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Location: Longview, Washington, United States

I live in a small town in Washington State, USA, with my wife, two sons, two dogs, a cat, and family nearby. I work at the local community college as an I.T. Specialist. In March of '02, we bought a 70-some year old house that needed a lot of work. When I'm not working on the house, I like to throw pots, be outside, and read a lot.

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Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Ice Man rides on….

Three things for me to be happy about today:
1. Finding five bucks in my jacket that I put aside to pay my coffee dues at work but can now claim as my own
2. Singing along with AC/DC at the top of my lungs in the car
3. Homemade chicken noodle soup and cheesy quesadillas


Long after Nirvana and Sound Garden drove the last nail into the coffin of speed metal, and Metallica sold out, you could go to a little single story cinder brick building in Longview, called “Bart’s Fine Dining” in Longview and take a little trip back in time to when the hair was big, and high top sneakers, knee high white socks, and a skin tight jumpsuit wasn’t unusual attire for the bar band rocker. Sadly, now, Bart’s is closed and the acid washed jeans wearing clientele have had to pack other venues to hear bar bands blast the hits of the 70s and 80s – songs from groups like War, Whitesnake, Def Leppard, and Poison mixed in with Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.

When we used to go there in the mid nineties it was half out of genuine pleasure at hearing the live bands and drinking the cheap booze and half to laugh at the weird time warp of spiky haired mullets, big bangs and big shoulder pads, and the “dancing.” Any time we went we could be guaranteed the reassuring presence of the Ice Man. I’m not sure if we called him that primarily because he fetched ice for the bartenders or if it was because he never spoke or looked at you, and had an almost reptilian stillness about him. He always dressed in white tennis shoes, black jeans, and a black concert tee shirt for a group like Anthrax, Iron Maiden, or possibly even Dokken. I don’t think he had to pay a cover charge and I can’t ever remember him not being there. He stood against the side wall where he could see the stage and also down along behind the bar to keep tabs on which bartenders needed another five gallon bucket of ice fetched from the back room. His place in the room reflected his social status in that he was more than a patron and less that an employee. If the band was really rocking he’d throw up what I’ll dub the “modified eddie” (thumb, index finger, and pinky extended, middle and ring fingers retracted against the palm) or kind of hop from side to side and hug himself but mostly he his stared into space like he was hearing music none of the rest of us were privy to.

Eventually life just moved on and I stopped going to hear bar bands. I now have a mortgage, student loans, a wife, and a kid – as Zorba would say “Wife, house, kids, the full catastrophe!” Bear in mind those are Zorba’s words, not mine. As I said, Bart’s is now closed. The other day I was wondering what might have become of Ice Man. Then Saturday I was driving along a long straight stretch of Pacific Way. Coming towards me was a quite used up looking Ford Taurus sedan in what was probably originally a teal hue of some variation. As it got closer I saw, scrunched down behind the wheel so you could barely see him, one wrist draped over the top of the steering wheel, with the other arm propped up and slowly twirling a drumstick, in big black wrap around shades the Ice Man. Ice Man rides on….

posted by Scott in Washington at 5:00 PM |

4 comment(s):

  • SD says: "Iceman, you can be my wingma...enh...nevermind, you can't."

    I managed to "miss" big-hair bands...well, my Mom was a VH fan, and dammit, so am I...so...

    By Blogger Unknown, at 3/01/2005 06:32:00 PM  

  • The first cassette I ever owned was Van Halen II. My mom got me a walkman style player my eighth grade year. I already had a couple of records so I felt pretty jaded when my cousin got really excited about these Van Halen guys. I'm really, could anyone be as cool as Quiet Riot (I can remember jumping up and down on my mom and dad's bed, yelling, "Come on feel the noise... girls rock your boys!") After he sent me the tape I played it over and over for a couple of months. I wasn't allowed to take the player to school but I'd get off the bus in the afternoon and be like, "All right! If I hurry to my room, I can listen to both sides, like, five times before dinner!" By that summer I had Run DMC, Beastie Boys, and Welcome to the Jungle. It was all over.

    By Blogger Scott in Washington, at 3/01/2005 09:39:00 PM  

  • Barts "an Icon" in Longview so true. Ladies night every Wed and Saturday, when a three dollar pitcher was 64 oz and a CC&7 was more CC than 7. "The ice man always held down the wall"..also in the eighties, he also played in a band.
    A period of "Agape Love" was a bound, or was that the period of the "one night stand". A place to sit along the wall where you had the best view of the dance floor and the tables, for a full night of entertainment.
    Last week as I drove by and I was tempted to steal a brick, so many memories. "Good Bye to the Bands with that wore the tights and had long mullets"...Hello to strip malls.........

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3/04/2005 11:21:00 AM  

  • Remember that time we went there and that guy wearing the mirror sunglasses kept trying to do the worm? He also had a whole coreographed dance routine down for 'Relax' by Frankie goes to Hollywood. I thought Deggs was going to up and die right then and there because he was laughing so hard. How about the time with the big chancer on her lip was hitting on you? That was hilarious.

    Good to hear Iceman hasn't lost his cool. I usually couldn't resist flashing him the devil sign on the few occasions I saw him, he always answered it.

    There is a short little movie called 'heavy metal parking lot' that documents a bunch of Judas Priest fans waiting for the concert to start in a parking lot back in 1986. It is spliced together from video camera footage and the main comedy comes from the clothes and the general sillyness surrounding the 80's rock scene (how cool and dangerous it seemed then, how stupid and tame it looks today).

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3/06/2005 08:14:00 AM  

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