| Pittsburgh’s
new kick-back spot where “something for everyone”
works.
By Kevin M. Mitchel
Located
on the top floor of Sports Rock Café in Pittsburgh,
Penn., The Loft is a daring example of what happens when you
think differently. It’s a live rock club. It’s
an intimate living room. It’s a place to throw darts
and shoot pool. It’s a place to watch sports.
“It fills the need for people who don’t just want
to sit and drink,” says Ray Jackson, owner of Eastern
Continental Lighting & Sound. Jackson received the installation
gig from longtime friend and club owner Tom Jayson, and it
brings the number of the town’s clubs in his domain
to 18.
A Room with a View
The 8,500-square-foot room was formerly a Dave & Buster’s-type
arcade, which just wasn’t making the cash registers
sing. There are still remnants of it: When you come up the
stairs, an orderly row of dartboards stands guard, and then
there are six pool tables. In another corner, there are 38
virtual reality and video games. Also scattered about are
22 televisions. But now the room is dominated by a stunning
bar, with an oak finish and bar rail on top, in the center
that seats 50 and takes six cocktail slingers to run it. Off
to the left is (my favorite part) a cozy seating area.
“We raised an area up a foot and put in a fireplace
and leather loveseats with cocktail tables, and it gives [the
Loft] a different feel,” says Tom Barnes, vice president
of operations. “It gives the whole room some nice atmosphere.”
But opposite of that is the main draw: a 35’x 25’
stage with a 35’x15’ dancefloor. One of the more
interesting changes is the stage built in front of a big window
that looks out over downtown. Those sitting at the bar or
in one of the 200 seats placed in front of the stage can look
out past the band onto Steel City.
“There are huge windows behind the band, and you see
the river and the other nightclubs,” Jackson explains.
“We didn’t want the stage to be hidden from everyone
and it gives it a much more open feeling.”
The sound coming over the Mach speakers is powered by eight
Yorkville amplifiers, and the space is lit by American DJ
equipment; a unique combination demanded by a unique situation.
Caution: Low Ceiling
“The ceilings aren’t that high, 11 feet instead
of the usual 14,” which Jackson says was his biggest
challenge. The situation led to only one choice for speakers:
Martin Professional’s Mach. “Mach speakers have
a rotating horn in the center between the two woofers. It
gives you better coverage; otherwise you’ll be cutting
people off on the side,” explains Jackson. He usually
opts for other speakers, but in this case he would have had
to lay them on their sides, and coverage would have been sliced.
“Directly in front of the speakers it would have been
very shrill, and just three or four feet to the left or the
right, the higher frequencies would drop out dramatically
and the system would sound muddy,”
he said.
Jackson admits the Mach speaker system is “pricey,”
but he’s been working with them for two years, and he’s
pleased. “I get a tight, precise sound,”
he said.
Putting in intelligent lighting was discussed but shelved,
again because of the low ceilings. “You don’t
have the height that would do it justice,” Barnes says
of the decision to go with 24 American DJ Par 56 Cans with
300-watt narrow spot bulbs. “Even the pars were tough
[to position], so to spend the money for intelligent lights
didn’t make sense.”
Jackson, who had first pushed for intelligent lighting, ultimately
agreed, especially as the live music venue’s emphasis
was on the great bands currently coming out of Pittsburgh.
“We could have put in flashing lights on stage and made
it look like a Kiss concert, but that’s not right for
this scene. They are here for the band, not to see the twirly
whirlies.”
Um, twirly whirlies? Jackson laughs. “It’s been
a long day!”
Prowling Techs
For the board, Jackson went with the Mackie 32 Channel VLZ
pro audio mixer. “I’ve been getting good deals
on Mackies and am very pleased with how quiet and precise
they are,” he said.
Six Elation DP-DMX20L dimmer packs were chosen for their load
requirements, which gives him plenty of headroom and little
worry that there’ll be circuits and fuses blowing.
An interesting choice was the American DJ Stage Desk 16 to
drive the lights. The simple, nine-pound console is big on
features for the inexpensive price. Yet that was precisely
what the doctor ordered. “We have used them for years,
and have no problem with them,” said Jackson. “These
are not complicated controllers.”
Eastern Continental has been around since 1985, so for Jackson
it’s all about service or more specifically, the lack
thereof. The one-time paramedic explains that he and his crew
cruise the steep hills of Pittsburgh on weekend nights armed
with cell phones ready to put out any technical fire that
should flare up.
“When I pick a supplier, the main thing is reliability.
Tons of service calls can kill you. You’re wasting money
when you have to go repair things. [But] if somebody pours
a drink into a amplifier at 10 pm Friday, and something goes
down and the club loses its sound system, they could lose
up to $50,000 that weekend.”
He cautiously double-ups on amps, and the Loft is no exception.
He uses two amps for the main four speakers, one speaker per
side. If an amp does blow, he’ll tell the panicked club
manager to simply piggyback all four speakers into the other
amp, and the system will keep rocking until he or one of his
coworkers can get there to take care of it.
Jackson does admit that he could have put in a sound system
at half the price spent on the current one, and arguably the
college kids that crowd the Loft wouldn’t have noticed
the difference. But Jackson would have. “It would have
been aggravating; not as crisp a sound. And I would have been
back after a year fixing the cheap speakers. It’s better
to put a little more money up front in the sound system,”
he said.
The vibe of the Loft complements the total club nicely. Below
it is the main sports bar. It features a full-service food
menu, a DJ, and a small dancefloor that is mostly used by
the 30-plus crowd. Also on that floor, accessible from the
street and inside, is Spi Nightclub, a hipper Top 40 dance
club with a second DJ. Barnes says there is good separation
between the three sound-wise, and they benefit from having
three areas with distinctively different feels.
More importantly, profits are up because of the Loft. “There’s
a definite increase in business,” Barnes says. “It’s
helped our overall sales.”
The Loft
1400 Smallman Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222
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