GILROY — When talking about the Gilroy Garlic Festival, only
one name comes to mind when it comes to entertainment
– a name that is bigger than life, a name that inspires thoughts
of the party atmosphere of the festival, a name that sounds as loud
as speakers blasting the band’s rock ‘n’ roll hits. That name is
Shaboom.
GILROY — When talking about the Gilroy Garlic Festival, only one name comes to mind when it comes to entertainment – a name that is bigger than life, a name that inspires thoughts of the party atmosphere of the festival, a name that sounds as loud as speakers blasting the band’s rock ‘n’ roll hits. That name is Shaboom.
The band will take the Garlic Festival stage for the 20th straight year Saturday, but only now are the bandmembers really starting to understand what it means to the community of Gilroy.
“We used to play and go back up (to San Jose),” Shaboom drummer Mike Madden said. “We had no idea.”
What started out as a band created just to raise funds for a high school athletics program has turned into an icon in Gilroy.
“I didn’t realize that old students come back to Gilroy, meet up and say, ‘See you Saturday at Shaboom,’ ” said John Dotson, one of the group’s two lead singers. “They come back.”
The Garlic Festival has always meant a lot to the members of Shaboom, for without their first festival appearance, the band might not even exist today. However, while the band is always well-received when they go off and play at different festivals and events, nothing matches the love affair with the people of the Garlic Capital of the World.
“People like us, but not as much as in Gilroy,” he said. “It’s a phenomena.”
Madden agreed.
“There’s a magic, and I don’t know what it is,” Madden said. “There are groups that are way more rehearsed and way better, but no one gets a response like we do. (The other bands) just shake their heads.
“It’s about having a good time, having a party.”
It all started 22 years ago with a six-person band started by John Dotson and singer Dee Quinet. The two Independence High School teachers and football coaches created the band just to do fund-raising shows.
“When it started, it was a cafeteria thing to raise money for the program,” Dotson said. “We thought we were pretty good, but the kids will make you think you’re good whether you are or not.”
Madden was the president of the PTA, and he was asked to join the band by Dotson. Madden had a history with music – he was a member of Jamie and the Jury, a band signed by Columbia Records and had the same producer as the Byrds and Paul Revere and the Raiders. However, Jamie and the Jury (named by Columbia) never experienced the same luck as the other bands.
So the band members, now including Madden, continued playing fund-raising shows in San Jose until they were approached by a high school student who said they could do something a little bigger.
“One of the kids at the high school had a connection with the Gilroy Garlic Festival,” Madden said. “He said he could get us in there.”
So, in 1983 Shaboom came and played its first Garlic Festival show.
“That was the beginning of our public popularity, at that first Garlic Festival,” Dotson said. “Very definitely it started at the festival.”
After that festival performance, Rick Peterson met up with Shaboom and invited the group to play at the now-defunct Beach Street Reunion Car Show at Coconut Grove in Santa Cruz. Then Willie Davidson, founder of Hot August Nights in Reno, asked the band to come to his event, where they played along with the likes of Frankie and the Avalons and Jan and Dean.
“We’ve never solicited our work,” Madden said. “It was a funny thread, but it all started with the Garlic Festival.”
Now among its many appearances over the years, the band has played at car shows as far away as South Dakota and have played in Las Vegas and in Hawaii, but playing in front of a packed house at Christmas Hill Park is the best.
“Nothing tops Saturday at the Garlic Festival,” Dotson said.
The band now consists of Dotson and Quinet singing, Dale Debruin on the bass, Tom Sousa on the keyboards, Madden on drums, Pepe Martinez on lead guitar and Richard Zuniga on the saxophone.
The band has lost a few guys who moved away over the years – most notably Corky Black, Bruce Berg and Bob Newell – and only Dotson, Quinet and DeBruin still teach, but the band has lived on.
“We’ve had some changes, but that happens over 20 years,” Madden said. “Most of the guys are grandfathers. … I would say the average age of the group is 55.
“We used to grease our hair back, now we don’t have hair to grease.”
But Madden said he wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.
“To think that I would be playing rock ‘n’ roll with my grandson next to me is pretty amazing,” he said. “It’s all about family … and anyone who is out there becomes a part of that family.”
Among the songs the group plays are hits from the 1950s and ’60s including Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dion and the Beach Boys.
“We limit ourselves to old-time American rock ‘n’ roll,” Dotson said.
Even though the songs speak to an older generation, Dotson said the the group’s influence hasn’t just been on older folks.
We get people from 8 years old to 80 years old, but our average crowd is from the mid-30s to the mid-50s,” he said.
Madden said it has everything to do with the style of the music.
“We’ve started to see that turnaround (of generations),” he said. “A lot of it has to do with old time rock ‘n’ roll. It’s simple, you can sing the words, you can tap your feet to it.”
Not only has Gilroy been good to Shaboom for music, but two Shaboom members now call Gilroy their home.
“Dee moved to Gilroy first, and I followed him,” said Madden, who came to Gilroy 18 months ago. “We made a difference here, and it was a good thing. It’s very warming.”
Madden said he often is approached by locals asking about his ties to the band – including Gilroy Police Chief Gregg Guisiana.
“We get treated like we’re something special,” Madden said.
Dotson said he also has had people recognize him when he’s in town, but his most memorable story comes from a family from Minnesota.
“They made a list of all these festivals around the country, and they ran their finger down the list and said, ‘Hey, let’s see what this Garlic Festival is all about,’ ” Dotson said. “They came down and saw us play, and the next time we see them, they have ‘Shaboom’ on their license plates. They’ve been to every cruise since. They come and see us in Reno. They follow us everywhere we play.
“I’ve got the license plate on my wall from Minnesota.”
The interest in the band in Gilroy and in the San Jose area also pushed the band to start up the Shaboom cruise, a seven-day cruise where fans of the band could get together and have a good time.
The band stopped doing the cruises five years ago, but it is bringing the cruise back in April 2004.
And Madden said he hopes the fun and the memories don’t end anytime soon.
“We’re always worried about the year we set up and no one shows up,” he said. “I know when it’s over, I’ll never play again.
“I don’t want that to happen,” he said. “It’s been a wonderful thing.”
And Madden won’t forget Gilroy’s role in the band’s success.
“None of that would’ve happened if these guys handn’t started playing rock ‘n’ roll here,” he said. “We don’t take that for granted.”
Shaboom will take the Amphitheater stage at the Garlic Festival at 1:45 Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. For more information about the Shaboom Cruise, call (831) 338-1959.
