviewers on the circuit - was great. They all loved it.

Would your original material have come out different if you'd dived right in and done it first?

I don't know if it would have come out different, because we had spent five years together as a band before the first CD came out. We knew how to work the kinks out, we knew how to work with each other, what each other was about at that point.

The idea of rock 'n' roll is youthful abandon. But for a band with members all approaching the half-century mark, there's something to be said about the wisdom, don't you think?

I think the idea of rock ‘n' roll has been lost. I think everybody's looking for money, the big contract. Everybody wants to be polished and be out there and get that big deal and make millions of dollars. That's not what it was all about when it started out. You go back and listen to those classic albums - they're dirty, they're raw.

But if someone offered you a briefcase full of Benjamins for your soul, you'd go for it.

You always hold that dream, don't you? No one's gonna turn it down. "Here's $1 million." "No thanks, don't need it." But we're settled where we are in our lives. We've got other things going on. I've got a 1-year-old at home and we just found out we're going to have another one.

Still, Ballbreaker is growing.

Every time we do something, something bigger happens. Our last CD, "Hangman's Tree," got picked up for distribution by Perris Records which has now gotten this one distributed through Selecta Hits, which is getting us into Best Buy and what they call brick-and-mortars, and they are doing all the digital downloads.

What's the best thing about this added exposure?

It was a big deal for me doing interviews all throughout Canada. Granted, it's not Europe....

So without the million-dollar contracts, mountains of cocaine, and groupie affection, what keeps you going?

It's the crowds, it's the energy they give off - especially in areas just outside Rochester. You go to bars around here and it's almost as if people are too cool to pop. They just stand back there and watch. But the shows we do outside of Rochester, people love it. They're out there dancing, they're out there drinking. Their energy is what drives the music.

Why do you suppose?

I don't know. Maybe because they don't get as many rock shows out there.

How is the band progressing? Where's it headed?

We just want to keep that stripped-down sound. We don't want to be something we're not, we know our limitations. If you go out there and do something you're not, people are going to know. We're rock 'n' roll; this is what we grew up on, it's what we know, it's what we do. We're not schooled, we're not trained. We're schooled in the live experience.

What are your limitations?

I can't sing like Geoff Tate.

Ballbreaker

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