The Joe Sharino Band is one of the true icons on the Bay Area’s vibrant music scene. They’ve won 15 Best Band Awards in Northern California. They play 70 to 80 shows a year and turn down hundreds more. Back in 1982, they played in front of 250,000 people at the Southern California US Festival, opening for 30 big-name bands that included the Police, Grateful Dead, Tom Petty, the Talking Heads, the B-52's, Ramones, Kinks, Santana and more.

The Joe Sharino Band

This year, for the first time, they will be bringing their magic mix of rock and roll to Connoisseurs’ Marketplace, Menlo Park’s popular festival of the arts, for a night of music and dance not to be missed. The After-Hours Concert will take place Saturday, July 19, from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Fremont Park. Best of all, you can’t beat the price … it’s free!

The secret to the band’s success is simple. Joe Sharino delivers what people want to hear –– a high-energy, fun-filled show of favorite tunes that makes everyone from grungy teens to grandmas want to rock out in the streets. The band plays literally hundreds of classics spanning the decades, from Elvis Presley to OutKast and Lynyrd Skynyrd to La Bamba. It’s a formula that keeps the band booked year-round to sell-out crowds, with thousands of loyal fans coming back decade after decade.

Sharino grew up on the Bay Area music scene, playing in garage bands as a student at Willow Glen High School and sneaking back-stage to meet the Doors at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds at the age of 14. When he was a student at San Jose State University, Sharino started playing mellow folk rock on the acoustic guitar at small nightclubs for $30 a night. Within a few months, the young musician had spiced up his act with up-tempo rock and roll, impressions and sing alongs, and within the year Sharino was making $300-$400 a night, with standing room only crowds and lines out the door. With only one semester left, he dropped school to pursue his music career fulltime, never to return.

A lot has changed since those early days, but the fun, the great sound, the sing-alongs, the energy and the sheer love of the music that has always been a big part of every Joe Sharino show remains the same. “The thing we do that's different than every other band is that we genuinely have a ball doing what we're doing,” says Sharino. “And it shows.”