Ol' Cabbage

The stranger grinned and said he had a gift.

The members of Ol’ Cabbage looked at each other as they stood outside Bart & Urby’s in Wilkes-Barre. This was six or seven years ago, when they were just starting to play their own stuff. They watched as the man wandered over to his trunk, opened it and pulled out a ceramic garden gnome.

“We took him in and he sat on stage with us that night,” Gary Mikulski said of the figurine. “We didn’t want to ask where he found it.”

The gnome — he’s called Shamus now — has been with Ol’ Cabbage ever since. He’s not alone. Over time, fans of the three-piece progressive rock band have handed them more gnomes.

The mysterious gift-giver? The guys in the band swear they haven’t seen him since.

“I hadn’t seen him before then and I haven’t seen him after,” said Rich Zaverack. “It all went downhill from there.”



Longtime friends

Zaverack, Mikulski and John Minsavage have been playing together since they were in high school in Nanticoke.

Zaverack and Mikulski had known each other since elementary school and joined up with Minsavage after a tip from their music teacher.

“We got together and that was that,” Mikulski said.

As Three Plus John, they played typical stuff together at parties. They’d do some Blink-182 or classic rock.

Then college came and the group went its separate ways.

“Throughout the college years we got tired of playing the same old songs,“ Mikulski said.

After spending parts of 2007 and 2008 apart, they felt the need to try something new. They decided to get back together and try to do their own stuff.

Starting out took some work.

First it was Mikulski and Zaverack. Then they brought Minsavage back. They worked on their own songs.

“It’s easier to draw a crowd when you play cover music,” Mikulski said.

One of their first gigs was at the River Street Jazz Cafe. It was supposed to be a pair of acts for a benefit show, but the other group didn’t show up. They ended up playing their set twice.

“We only had a handful of songs,” Mikulski said.

There was also the issue of coming up with a name. They bounced around several possibilities before a long bike ride with friends. They’d been out for awhile and when they finally settled down inside, a friend said the room smelled like old cabbage.

By 2010, they’d found their name and sound.



Being committed

For Mikulski, the members’ longtime friendships have helped build a rapport on stage.

“We’ve been friends for forever so it’s been kind of one of those things,” he said. “It’s like being married to each other.”

They know each others foibles and tendencies on stage. They work around each others’ schedules to get about three gigs in every month.

They mostly play locally, but they also get gigs in places like Maryland and Massachusetts, where Zaverack now lives.

He commutes to the region for the band’s shows. He’ll listen to entertainment or educational podcasts to pass the time on the trek. Sometimes the band will meet in Connecticut to rehearse.



Sense of humor

The band’s Facebook page is filled with goofy images, whether it’s pictures of their many gnomes or the band sitting in the back of a car that has a giant teddy bear in the front seat.

Zaverack said that comes from the band’s way of looking at things.

“We don’t want to be like any other band,” he said. “That’s why we started the whole original project.“

So they don’t mind lining up dozens of garden gnomes on the stage before they play.



pabdalla@citizensvoice.com.

Meet Ol’ Cabbage

Genre: Progressive jam rock

Based out of: Plymouth

For fans of: Moe., Phish, Umphrey’s McGee

Upcoming: May 14, Mountain Top American Legion; May 21, Bones Bar, Wilkes-Barre; June 4, Budd’s Pizza Cafe, Kingston - Patrick Abdalla