Photograph courtesy of Joe Sharino
Returning: The Joe Sharino Band, led by a former Willow Glen resident, is playing again at the festival June 16.
FlashBack, Joe Sharino bands will headline annual festival on Lincoln
Dancing on the Avenue has become Joe Sharino's gig for past eight years
By Michelle Crowe
Popular local bands FlashBack and Joe Sharino will headline Willow Glen's sixth annual Dancing on the Avenue festival on June 16.
FlashBack will perform from 6 to 10 p.m. at the intersection of Lincoln Avenue and Brace Street, and the Joe Sharino Band will appear from 7 to 10 p.m. at 1202 Lincoln Ave., in front of the Entertainment and Music Business Complex. When the bands take to the stages, festival-goers can count on two shows that not only rock, but are "Gonna Get Cha" to sing and dance along.
And participants won't have to worry about fellow partyers getting too out of hand. As with many musicians, FlashBack's lead singer and drummer, Mike Amaral, has a day job--only his is serving as a sergeant for the San Jose Police Department. So, it's perhaps natural that the group composed and recorded the theme song for San Jose's "Fugitive Watch" program.
"I explained to the owner of 'Fugitive Watch,' that they needed something similar to the 'Bad Boys' theme song for the show 'Cops,' " says Amaral, of Willow Glen. "Now, when the show airs weekdays on TCI Cable Channel 23, people hear 'Gonna Get Cha' and associate it with the show."
The group also has an upcoming CD, Live at Folsom, due out by event time. "We enjoy performing at fairs, festivals, car shows, that kind of thing--the type of events where there's family involvement, because we're all family guys," Amaral adds.
With gigs for groups as diverse as Applied Materials, the Special Olympics, the state of California and the FBI, FlashBack specializes in crowd pleasing.
Born and raised in San Jose and now a Minnesota Avenue resident in Willow Glen, Amaral began playing music at age 14. In fact, he and bandmate Mike Daily, a.k.a. Spike, played music together as teenagers and hadn't seen each other for 30 years, until guitar player Lou Soliz, (whose day job is cutting hair at Sunnyale's Upper Cut shop that he owns) reintroduced them. Saxophonist Abraham Vasquez and guitarist-keyboardist-vocalist Joe Petrucci, (formerly of Joe Sharino Band) round out the group.
"It's such a fun thing to do. We all have full-time jobs, so the money is secondary, which means, instead of being starving musicians, we're able to afford the musical toys we need," Amaral says.
"Police work has been fun. I wrote my books on patrol operations and police tactics, did my video, and, after 30 years on the job myself, and watching my dad work on the force for 30 years before me, it's just time to move on," Amaral says. "I'll always have fond memories, but, after you see so much pain and destruction, it takes a toll. Music is more uplifting. It provides a service to people by bringing them back for a short period of time to when they were children having a good time."
Photo courtesy of FlashBack
Family Act: FlashBack specializes in crowd pleasing. It will perform along with Joe Sharino at the festival June 16.
With both of his adult children getting married this summer (FlashBack will play at his daughter's wedding), a motor home ready for road trips, and retirement from police work approaching, Amaral looks forward to touring with his FlashBack bandmates and exploring such gigs as commercial and studio music work.
FlashBack band members have played on the same stage with the Doobie Brothers, Tower of Power, Sly Stone, Cold Blood, Buffalo Springfield and Fleetwood Mac, among others. "We entertain audiences because, we're not only musicians who play and feel the music, we were there. We remember that music and how much fun it was," Amaral says. With changes of their outfits between sets, the band says audiences sometimes feel as though they are back in front of their televisions, watching the Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday nights.
Unlike some musicians so desperate to make their own sound and differentiate themselves from being cover bands, both FlashBack and the Joe Sharino Band pride themselves on bringing back good times and good memories through good music from the past five decades.
A fixture on the Bay Area band scene since 1974, the Joe Sharino Band has won numerous awards and accolades, including being named the San Francisco 49ers' first house band and Best Band in Metro's annual reader's poll for several years running.
Sharino, a Massachusetts native came to San Jose in 1963 and soon began teaching himself to play the guitar. After graduating from Willow Glen High School, Sharino began playing gigs with the band through his college years, netting up to $1,000 per week in 1974, prompting him to leave San Jose State to pursue his musical career full time. The group has appeared on the same stage with Van Halen, the Police, the Kinks, Santana and Tom Petty, among others. A strong Christian with homes in Yosemite and the Bay Area, Sharino enjoys "making a great living helping other people have fun."
"The great thing about Dancing on the Avenue is it's like old home week for the two of us who graduated from Willow Glen. We always have a few surprises for this show, which is the biggest of the 15 to 20 big shows we do each year," says Sharino, whose group also performs at corporate and Christian events. "Wherever we go and ask people to sing along, they do; but when we ask the people here in Willow Glen to sing along, they always sing their hearts out the loudest."
Return to the Dancing on the Avenue 2001 index
FlashBack is playing on June 16, at the Dancing on the Avenue festival from 6 to 10 p.m. at Lincoln Avenue and Brace Street. The Joe Sharino Band is playing from 7 to 10 p.m. at 1202 Lincoln Ave., in front of the Entertainment and Music Business Complex.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
