BY DOUG MACKEY for WEEKLY VOLCANO 6/6/25 |
In a recent conversation with The Fucking Eagles’ Owen Atkins (singer/guitarist) and Stu Linkert (drummer), the word that came up most often was fun. It’s what they have when they perform, and it’s what you’ll have when you attend their upcoming show at Dan Rankin’s spectacular Airport Tavern Music Hall on Saturday, June 7. Opening for Dead Bob and punk supergroup Ultrabomb, they’ll bring their loud, fast, and unapologetic rock ’n’ roll to the stage—and be shoulder to shoulder (backstage, at least) with some musical heavyweights and heroes.
“This is a super unique show, and super meaningful to us,” says Owen. “Hüsker Dü, NoMeansNo, Soul Asylum, and Social Distortion were part of the soundtrack to our youth. Members of these legendary bands are playing this show in our childhood stomping grounds of South Tacoma Way!”
“John Wright (of NoMeansNo) has been in my top twenty godhead drummers list since I was in high school,” adds Stu, “and getting to have played with NoMeansNo over the years—and now again with Dead Bob,” Wright’s solo project, “all these years later is a real thrill for me personally. I still have my Hang Time (Soul Asylum) cassette too, but it’s likely too brittle to play.”
Tacoma’s own The Fucking Eagles began life twenty-some years ago, back when a performance space like the Airport was simply unheard of in T-town. “The venues for a wild rock and roll show in Tacoma were limited,” remembers Owen. “Hell’s Kitchen, Bob’s Java Jive, house parties, a few random bars, and maybe a Christmas tree farm in Puyallup. Now it can happen anywhere. Lots of new opportunities for debauchery!” In addition to The Valley, New Frontier, Airport, Real Art, and larger rooms like McMenamins Spanish Ballroom, Owen notes a few outliers: “Places that aren’t even venues—for fun one-offs—like Alfred’s Bubble Room or Canadian Embassy. Citywide punk festivals like Bleak Outlook and neighborhood events like Porch Fest did not exist in 2001. Tacoma now has way more new bands, lots of new people in town, and overall way more fun to be had.”
Stu adds something else that many T-town old-timers like me have noticed: “These days it seems young people aren’t determined to move away as soon as they can. Tacoma has grown and become more of a destination, with a growing arts/music scene and more people getting engaged and supporting it.”
In addition to founding members Owen and Stu, Sean Lanksbury (guitar, vocals), Greg Rodriguez (harmonica, vocals), and Alex Hosea (bass, vocals) round out the band.
“The Fucking Eagles are a multigenerational band,” says Owen. “Our oldest members grew up in the era of the Community World Theater and the Crescent Ballroom,” now legendary venues that preceded even The Fucking Eagles’ formation. “Seattle had a ban on all-ages shows (the ‘Teen Dance Ordinance’), so lots of amazing touring bands stopped in Tacoma instead of Seattle since we had a thriving, somewhat legal all-ages scene. The Community World Theater also provided an early clubhouse-like environment for tons of local bands. Jim May made the Community World Theater happen. Thank you, Jim May!”
With an illustrious two decades behind them, they nevertheless have no interest in looking back. When asked to reflect on a favorite show, Owen and Stu demurred. “With this band, every show is fun,” Owen enthuses. “No need to revisit the past ones. On to the next!” Stu concurs. “It’s fun being a Fucking Eagle! In our twenty years I couldn’t pick just one show, and thankfully I can only recall a couple of stinkers.”
There’s that emphasis on fun I mentioned. “Many years ago, we realized the entire mission of this band is to have fun,” says Owen. “The Fucking Eagles are dedicated to the joyful spirit of rock and roll. If we’re not having fun, we shift gears and do whatever we have to do to keep having fun.”
And what about that name? “The Fucking Eagles was a placeholder name, kind of a joke name as we tried to figure out our ‘band’ name,” Owen recalls. “We made several long lists of potential names. Some of them were pretty good. None of them were as good as The Fucking Eagles. We stuck with it.”
“At the time I thought it was a funny FU too, to all the goofy ambitions and typical musical pretensions of bands and attitudes we had all been around,” says Stu. “The name to me served as a funny reaction to that, and it seemed we had purposely doomed ourselves to a lot of rejection—which felt pretty irreverent and cool.”
With a name like The Fucking Eagles, you’d think promotion might be a bit tricky. But they’ve found another method of getting the word out and making headway in the music community. Owen puts it simply: “Making friends with other bands. Supporting our friends’ bands. Being generous with other bands. Having lots of genuine fun and being nice to people is pretty contagious.”
“Just regular people power,” adds Stu. “Finding a tribe, making friends, holding each other up, etc., has worked pretty well for us.”
“But in terms of actual ‘promo,’” Owen interjects, “our drummer/singer Stu makes killer flyers for all of our shows!”
Over the past two-plus decades, their instantly recognizable mix of garage rock grit and punk rock swagger has, however, morphed just a bit, “by accident and design,” Owen notes, as “many people have been members of The Fucking Eagles. We’ve had twelve members over the past twenty-five years, as well as twelve guest players on our records and at our shows. Some of us have been playing together since the beginning. This is probably the reason our sound keeps changing . . . and it keeps staying the same.”
And speaking of records, could a new one be in their foreseeable future? “We’ve been talking more and more about recording a new record,” confirms Owen. “In our experience, that usually leads to us actually recording a new record. So yes, a new record is on the horizon.” But not before the big show on Saturday with Dead Bob and Ultrabomb.
Dead Bob, the solo project of John Wright—legendary drummer and vocalist from the pioneering Canadian punk band NoMeansNo—delivers a unique blend of punk rock intensity and experimental sounds. The group’s debut album Life Like features reworked NoMeansNo classics alongside new material, bringing a fresh yet familiar energy to fans of classic punk.
Ultrabomb, on the other hand, is a punk rock supergroup featuring Greg Norton from Hüsker Dü, Derek O’Brien from Social Distortion, and Ryan Smith from Soul Asylum. They blend melodic punk with a hardcore edge, delivering a relentless and powerful live show that honors their iconic roots while pushing punk forward.
Neither band, however, will do their thing Saturday night until The Fucking Eagles hit the stage to once again make Tacoma proud.
Tickets available now. Airport Tavern Music Hall. 5406 S. Tacoma Way, Tacoma, WA 98409. 21+ Event | June 7 | Doors at 8 p.m. | Music starts at 9 p.m.
