He may take it as "the band was playing as the ship went down" as in still servicing the people regardless of a sinking ship, and not understanding the Nero reference (which isn't true by the way). Either way you know he will spin anything to look like praise.
This is as direct a Nero reference as one could make without literally writing "nero" in the meme.
If anyone is unable to understand this, i question if they made it past 10th grade. If you take it as anything else, u are not educated period