Gogol Bordello and Darke Hall

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

Gogol Bordello

Heard these guys for the first time as I was leaving the Hawksley Workman concert at Darke Hall on March 19th.  I didn’t get a good listen to it, as I was part of the steady stream of traffic headed to the main exit.  The lyrics were catchy, and a quick youtube search after I got home was all I needed to find this video.  I thought I would pass it on.

I also wanted to pass on my support for the continued use of Darke Hall as a concert venue.  It is easily my favourite concert venue in Regina, followed by the Conexus Arts Centre, and then the Exchange.  The hall is booked through the Conservatory of Performing arts at the University of Regina.

Here’s their description of the venue from their website.

Darke Hall offers the warm character only a classic property can deliver, plus the seating capacity of up to 610 persons (Main Floor 550, Balcony 60). The stage has an acting area of 24 ft by 24 ft. Details for rental must be finalized at least two weeks prior to your event.

No external food or beverage may be brought in; however, Aramark Food Services may be used as they are the University of Regina’s licensed caterers. Unfortunately the hall is not wheelchair accessible.

Rental rates are dependant on the type of group. All rates include 4 hours of technician services, basement lobby, kitchen facilities, backstage lighting and sound.

That description hardly does the place justice.  It’s a large brick building full of atmosphere.  At the front is a sizable stage silhouetted with huge pipes from a pipe organ.  The building is tall and long, much like a classic church, complete with wood floors, and a balcony at the back.  The seating is aged but comfortable folding theatre seats.  The roof is lined with acoustic tile.  In short, it’s full of atmosphere and more importantly, it has amazing acoustics.  The hall easily handles loud rocky tunes keeping the notes clean and crisp just as easily as it handles completely acoustic vocals, guitar, and piano without any electrical amplification whatsoever.  Even the wood flooring contributes to an audible foot tapping, a very unique form of crowd interactivity.

You’re probably wondering why I’m giving this hall such a great review and I didn’t spend a lot of time on the concert itself.  That’s a good question, for those wondering how the concert was I can say that this was the 3rd time I’ve seen Hawksely Workman live, the second time in this same venue.  As always the concert was amazing.  If you have not seen Hawksley live I highly recommend it, if you don’t know who he is, go buy some of his albums, they are all great.

Now back to the hall, I want to see more concerts play in Darke Hall.  At the Hawksley concert, a comment was made on stage about the hall being difficult to book.  They suggested that we inform the Conservatory of Performing Arts how much us concert goers appreciate the venue, so that they keep it available for future public performances.

After a bit of searching on their website, I came across this email address: conserva@uregina.ca. I’m going to send them a quick email expressing my support for keeping the venue available for public concerts in the future.  If you have similar feelings, please follow my lead.

Tags: music, reviews
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