With the closing of the Velvet Room last December and the upcoming shutdowns of the Lo-Fi Cafe and Club DV8, Salt Lake City's night life was starting to look a bit bleak. But now the downtown area is getting a shot in the arm with the arrival of The Depot.
The nightclub opened in the historic Union Pacific Depot at The Gateway this week and is poised to bring back the city's music and socializing vital signs with three floors, a five-star restaurant and a state-of-the-art sound system and stage.
The 1,200-seat venue — a 21-and-older private club (although some shows will be all-ages) — has already embarked on its maiden voyage with the Honey Brothers, Aesop Rock and Mr. Lif, and Minnie Driver and Martin Sexton. And there is more on the horizon. Cake, the Roots, Otis Day & the Knights, Kaskade and Los Lobos are slated to appear in the next few weeks.
And that's only the beginning, according to United Concerts president Jim C. McNeil. "We are presenting music from all genres," he said. "It's like nothing we've ever had in Salt Lake City."
While there have been eating and music establishments in the city, The Depot is unique.
The 37,000-square-foot building holds a 220-seat fine-dining restaurant and a Mica speaker system constructed by Meyer Sound, the same company used by Metallica, Slipknot and John Mayer.
Rob Pierce, United Concerts production coordinator, chose and installed the sound system. "It came down to two systems, and we took them out to the Usana Amphitheatre and played them side by side," Pierce said. "Originally it wasn't in the budget, but when we heard the Mica speakers, our boss came up with the extra dollars for the system."
Pierce, who has worked with Meyer Sound throughout his 30 years in the production business, said he trusts the company. "They want their product to sound good. They have one of their sound techs come to the venue and take measurements of the venues. Then they feed the dimensions into a program that examines the sound quality of the room. That gives us the information of how to set up the system to give the audience the best balanced audio experience they can have."
This particular sound setup is only about a year old, said Pierce. "It's one tier lower than the big Milo system that is used for arena shows."
The Depot sports four subwoofers under the front of the stage for the low-end sound frequencies, and there are 10 linear speakers hung on the sides of the stage for the high-end mix. From the stage to the back bar area is 67 feet. The room itself is 75 feet wide. The stage has approximately 760 square feet of performance space and about 304 square feet for storage.
In addition to the three-tiered main floor of the venue, there is a three-tiered balcony for VIP seating. Further into the building are VIP rooms with their own tube speakers and 4-by-6-feet plasma TVs.
Pierce said he wanted to create a venue where there isn't a bad seat in the house. "After we got the design, I started doing some experimenting with how to create the room. No matter where you are in the venue, you will be able to see the stage."
There are also video cameras set up around the seating areas. "We have the capability to switch the video cameras onto the plasma screens set up throughout the building," said Pierce. "So if you're in the VIP rooms you can still see and hear the concert. We even put speakers in the restrooms so you won't miss a lot of the show."
Architect Kevin Miller of GSBS, an architecture, urban-design and interior-design firm based in Salt Lake City and Fort Worth, Texas, said the idea for The Depot was to preserve the landmark building's look.
"We wanted to make sure the building kept its personality," Miller said during a ribbon-cutting ceremony last August. "This is a beautiful space, and I wanted to utilize what it has. At the same time I wanted to bring a new element into it. I let the bones breathe while giving it new life."
The Depot wasn't the first venue eyed for the building.
Actually, the area was going to house a House of Blues, said Miller. "Then we had another company come in and that deal didn't get anywhere." So The Depot was realized.
"The Depot is a one-of-a-kind club venue in the United States," said Pierce. "With this venue, Salt Lake City has finally arrived."
E-mail: scott@desnews.com