The sweet taste of home....

Bloody Bike Brigade

Back in 1995, if you wanted to go to a punk show where I'm from, you had to go all the way into Salem. That meant you had to get your parents to drive you into town. Fortunately for me, a few of my friends had parents who were all right, so I could catch a ride with them if I was lucky enough to go at all. In those days, all the punk shows were at the Grande Theatre downtown. Pop punk was really popular then and a few of the local bands were playing the good sounds. I saw the best punk bands Salem will ever know play there until they either shut the place down or my dad put an end to it, I don't remember which. But anyway, I saw Mr. Bottle and The Drapes play there and these bands had so much energy. We just waited for all the lame opening bands to play and then when Mr. Bottle came on you knew people were going crazy in the pit. They use to do a cover of that Operation Ivy song "Knowledge" that I won't forget. And the Drapes, those guys were actually from Portland but they played a few shows in Salem and tore the place down. They did a cover of that oldies song "Earth Angel" and I must've got knocked on my ass a couple of times during that one. Those were the days...

They shut the Grande down in 1996 or 1997 and it was empty for years before someone turned it into some wine shop for yuppies. After they shut it down, you couldn't see a punk show in Salem anywhere. Not until my old buddy Nate Porter moved back from California and rented a house on Summer street around 2000. He and I used to go to the shows together. I always got to ride with him because his parents were a lot more supportive than mine. It's ironic the only place you can see a punk show now in Salem is at his house.

I was looking around on the internet recently and I found a copy of The Drape's first record in some record shop in England. How it got over there who knows, but I almost pissed myself when I saw it. It just came in the mail and let me tell you, there's nothing like the sweet taste of home. To me, those guys played the archetype of punk rock and then they broke up before they went to shit. Their lyrics are all about good times and good friends and that's just what I need over here....I got it blasting right now and it's good to be home....

Diversion

Bloody Bike Brigade

So I paid out some money and bought all four Diversion DVDs. Definitely a good investment. Have you guys seen Diversion 4 yet? Man I was disappointed. The whole video is ruined with the part on that weakling girlie man Trevor Myer. I think he should have put Jeremy on there instead. He would be like "Yeah, I got this tricked-out forklift I'm driving. I got a love seat on there and a keg full of Pabst on the roof. The Love Machine, baby." Anyway, the video opens up with this guy doing a peddling-deathtruck on some dirt road out in the country. Then he rides all the way into the city with it. It's nuts. But the best part is the scene in Australia. There's some photos on there of some guys riding in front of the church where I ride just a few blocks from here. Soon Paul and I will be shredding hard there.

Pay your respects.

Bloody Bike Brigade

This one time Paul and I were down at the skatepark in Salem, just checkin out the scene. We were watching the local guys rip it down when Rodney comes rolling up. He's talking to Paul, saying something about what tricks Paul can do and he's just hassling him. So I say, "Hey, man, Paul actually rides. This guy is really good. You should pay your respects." We ran into that guy again several months later near Paul's apartment and he had some new bar ends. Still new after three or four months....

Forget about the hoes and ride...

Bloody Bike Brigade

Drama, drama, drama. Is this Jerry Springer?

I remember those days....

Bloody Bike Brigade

I remember back in 1996 when I first started riding flatland. Those were some good days back then. There were four of us kids trying to ride in that small town - me, Chris Santos, Matt Kelly, and Mike Peters. We had some good times. My friends all had bikes before me, so I traded my Yamaha motorcycle to some older kid named Ryan Geraths who lived in town, and he gave me a Schwinn XS bike for it. I think he got the best out of that deal. Anyway, once I had that bike, I could hang out with my friends in town everyday. I would ride all the way from my house for 2 or 3 miles into town and meet my friends out at the dirt jumps. At that time, some new suburbs were being built and a lot of new houses were going up, so my friends and I would hang out at the construction sites and build dirt jumps there. I never did get into dirt jumping. There was just something about flatland. So once we got kicked out of there and our jumps were bulldozed, we were looking for new places to ride. This lead us to the park where we built the jumps that Paul and his brother would later be shredding. I can't believe I never met up with that guy back then. Paul even knew Mike Peters. Man, I have never seen anyone ride for so long and never pull any tricks than that guy. We used to laugh at him so hard for trying those tail whips that he could never pull, heh heh....

So the city came in and shut down our jumps in the park. There was a guy who worked for the city we used to call Twinkie - a big guy who hated kids. He came in there and destroyed our jumps, so that was the end of our dirt riding. That's when we turned to riding flatland. When it wasn't raining, we rode on the basketball courts at the middle school next to the park. When it was raining, we rode in this covered shed at the elementary school where we used to play dodgeball when we were kids. The surface in there was slicker than the Diatech warehouse, I’m telling you. Matt used to bring that little radio with him and I’d have some Operation Ivy and Rancid on the box while we sessioned. Just before I came to Australia, I rode in those spots where I went to school more than fifteen years before. Almost ten years after I started riding flat and not much had changed. It was still quiet there. I blasted Rancid once again, this time from my car stereo. Then a guy I used to go to school with came rolling up to play basketball and we talked for like 2 hours, just trading stories about old times. He couldn’t believe I was still riding flatland. We talked about what happened to those guys we used to hang out with. Turns out Mike Peters is getting married. Matt Kelly - I went to his wedding a few years ago. Actually, I missed the wedding but I was there for the reception. His little boy is about 5 or 6 years old now. I remember him saying at his bachelor party the last words of a man on the edge of the adult life, and he said, “Man, Chris, you’re the coolest guy here. I’d rather hang out with you than any of these guys…” I guess he was having regrets at losing sight of those old times, trying to grow up too fast. I wish I could session one last time with him….

Mistake

Steve's site is actually praisethewarmachine.blogspot.com. Sorry. It will be killer.

Hee Hee Hee

Hello