F.T.W. Celebration of the Motorcycle. Jan 28 Logans pub Victoria

FTW... "Forever Two Wheels", well I ain’t in that category, I'm pretty much a four wheel man, usually in the form of Skull Skates. I did ride a 1969 Triumph bopper some 15 years ago but the primary chain came apart and ate the engine case up..... so I put the pile of bike in my mums garden shed and that's where it sits.. FTW “Fucked Two Wheels”.

Along came Friday night and I decided to check out the musical line up for the FTW show. I figured I better see what the biker enthusiasts were up to and how they danced to the bands. I arrived to find if you had no ticket you could not enter. I didn't have a ticket and looked the doorman right in the eye, opened my coat and showed him my holstered sawed off. He looked at me and said “Go right in sir!” Upon entry I was greeted by a plethora of greasy guys in clubs like the FOOLS, the Bombers, and the Vandals. It's good to see brotherhoods still exist even if they're just imitating JaKs Team. Around the bar floor were vendors selling everything from T-shirts to art. Zink printers from Penticton were there with some fine skateboard shirts..... and motorcycle related ones too. Now if I tried to park any vehicle I owned in a bar I would probably be put in jail but somehow three dudes rode their motorcycles in and parked them. Not even new bikes at that.... Old Truimph motorcycles and even an old Harley leakin oil all over the floor. If they had been Japanese bikes the bar staff would have had less to clean up that night.

The first band stepped up to the staging area and plugged in. The light turned green and these dudes strummed out rock of a hot rod variety. Not rock-a-billy or metal... just flat out full throttle and loose. The band was called “The Shake Down.” While this band was playing some incredibly attractive tattooed young women stood in the front row swaying to the music. Just then a older photographer dude stepped in between me and started taking pictures of the sweaty tattooed men in the band. I observed this photographer and wondered why he didn't turn his camera 90 degrees and capture a pic of the young women? Heck I reckoned he was more into the sweaty men. Nothing wrong with that in today’s great world.

The next band up was a three piece..... BUZZARD. The first riff took to the air and a steady heavy stomping assaulted the audience. The riffs kept coming and I looked around to see the crowd standing with opened mouths, sucking in the retro stoner rock they were not expecting to taste. It was fresh yet old heaviness and I'll bet it opened the ears of a few young folks. I'm not a stoner but I definitely got rock stoned on BUZZARDS music! I look forward to their future shows and hope they branch out of the greaseball world and blow the ears off some of those hairy metal-heads around the town. Definitely my favorite new band. DEFINITELY!

The place cooled down but The Stockers got the floor movin' again. The Stockers are becoming the premier greaser band in this town. Do a little drag racin' or a little surfin' The Stockers are your men. They have a good front man that keeps the crowd on their steel caps and he's not afraid to tell you like it is and who would argue with him anyway... he's huge. This is the second time I've watched The Stockers and they are definitely starting to own the street! Good times and the dance floor was full and hopping.

The Deadcats are B.C.'s veteran rock-a-billy band and the last time I saw them at Logans it was called The Racket Club, I was near 20 years younger and drunk. Tonight these old timers played out the hillbilly be-bop that just can't be found on your radio.... but it should be. The Deadcats take you back to the 50's and 60's. A great band and unlike the crowd of 10 people they played to the first time I saw them, tonight they had a near full dance floor.

Lots of laughs and even though Ted FOOL and I are happily married, and very old we took turns pointing out the nice tattoos and the bullet bras on the youth of today. I shook the hands of my brothers and hugged a few of the older cats, then got in my van and did a big one wheel peel. I snuck up the stairs to my room and stood there looking at my amazing wife. She opened her eyes and I showed her my holstered sawed off.... the doctors of the late sixties did brutal circumcisions back then.

-ricky JaK