Through The Fire and the Flames, We Carry On

(From the Janesville Messenger, 1-18-09)

As music stores go, Rockhaus Guitars and Drums in Milwaukee was never the biggest or the fanciest.
But for a musician or a music lover, it was the most fascinating and certainly, the most real.
I use the term “was” because in the early morning hours of Sunday, January 11, Rockhaus was transformed from Milwaukee’s coolest music store into a cordoned-off disaster area. An electrical fire turned Rockhaus into a near-total loss. Between fire, smoke and water damage, over $100,000 of merchandise and equipment were destroyed.
As tragic as this news would be to any Milwaukee-area music lover, it’s 100 times worse for our family because the store owner is my brother-in-law, Rusty Olson.
Besides owning Rockhaus, Rusty plays drums for several Milwaukee bands, including the Peder Hedman Quartet. But his most notable drum seat is with Couch Flambeau, a legendary local trio that has lost none of its edge, wit, energy or musicianship after 27 years of performing. If you went to college in Madison or Milwaukee during the 1980’s, it’s likely that at some point, you heard their music.
But even if I didn’t know Rusty from Adam, I would have loved his store. When you walked into Rockhaus, there were no glitzy displays, just stuff - lots of stuff. Stacks of amplifiers. Truckloads of drums. CDs from area bands. Guitars of every size, shape, color and variety hanging on the wall, even one made of aluminum. Odd, vintage and collectible instruments like a theremin, the electronic gadget most famous for its appearance in old science fiction movies and the Beach Boys’ classic “Good Vibrations.” You could spend hours just looking over the various pop culture items Rusty had on the walls or behind the counter.
Despite being literally a corner shop, musicians of local, national and even international renown have walked through Rockhaus’ doors.
Times have been tough lately for small businesses, and Rockhaus was no exception. Repairs and Internet sales were instrumental in helping the store weather the struggles of the current economy.
But all that changed in the middle of the night last week, when a falling ceiling tile tripped the burglar alarm at the store, and Rusty arrived minutes later to find the store in flames.
For three days, Rusty has been able to look at, but not touch, what’s left of his business. He sees a $2,000 guitar sitting in a puddle of water, but cannot rescue it from further damage. Rusty is not allowed to move anything until inspectors from his and his landlord's insurance companies examine the wall where the fire started.
He refers to the three days following the fire as a “strange parade of new faces and business cards.” Even though the waiting is maddening, he says that “it has given me the opportunity to look things over and begin to get a game plan together, so it has been helpful.”
The game plan is to rebuild.
Anyone in Rusty’s shoes would have every right to be angry or depressed. And I’m sure he has already experienced both of those feelings. But he remains optimistic.
“There are some contractors ready to go, dumpsters set for delivery and things are falling into place day by day,” he said. “The landlord and (I) are both wanting very much to get things back to normal life as soon as we can. Everybody is playing nice and being productive. What more can you ask for, really?”
And that reinforces a lesson I learned when an inattentive driver totaled the coolest car I ever owned last year. Things can be replaced, but people can’t. No one was hurt in the Rockhaus blaze, and for that, we can be thankful. Rockhaus may be gone, but like a phoenix, it will rise from the ashes.