Latest Attack May Put End to Ice House’s Rock Series

The Ice House may be finished as a rock concert venue.

Alarmed by the second stabbing incident in two months connected to a show there, police are pushing to have the building’s entertainment permit revoked.

“We’re going to (see) somebody killed there before too long, and it’s not OK,” Police Chief Patrick E. McKinley said Tuesday.

In response, concert promoters have launched a “Save the Ice House” campaign aimed at persuading city planners at a March 8 session to give the concert series another chance.

Eric M. Addeo, head of the building’s in-house promotion company, Culture Shock, says he is willing to more than double security to prevent further trouble at the 578-capacity hall.

Since last fall, the Ice House has emerged as one of Orange County’s most active grass-roots venues for punk and alternative rock. Unlike most other area venues for those popular styles, the Ice House does not serve alcohol and is open to all ages.

The latest violence took place Feb. 10 outside the Ice House, an old brick building at 112 E. Walnut Ave., near the Fullerton railroad station. Several unheralded local bands were playing to about 285 people when it occurred.

According to accounts by the police and Addeo, two men who left the concert while it was still in progress were met outside by a gang of 20 to 30 assailants. The victims were chased, beaten and stabbed repeatedly. James Jacoby, 28, of Anaheim, and Jay Thomas, 18, of Placentia, both suffered multiple wounds. The two were taken to UCI Medical Center and were released Feb. 12.

Albert Delgado, 18, of West Covina, Buster Torres, 19, of El Monte, and a 17-year-old youth from Los Angeles County were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and aggravated assault. Delgado and Torres will be arraigned March 3, according to court records. No details were available on the 17-year-old.

Sgt. Glenn Deveney said the motive was unclear, but police are considering the attack to be gang-related.

The previous stabbing at the Ice House occurred Dec. 16 inside the hall. According to the 18-year-old victim of that attack, about 11 or 12 white supremacist skinheads set upon him because he was wearing a T-shirt displaying the image of Jimi Hendrix. The attackers fled. In a separate attack at the same concert, a second man was beaten and stomped inside the hall. No arrests were made in either incident.

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After the December violence, Culture Shock replaced the hall’s security guards with a new crew from a company specializing in rock concerts. Police approved the change and allowed the rock shows to continue.

But on Tuesday, McKinley said he is now convinced that shows with “that punk-rocker type of mentality” inevitably will attract a violent element and must not be allowed to go on.

“It isn’t any place you want your kids,” the police chief said. “The people they’re attracting, and the kind of crowd they draw, it just breeds and begets violence. Their music is violent, their demeanor is violent. They come in here and stab each other and have these weird dances where they throw each other around. We can’t have that.”

McKinley said after the December stabbing that Culture Shock had been doing a better job than previous promoters at the Ice House, which had a violence-marred history before the current team took over. Except for the Dec. 16 stabbing at a Vandals concert, he said at the time, “I haven’t had any complaints” about concert violence. But with the second stabbing incident, McKinley has decided to urge the city’s Planning Commission to revoke the conditional-use permit that allows concerts at the Ice House.

Addeo, meanwhile, hopes to rally the local punk and alternative rock community to the defense of the Ice House and, by extension, the music community’s own reputation.

“Everybody’s ready to blame the music. In the ‘50s, Elvis came along, and they blamed him (for juvenile delinquency). In the ‘60s, it was the Beatles. Now it’s the ‘90s, and it’s hard alternative,” Addeo said, using his term for the style of rock he books.

Addeo, 30, said that Culture Shock has staged 52 concerts at the Ice House since subleasing the building in June.

“We’ve had 15,000 kids (attend concerts) in a six-month period, and we’ve had two incidents. We’re not trying to (deny) the severity of what’s happened, but that’s pretty good numbers. (Punk fans) are being judged wrongly as a bunch of problem kids, and they’re not. . . .

“A slam pit might look violent, but it’s not like they’re beating each other,” Addeo continued, referring to the stage-front area where punk and alternative-rock fans do body-contact dances that can resemble a rugby scrimmage. “The kids here are well-behaved. Yes, there is a bad element everywhere in society, and yes, some people who came here may have been troublemakers. But we’re being (singled) out as a problem, and that’s not fair.”

Addeo said his company should not be blamed for the Feb. 10 stabbing because it did not take place on Ice House property but, rather, across the street. However, he is proposing to double the in-house security crew to 20 guards. He said he would also be willing to pay for one or two Fullerton police officers in a patrol car to stand guard outside. He estimated the new security plan would raise nightly security costs to about $1,500.

The venue’s future rests with the city Planning Commission, which is scheduled to consider the Police Department’s request to revoke the Ice House’s permit at the March 8 meeting at 4 p.m. Addeo said Culture Shock is circulating flyers at local record stores and night clubs, asking rock fans to sign a petition, attend the hearing and send postcards to the seven commissioners urging them to accept a compromise that would allow shows to continue with beefed-up security.

Since the latest stabbing, Culture Shock hasn’t held a concert at the Ice House. The venue still has its permit and can legally stage concerts, but Addeo said police have made it a practical impossibility by imposing prohibitive security standards.

Under the permit’s conditions, police can set security requirements for the venue, and Addeo said they are now insisting that concerts be staffed by a dozen uniformed, off-duty Fullerton police officers, at a cost of $2,400 to $3,600 a show.