LEWISTON — Bill Maroldo shut the CD player door and turned up the volume.

A bouncy, ’60s-era rhythm boom-boomed. Backup singers warbled. Then, a young man’s voice erupted.

“Your daddy says that I’m a wild guy, who gotcha home at three,” sang the 15-year-old kid. “Your daddy says I’m a wild guy. You should forget about me.”

The voice was recorded in a harsh treble, seemingly designed to pop from a transistor radio. Maroldo listened and smiled.

“This is as good as anybody,” he said.

But few people outside of Lewiston-Auburn ever heard the recording.

The singer, Roger Michaud of The Moon Dawgs, never became famous like Paul McCartney of the Beatles or Mike Love of the Beach Boys. Nor did he reach the second tier of rock stardom, where people like Jack Ely of the Kingsmen reigned.

“The cream doesn’t always rise to the top,” Maroldo said.

To him, Michaud and a generation of other Lewiston musicians — members of popular garage bands from the 1960s — are all rock stars.

“Just because they didn’t have a No. 1 hit doesn’t make their music less worthy,” Maroldo said. Their value will be discovered one day, he promised.

To him, they are rock stars.

That’s why the former Maine Public TV reporter is making a documentary about several of those local garage bands.

“Those guys are going to be more than a footnote someday,” he said. “I kind of feel like maybe I am helping that process along a little bit.”

When they reunite for a concert on Aug. 14 at the Colisee — The Pal Hop Rocks Again: Reunion 2010 — Maroldo will be there.

When he heard the concert was a certainty, he spent several thousand dollars buying lights and high-definition camera equipment.

He plans to film the reunion show, which is gathering six of the bands that were popular in the era’s Police Athletic League dances, known as PAL Hops.

His working title: “PAL Hop Days.”

Maroldo became aware of those days long after they were over.

He grew up outside of Seattle and graduated high school in 1970. In the early 1980s, he bought a 45 by one of the PAL Hop bands, the Royal Knights, at a used record sale. It was a gift for his then-fiancee, a Lewiston native.

Years later, when the couple had moved to Lewiston, Maroldo was selling rare records and was approached by a man with a stack of Royal Knights records.

He wanted to know what they were worth.

The guy was Ed Boucher, one of the founders of the band.

Eventually, Maroldo would interview Boucher for the debut episode of MPBN’s “True North.”

Maroldo heard stories of 2,000 kids packing the Friday night hops, held in the third floor of the Lewiston City Hall. Musicians would recall the floor of the hall bouncing with the crowd.

He learned about bands like the the Royal Knights, the Moon Dawgs, the Innkeepers, the Travelers, the Rockin’ Recons and Terry and the Telstars, all of whom plan to play at this month’s reunion show.

And he heard their recordings, sometimes made by small or subsidiary record labels in professional studious.

“They had great songs,” Maroldo said. “They deserve to be remembered.”

Last year, Maroldo created a short video about the garage band era for Museum LA’s “Echoes in Time” concert, quickly highlighting the cities’ musical history.

In the video’s total running time of 10 minutes, he could spend just over a minute on some bands. It merely increased Maroldo’s appetite for more.

When this concert was announced, he jumped. There was no time to ask people for investments in the film. He spent his own money on equipment and began shooting.

“I’ve already shot 23 hours’ worth of film,” he said.

He is filming rehearsals, press conferences, airport arrivals by band members flying in for the concert and uniform fittings. And when two local guys from the era met recently for a hair cut — one in the chair, one with scissors in hand — Maroldo was there.

While Roger Blais, the owner of Roger’s Haircutters in Auburn, gave Ronald Landry a haircut, Maroldo circled with his camera and listened.

Blais was a founder of the Innkeepers. Landry, the former postmaster of Lewiston, was the original drummer of the Rockin Recons.

The two men reminisced.

Blais talked about meeting his wife at a show. Landry talked about learning songs by hearing them on a transistor radio. The guys rarely bought the records.

“You listened to the radio and hoped they’d play it again,” Landry said.

To Maroldo, there is something universal in discussions like these, that are about being innocent and fearless.

“Lewiston-Auburn’s garage band scene is a microcosm of the music that poured out of garages all across America,” he said.

Maroldo is unsure when the film will be done or how it might be shown, whether on movie or TV screens. But he hopes to find something universal in the story.

“People who watch this in other cities will get a sense of what occurred in their own communities,” he said.

dhartill@sunjournal.com

Terry & and Telstars

Terry McCarthy

Nick Knowlton

Paul Roy

Peter Nadeau

Danny Caron

The Royal Knights

Paul Boucher

Ed Boucher

Guy Mathew

Ron Morin

The Travelers

Jeannie Martin

Danny Martin

Bert Bretton

Andy Arsenault

The Rockin’ Recons

Dave Brisette

Ron Landry

Bob Blais

Dick Horton

Roger Blais

Mike Asselin

Ron Vachon

Denny Blais

Doug Doyer

The Moon Dawgs

Roger Michaud

Bob Poulin

Bob Roy

Dave Brisette

Roger Renaud

Marty Lang

The Innkeepers

Ray Cyr

Mike Goff

Larry Nadeau

Roger Blais

Dick Tribou

* The band members listed include original and newer members.

What: “The PAL Hop Reunion Will Rock Again”

Who: Featuring Terry & the Telstars, the Moon Dawgs,  the Rockin’ Recons, the Royal Knights, the Innkeepers and the Travelers.

When: Aug. 14

Time: 8 p.m.

Where: The Colisee

Cost: Reserve seats are $25 each.

FMI: Tickets can be purchased at the Colisee box office, by phone at 783-2009 ext. 208 or online at www.thecolisee.com.

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