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==History==
Founded circa 1983 by [[Lee Mabes]], [[Tom Pilcher]] and [[Jim Ward]],<ref>[http://www.sunbiz.org/scripts/cordet.exe?action=DETFIL&inq_doc_number=G15117&inq_came_from=NAMFWD&cor_web_names_seq_number=0000&names_name_ind=N&names_cor_number=&names_name_seq=&names_name_ind=&names_comp_name=HANDLEBAR&names_filing_type= SunBiz.org record]</ref> the bar became the sole venue for New Wave music after the close of [[McGuigan's]]. As ''[[Pensacola News Journal]]'' reporter [[Troy Moon]] recalled:
:Local bands such as [[the Names]] , [[Congo Rebellion]], and [[the Beach Monkees]] would fill the club in those early days, sending menacing volleys of punked-up power pop and drone-filled noise through the club's musty air. Folks with wacky-colored hair and black leather jackets would pogo and sweat to tunes that recalled the Velvet Underground, Big Star and the Ramones, while seizure-inducing strobe lights lit the surreal scene.
:And the national acts came, too: Future Rock and Roll Hall of Famer the Replacements played its first Pensacola gig at The HandleBar on the same night in 1985 when Kiss opened up the [[Pensacola Civic Center]] just a par five or so away. Hundreds of Pensacola punks and metalheads slam-danced through a sledgehammer-hard set by Suicidal Tendencies at the height of that band's popularity. Black Flag - hardcore punk's seminal band - slung sweat and rebellion at a crowd of hundreds, literally shaking the club's walls with its fierce volume. Then there was the early Dash Rip Rock gig, where the drummer pulled half his drum set outside and played on the railroad tracks, half the crowd following him, as the rest of the band played from the stage.<ref name="burns">"The HandleBar burns." ''Pensacola News Journal'', </ref>
