Local rock band to perform at Community Day

by Mary Kay Quinn

Dancing, music and magic are on the bill for Richfield Community Day, along with concessions, a raffle and fireworks.
Among the performers will be Slam, a rock band made up of three Bath 13-year-olds and a Copley 17-year-old.
The group began a couple of years ago when a few students performed “The Pink Panther Theme” on the French horn and other band instruments for a Revere High School variety show. It is now a rock band with gigs that include an art show and a wedding reception, said Karen Hogan, mother of drummer Sam Hogan.
The more shows the better, said Myles Kelly, who plays guitar and sings.
“We felt it would be fun, it would be good practice and overall be good to do,” Kelly said of playing at the Richfield festival.
Slam expects to play two to three songs. The band likes to cover the Beatles, Foo Fighters, Jet and the White Stripes, Sam Hogan said.
Other members are Lorenzo Ortiz on guitar and Copley resident Christian Petit on bass and vocals. Hogan, Kelly and Ortiz will be eighth-graders at Revere Middle School; Petit, whom Hogan met at Fairlawn School of Music, will be a senior at Copley.
Since the band took its present shape in January, it has been rehearsing at least once a week at the Hogan home, where there is a new basement music room.
Even in summer, the teens get together for practice on Mondays, Hogan said.
It’s fun playing with friends who like the same type of music, Kelly said. “It’s easier to communicate with them. So I feel like they all understand what we want to do, and we all have the same idea.”
Hogan hopes to become a professional musician as an adult; he is a seasoned musician, having started on drums at age 2. Besides playing at school, he has performed in a middle school band at Grace Church in Bath.
Slam does not write its own music, but Hogan said Petit likes composing. “We’re trying to come up with a few originals,” Hogan said. ∞

Photo: Sam Hogan, 13, Lorenzo Ortiz 13, Christian Petit, 17 and Myles Kelly, 13, will perform as a rock band, Slam, at this year’s Richfield Community Day. Photo submitted.