Rocktologists – local doctors and their instruments

It’s a quiet Wednesday evening at Dr. Barrett’s office on Stites Street in Court House, when one by one the doctors arrive, instruments in hand, followed by an operating room nurse and a state police lieutenant. They meet in the oversized reception area and begin to set up for a different kind of medical practice—a few hours of raucous fun and rock and roll.
The Rocktologists came together about four years ago to play for Cape Regional’s Scrub Show, a sort of talent show for hospital employees. And they had so much fun that didn’t want to stop.
Today they form a unique take on a garage band—one that transforms a formal doctor’s office waiting room into a music studio, and a group of local medical professionals (and one law enforcement officer) into rock and roll stars…well, sort of.
The group admittedly doesn’t practice as much as they’d like, and their policy is to play just one gig a month.
“The less we play, the better we sound,” keyboardist, Dr. Randy Nuschke quipped.
They could play a lot more, according to Nuschke, who has practiced Internal Medi-cine at Cape Regional Medical Center for 21 years.
“When you play for free, you have no shortage of jobs,” he said.
But the band members agree to limit their performances to events for local charities like Brendan Borek High Tides Memorial Fund and Love of Linda. Their next performance is at the Rubber Ducky Regatta for the United Way of Cape May County at Mariner’s Landing Water Park in Wildwood on Sunday Aug. 10 at 6 p.m.
Juggling busy careers, family life and musical aspirations isn’t easy. Someone is al-ways on call or out of town or busy with fam-ily, “so we’re like the Lego band,” New Jersey State Police Lt. Dennis Donovan said, always working with the pieces they have.
Luckily, they have an impressive pool of talent to pull from. Most of the band mem-bers have been playing music longer than they’ve practiced medicine. Cape Regional Emergency Medical Doctor, Dom Coletta sings and is the band’s frontman. Shore Memorial nurse, Steve Face Fuchs plays the bass with The Rocktologists and with The Mighty Parrot Band, as well. Podiatrist, Dr. Charles Birk plays the guitar, the harmonica and sings.
Cape Regional Gastroenterologist, Dr. Dave Lanset plays the drums, and Orthopae-dic Surgeon, Dr. Tom Barrett plays guitar and offers his office for practice (undoubtedly to the relief of the doctors’ wives, who might not appreciate giving up their ga-rages).
Lt. Donovan, the only non-medical profes-sional, rounds out the performances by singing and playing guitar and bagpipes. He got involved with the band through Nuschke, with whom he attended Villa Nova, but he holds his own among the doctors.
“I did have rudimentary crash injury training,” he said, and like all the band’s mem-bers he enjoys the camaraderie and joking. Case in point, he was thrilled to learn about the bands new t-shirts, emblazoned with a naked tushie (that’s medical terminology), musical notes and the band’s slogan–“The Rocktologists—Music to your Rears.”
Luckily, they intend to keep their day jobs.