Review: Hot temps don't burn off interest in hot rod car show
Review: Hot temps don't burn off interest in hot rod car show

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Published: August 17, 2007

Jeff Beck was expecting the first of many planned hot rod events to come alive Saturday at 66 Bowl in Oklahoma City.

Beck and about 1,000 others witnessed the successful birth of his hot rod event on a day that was plenty hot with plenty of rods.

From noon Saturday to 2 a.m. Sunday, the parking lot at the west Oklahoma City bowling alley and Mother Road landmark filled with a phenomenon called "Kustom Kulture.” It's an underground scene of '50s cars. There was raw and rockin' music and plenty of sunburned flesh and tattoos that mixed with curious locals.

In 100-degree weather, 12 bands (mostly local acts), pin-up girls and about 75 pre-1965 car owners displaying their rides, each took a chance on the city's first Okie Twist-Off car and music show.

The show proved a success in the hands of Beck, owner of Beck's Garage on N Western Avenue, the Ratty Bastards Car Club and music organizer John Manson.

The result was the largest crowd to swell at 66 Bowl since it opened in 1959, owner Jim Haynes said.

With 750 individual wristbands sold for the first-time event, Beck said, and an additional 200 wristbands given out free to vendors, bands, car club members and volunteers, the crowd estimate just off old Route 66 was about 1,000 people at the show's peak around sunset.

Plans for next year's Okie Twist-Off are under way, with more cars and more music, Beck said.

"The '08 show will hopefully knock the socks off Oklahoma City like the first one did,” Beck said.

The sun forced a lot of people inside the bowling alley as the black asphalt in direct sunlight was scorching during the daytime car show. The opening band at the show on the outside stage was, appropriately, Josh the Devil and the Sinners.

Things turned even hotter with The Oh Johnny! Girls, and Austin, Texas' Flametrick Subs, toward twilight outdoors, Manson said.

Streets of Thieves and the crowds moved indoors to rock loudly near the bowling lanes after darkness set in. Manson's own The Coconauts closed the show in the Silver Dollar Lounge, but he did not see The Coconauts' performance.

"I was unconscious due to heat exhaustion,” Manson joked. "But I hear it was pretty loony.”

— Robert Medley

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