The Depot gives Salt Lake a shot in arm

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.