Remembering the Menlo Park & Atherton garage bands of the 1960s & ’70s

It all started with a post by Tony Bautista — alum of Hillview School and Woodside  High — in Facebook’s Do You Remember the Old Menlo Park about garage bands in Menlo Park and Atherton during the 1960s and 1970s.

“I was in a number of garage bands and was curious what people who grew up here remembered,” he explains. “I got 364 comments, 50 of those were mine replying back.”

He’s compiled it into one document (included at the bottom of this post).

“I was in a number of bands while in junior high including three iterations of Spiral Staircase. Then in Faded Blues in 8th grade — we had better equipment.”

In college, Tony embraced engineering which he majored in rather than pursing a music career. But he never left his musical interest totally behind and today has a YouTube channel and a recording studio at his home.

“I have so many great memories growing up in Menlo Park,” he says. “My friends and I would ride our bikes to Frost Amphitheater [on the Stanford campus] every summer. We were in awe of the musicians who played there.”

Garage Bands Menlo Park and Atherton Document

Photo courtesy of Tony Bautista