After years of playing together in Del Ray, “Sorry” is calling it quits with a final blowout performance.
Why the split? The band hasn’t fallen prey to familiar rock star pitfalls. Instead, its members are going to college, and like dozens of other bands with Rock of Ages Music (ROAM) school will commemorate the end of the spring program with a pair of concerts in May and June.
Guitarists Nathan Poulin and Juan Ramirez, both 18, have taken classes in the rock school since 2018. They attend the private Landon School in Bethesda, and have studied and played music most of their lives. So has their drummer, Nate Niblock, 17, a graduating senior at Alexandria City High School.
Of the three, Niblock is the only player who is pursuing a career in music.
Poulin is going to attend the University of Michigan this fall to study aerospace engineering.
“I’m leaning towards the space aspect of it,” Poulin said. “I’m still not sure if that means rockets or satellites or anything else that could be up there.”
Niblock is going to study jazz at Virginia Commonwealth University this fall.
“I’ve been around music my entire life,” he said. “Like, from birth. I was in music classes when I was like two, taking music theory when I was six, and now I’m going to be studying to be a professional musician at VCU.”
Ramirez will study music technology with a concentration on business at Temple University. After spending most of his life performing, he’s finally had it, he says. Playing live music in front of audiences makes him nervous, a feeling that has endured despite an enormous amount of experience.
“I’ve been a performance musician my whole life,” he said. “I’m tired of playing, because during 16 years I’ve realized that performing is probably the most stressful thing I’ve ever done.”
ROAM owner John Patrick says that only a small percentage of his students go on to become professionals. He said that music is an international language, and that by becoming players his students learn lessons that last a lifetime.
“When these kids open their minds to music, they find that they can do the same with anything,” Patrick said. “It’s all the musical and social qualities that they learn along the way that help them for the rest of their lives.”
Patrick said that he is actively looking for a venue in Alexandria for regular live performances.
“I’m looking forward to an opportunity around the corner that could lead to a guaranteed performance space,” he said. “I’ve been trying desperately to figure out a way to get a venue in Alexandria, that we could use more often. There aren’t there aren’t enough actual venues in Alexandria, that, that that are set up for something like that.”
ROAM will host two concerts for its 24 bands on May 26 (Sunday) and June 2 (also Sunday). The fliers for both events are below.
Incidentally, Hanoi Ragmen, a ROAM band that has stayed together, is performing with RDGLDGRN on June 8 at Howard University.
