Every year, KING 5 Television conducts a Best of Washington viewers poll, where people are encouraged to vote for their favorite stuff. The winner of Favorite Ice Cream is... White Center's own Full Tilt Ice Cream Parlor.
Another category is Favorite Band. The Favorite Band category had over 600 applicants. Through a flurry of Facebook and email requests, White Center's very own Rat City Ruckus placed 19th on the Favorite Bands list.
"Woo-Hoo we're number 19!!!" To celebrate these awards Full Tilt Ice Cream through a party and invited Poop Attack! and Rat City Ruckus to play.
Poop Attack! is one of my favorite local Seattle bands. Fronted by Beau, the door guy at The Funhouse, he sings in a gravelly Tom Waites meets punk rock voice. Anthony on the drums is lightening quick. Mari on guitar adds cute Shonen Knife like vocals to some of the songs. Jim on guitar and Chad on bass keep the rhythm section on time with trained, almost jazz, precision.
Poop Attack! has a real mix of different styles that forges this unique band. Great band, weird name, but all around awesome!!
Before Rat City Ruckus went on stage, everyone was invited to have cake. Brett, the bass player for Rat City Ruckus, his Mom baked an amazing rat cake to commemorate this occassion. Unfortunately, an overly aggressive taxi driver caused the cake to kinda fall over, but it still looked amazing. The red filling looked like blood and guts. You can really tell the time and energy and love that went into the Rat City Ruckus cake.
Rat City Ruckus whipped the crowd into a dancing bouncing frenzy. Think of early 80's Circle Jerks / Stiff Little Fingers era punk rock. Super high energy, relentless guitars and drums. They even did a punk rock cover of a John Denver song that had the crowd singing along like drunken country folk.
Rounding out Rat City Ruckus is Phil on guitar, Dustin on drums and Anthony on guitar and saxaphone. But on this night, Anthony didn't have the sax with him. Never to disappoint a crowd, Anthony used the microphone and pantomimed the sounds of the sax, pretty cool, huh?
Rat City Ruckus definately deserve to be the 19th best band in Washington.
OK, now that I've talked about the bands, I wanna brag on the venue. I've created a list, I call it...
Top 7 Reasons Why I Love Full Tilt Ice Cream
1. Hand Made Ice cream.
The owners of Full Tilt hand make all their ice cream including such flavors like Nutella, Birthday Cake, Maple Nut, Coconut, Sweat Potato and many many more!! Awesomely Delicious!!
2. Pinball and Video Games
The back of the Ice Cream Shop holds a rotating assortment of video games and pinball machines. This time there was a prestine Attack from Mars and Cactus Jacks pinball machine along side Ms. Pac Man, Skee Ball, and more. There was once a rare Incredible Hulk pinball machine there.
3. Awesome Rock Shows
Full Tilt is not very big. It's max capacity is probablly around 200 people. The owners are pretty selective about which bands play. Full Tilt doesn't host shows all the time, but when they do, the bands are gonna rock!
4. All Ages
Full Tilt is one of the few all ages venues in town to host live shows. Their calendar isn't well publicized, so check their website http://www.fulltilticecream.com/ and pick a random band to see. You'll dig it I bet. They even have Dungeons and Dragons night sometimes.
5. The Giant Porno Store Across the Street
There's a giant porno store across the street from Full Tilt. As you watch the band, you can also gazed through the window at the assorted array of sneaky customers walk in and out of the mega-adult store. Great people watching. Notice the red circle in one of the band pictures.
6. Crusty Bars Next Door
Truth be told, Fult Tilt Ice Cream is in the heart of White Center, a pretty dodgey neighborhood. That can be scary for some folk, but wildly entertaining sometimes too. This particular Saturday, a transient gentleman walked into the bar next door and promptly passed out. When he could not be awaken, the bar called 911 and an ambulance arrived.
The EMT's loaded the drunk guy onto a stretcher and wheeled him to an awaiting ambulance. The bystanders started clapping as the sleeping man was wheeled past. At that moment, the man awoke, realized the crowd was routing for him and he started cheering. The groggy guy, held up his rock hands \m/ and screamed, as the medical personel lifted him into the awaiting emergency vehicle.
7. Full Tilt's Independent Spirit
Every time I go to Full Tilt, I leave feeling inspired. Here's a unique ice cream shop / rock venue, that was started with a dream and continues to be independently owned and operated. Even though the shop is in a seedy neighborhood, it survives and you feel like you've run the gauntlet and rewarded with the best ice cream in town.
Links to check out:
http://www.fulltilticecream.com/
http://best.king5.com/winners/best-of-western-washington/4779/specialty-food-and-drink/ice-cream-shop
http://best.king5.com/rat-city-ruckus/biz/491344
http://www.myspace.com/ratcityruckus
http://www.myspace.com/therealpoopattack
Words and Photo by Mark Ostler
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