Bikes, Bands & Burritos!

By Jim V.

It’s about 9pm on Sunday night. I had just finished unloading the contents of my truck: 3 bikes, 1 bass amp, 1 bass guitar, bike tools, a pile of dirty Tupperware and 3/4 of a pound of shredded cheese.?This is the aftermath of the 3rd annual Baltimore Bikes Bands Burritos! show. Held at the Charm City Art Space (www.ccspace.org), a DIY art/music venue in Baltimore MD, the event is based on a simple idea: You wake up late and go to a DIY space. Bring something to go inside a burrito. Eat said burritos. Go to a cycling workshop or watch a bike movie. Go on a 10-mile, no-drop ride through the city. When you get back, some bands play.

This year, Bikes Bands Burritos! was co-planned with the Velocipede Bike Project (www.velocipedebikeproject.org), a Baltimore bike collective, and we had very high hopes. The date this year coincided with a few other events, so the turnout was lower than expected. It was a small group, but we had a good time nonetheless. The 10 mile ride through the city left from the Charm City Art Space at about 2:30 with about 12 riders—about 5 more picked up cue sheets soon after we left. Repping everything from fancy aluminum carbon mixes to ghetto-tech single speed conversions, we made our way into Druid Hill Park (heard of Sisqo?). After scoping out a festival that was going on, we rolled out of the park and right into the gentrification zone. We passed a huge awesome warehouse with broken windows and a lot of potential. No sooner did someone say, “We should do shows in there!” than you could see the attached “artists” condos and the palatial Roman bath style swimming pool. As with all good gentrified zones, it hugs up on a cool artsy neighborhood called Hampden, of John Waters Pecker fame. We rolled through on our way to the backside of Johns Hopkins University and its hidden gem: a winding grey ribbon of road with no traffic and lush trees on both sides. One mile later, and it was the hustle of Charles St, one of B-more’s major arteries, and an arrival back at good old Charm City Art Space.?

Every band was represented (minus one, due to illness) during the ride, so the show started when we all got back. Speedo Kill was an all-male Bikini Kill tribute band—‘nuff said. Dunaway is a one man acoustic show playing punk fucking rock, don’t let the word “acoustic” fool you, it’s none of this folk-punk business that the kids are eating up these days. Strange Days used the ride as a warm-up for their old-school 1988 style hardcore jumps, kicks, and rock-out moves. The day was closed out by the Degenerettes, an all-girl garage-glam band with hot jams like “I was a teeny bopper for the CIA.” ?
Next year’s show is already stewing in the back of our brain, so think about coming out to Charm City for Bikes Bands Burritos 4. We’re going to fight Ivan Drago. He’ll pay for what he did to Apollo.