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It’s Monday morning, and the first thing that pops up in my feed is a post from the Anchorage Fire Department. A gas meter on fire.
Huge flames are shooting from the gas line and licking the side of the building. As the camera pans back, I’m horrified to realize it’s the back side of Van’s Dive Bar. There’s a five-foot-wide gasball fire chewing away at the building’s utility lines, while AFD is watering down the brick wall all around the meter. The post says firefighters are waiting for Enstar to show up to turn off the gas.
Noooooo!
There is a show planned that evening at Van’s, the beating heart of Anchorage’s live music scene, and it promises to be a barn burner. The Bay Area’s Tumbledown House is making their nearly annual pilgrimage to Alaska, this year to headline the Seldovia Arts Festival. Their backing band, the John Brothers Piano Company, was set to play an “off-night” show at Van’s. Local husband-and-wife duo Fiona & The Bean and the amazing keyboardist Alex Cruver were scheduled to open.
In my book, something not to be missed.
Saying a prayer to the universe, I head out to work and hope the brown-brick bunker of Van’s — formerly the Kings X Lounge — can withstand the fiery maelstrom until Enstar arrives. By quitting time, my feed features a janky spinet piano delivered by Fiona Rose and crew, and an announcement that the show is a go.
The bar is lit by candlelight, the doors are wide open to let in the June sunshine and a red clip light hangs above the stage. Battery-operated camping lights fill the restrooms with a subdued glow. Production company Showdown Alaska lent a couple of generators to run the stage and the cash register; the Broken Blender generously filled up the ice chest to keep the beverages cold. Audio guy Jay Straw got the stage sound mix set and, miraculously, the show starts on time.
Just another night at Van’s — a tiny dive bar that’s made an outsize impact in its relatively short life in the Anchosphere. Nearly a decade after its opening, the club is now nearing a big transition, with owners Van and Nicki Hale passing the torch to the next generation.
The aging couple wants to enjoy life, and they’ve got a stalwart crew member, Emily Green, stepping forward to take over.
Van’s has quite the reputation for making transitions happen, from a tiny, pipeline-era concrete block of a dive bar to a legitimate original music nightclub. This year’s eighth Vanniversary was a one-day, 28-act showcase of local talent, proving the venue’s worth as Nicki Hale’s music project and tribute to her husband.
The history: Van’s son worked for a liquor distributor. Kings X was one of their accounts, and it went up for sale. One night at the dinner table, the family decided they could run a bar as a retirement plan. They wrote fostering original music into their business plan before they opened the bar in January 2017. Van was still running the Marx Brothers restaurant — RIP — so Nicki took over Kings X and named it after her husband because “I know Van” was already an inside joke.
The venue quickly gained a dedicated legion of misfits and fans of local music, known as an eclectic trove of musical talent from Anchorage and far corners of the state. From hip-hop to Texas Swing, all genres in between have played the Van’s stage — with this summer alone featuring impromptu or planned sets from more than a dozen Outside bands.
Back to the day of the gas fire. Unfortunately, we arrived late and missed Cruver’s set. He’s an extraordinary keyboardist who’s in demand as a sessions and live player. Catch him on a random Thursday night noodling on Van’s stage solo, and see for yourself.
Fiona Rose — of the Parkstrippers Marching Band fame — and her smiling husband, Logan Bean, took the stage after Cruver. Rose and Bean, who also plays trumpet for the Super Saturated Sugar Strings, played a set of New Orleans-flavored tunes with quirky humor sprinkled throughout.
There were only about 40 people in attendance, so the sharply dressed gentlemen in sports jackets stood out among the rest of the crowd in Alaska summer casual. As suspected, they were Oakland’s John Brothers Piano Company.
The band ripped a few smoking numbers, then invited Bean up to trade licks for a few tunes. Suddenly, we weren’t in Anchorage anymore. The club had been transported to St. Louis, Chicago, New Orleans. Boom. Magical music transcendence.
Personally, I’d like to thank AFD, Enstar and all the folks who worked and volunteered to get this fine establishment back open — and those who are carrying it into its next life. Dive bar is in the eye of the beholder.
See you in the pit.