OK, Boomerettes, not only is Estes Park’s very own Dead Head tribute band – Buster and the Boomers – appropriately the opening act for the Frozen Dead Guy Festival at 12 p.m. on the Ice Stage at the Estes Event Complex, but the group will also play Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. for the Bands and Bloodys brunch at the American Legion.
And as an added twist of FDGDs irony, Buster and the Boomers began life as The Really Most Sincerely Dead Band, a nod to the Munchkin coroner’s song from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.
Estes Park’s Mayor Gary Hall is the band’s frontman. Before retiring in 2023, Hall was the chief information officer for Estes Park Health. He moved to Estes Park in 2003 from Lincoln, Nebraska where he had a long career in customer service and information technology. Like many retirees in Estes Park, Hall decided he really wasn’t ready to retire, so he ran for and was elected mayor in 2024.
Hall’s wife, Linda Adam-Hall, is the group’s bass guitarist. Together, the couple has climbed all 58 of Colorado’s 14ers, and they also perform together in a folk duo as Share the Road. In addition to music, Linda is an artist and photographer.
Local developer Frank Theis plays keys. He moved to Estes Park 27 years ago from Kansas City, where he had an architecture and planning firm, and then transitioned into construction and development both in Oregon and Kansas City. When he moved to Estes Park, he bought Marys Lake Lodge and oversaw its renovation. He sold his interest in the lodge in 2005 and, for the past 21 years, has designed and built over 100 residential units in Estes Park.
Drummer Buster Jesik grew up on the Colorado Front Range and graduated from Loveland High School in 2004. A seasoned alpinist and International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations Certified Mountain Guide, Jesik has summited Denali, climbed classic routes in Rocky Mountain National Park, the Canadian Rockies, and the Alps, and was the first person to ascend an unclimbed 17,000-foot peak in a seldom-visited corner of the Indian Himalayas. He is also a certified Wilderness First Responder and a certified American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education Avalanche Pro II.
The group plays a variety of folk, rock, and Western genres and they cover everything from the Beatles to the Stones, the Kinks, The Who, Youngbloods, Santana, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Young Rascals, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bob Seger, Crosby, Stills, and Nash (and Young), the Turtles, Allman Brothers, Canned Heat, Steely Dan, The Band, The Kingsmen, Traffic, Johnny Cash, and last but not least, Bob Weir and the Grateful Dead. The group also plays some of Hall’s original music.