Old enough to rock

Riverfield Rocks musicians boldly tackle grown-up set lists on a classic stage

Imagine you’re backstage at the historic Cain’s Ballroom. Chatter from the sold-out crowd grows as people flood through the doors. The lights dim, and the venue bursts into ecstatic cheers as you take the stage and launch into the performance of your life. Now imagine you’re 14 years old. 

Riverfield Rocks is a music program founded by Director Paul Knight at Riverfield Country Day School. As early as 4^th grade, students can enroll in Rock Band as an elective. Each year, the program sets 100 children on hand-tailored paths that marry music and performance with academic growth. In its 10^th year, Riverfield Rocks held its annual recital-turned-rock concert at Cain’s in January.

The night began with a surprise performance by Riverfield’s drum line. The Blue and Green Beat Machine’s up-close and personal performance on the floor was a perfect indicator of the talent we’d witness throughout the night. While the drum line impressed the crowd encircling them, the youngest band, The New Emojis, took their places onstage. Without skipping a beat, the two began performing together—a triumphant introduction that led directly into The New Emojis’ take on Band of Horses’ “Is There a Ghost.”

Every musician knows there’s no show like a home show. A crowd full of your family and friends has its definite advantages, and the musicians of Riverfield Rocks knew exactly how to tap into that. Some performers bantered with the audience and jumped down in front of the crowd, some had choreography and costume changes, and some never even looked up from their instruments. Many of the 11 acts shared members, and some had been playing together for years. The best performances beamed with the excitement of friends sharing the stage and the thrill of doing so at such an iconic venue. 

Most impressive was how the musicians tackled the dense catalog of music they performed. Sets featured a lot of material by newer groups like Phantogram and the aforementioned Band of Horses. But the students also showed that their rock history lessons have been paying off with songs by the Beatles, The Who and the infamous friends of the ballroom, Sex Pistols.

I was surprised to hear this coming from such young musicians, but what I learned from the concert is something Riverfield Rocks’ Paul Knight clearly already knew: never underestimate a child. No student was considered too young to know a song or too green a musician to perform it, whether they were smaller than their instruments or seniors with full-ride music scholarships. No student was celebrated over the rest.

The bands challenge students to constantly communicate with and trust one another. And that’s precisely the true accomplishment of a concert like Riverfield Rocks. It’s not in the profits from the merch table or the articles like this one written to praise it. It’s the lessons on collaboration and mutual respect afforded to these very talented kids and young adults.

For more information on the Riverfield Rocks program, visit facebook.com/RiverfieldRocks.