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The inaugural Battle of the Bands at the 30th annual Gilroy Garlic Festival delighted a crowd of several hundred, but nobody seemed happier than Tristan Kane.

The lead singer of Beeftone shot his hands into the air and jumped up and down with his mouth hanging open after the judges gave the Hollister-based band the first-place prize of $1,000.

"I'll probably use some of that money to pay my parents back for the new symbols I just got," said drummer Geo Coelho, whose parents and three younger siblings stood by waiting to congratulate him.

Members of the four-piece band attend San Benito High School and also includes bassist Dean Fridman and guitarist Michael Hardin.

Dark Horse Battalion came in second and got $500 after the two-day competition that began with four bands. The Battalion also hails from Hollister and has competed against Beeftone about five times, but to no avail so far.

"We've always come up second to Beeftone," Bassist Robert Tabrizi said. "We'll get them."

The rest of the band - which includes lead singer Bob Martindelcampo, drummer Adam Davis, guitarist Elijah Pollard and guitarist Allan Aguirre - nodded their heads before huddling to figure out who could drive and would also have a car to pick up the check.

Martindelcampo, who wore a sporty black fedora, lauded the "responsive crowd" before one of the judges, Gavilan Rock N' Roll Professor Art Juncker, commended the band for their rendition of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues."

"Man, what a fabulous job," Juncker said. "I wonder if you just did that for the old judges."

The two bands knocked out Saturday were Exhibit A out of Hollister and Chasing Truth out of Gilroy.

Juncker joined 2006 Garlic Festival Queen Sheena Torres and Kevin Pfeffer - vocalist and guitarist for Gilroy-based band Five Minutes to Freedom - to judge the first round. Albuquerque-based morning D.J. Bobby Box replaced Pfeffer Sunday, but the second trio used the same standards of stage presence, originality and music to rate the acts, according to Lauren Bevilacqua, a media relations personnel.

Monique Cortez of Fresno was happy that Beeftone won, she said as she asked Kane for his autograph. An elated Kane obliged, but it was not his first taste of celebrity-hood and signing his name: "I used to do plays," he said.