Baton Rouge is not known for bringing in international touringacts, especially underground music, but this is something thenewest all-ages venue, The Darkroom, plans to accomplish.
The Darkroom, focusing on underground music and an alcohol- anddrug-free atmosphere, will open Thursday with national and localbands scheduled to perform.
The Darkroom is under the same owners as the previous all-agesvenue, The Furnace.
Owner Chance Roppolo said the first Furnace, located in PortAllen, closed because of faulty wiring. The Furnace then moved intoa building in Prairieville, but the owner of the building pulledthe plug on it about a month ago, he said.
So Roppolo’s production company, Beatdown Productions, found anew place to have shows.
“Basically the main difference is that we have a little creativecontrol over it [now],” Roppolo said. “The powers that be can’tdictate.”
Roppolo said the all-ages concept is a nice change from theBaton Rouge bar scene.
“We’ve been doing this around town for a few years now,” Roppolosaid. “The concept of it is based on the music, and everything thatrevolves around the music, and not the alcohol. It’s for bands toplay for people and people to go see them. It’s a place to get awayfrom the regular old thing that goes on in Baton Rouge, hanging outin bars and stuff like that.”
But just because it is an all-ages venue does not mean it isjust an under-aged crowd, Roppolo said.
“It’s a wide age bracket, like 14 to 25 [years old], everyonegets along, and we never have to worry about fights,” he said. “Alot of the people who do attend the shows are straight-edge –people that don’t drink and don’t do drugs. [The Darkroom is] aplace to go hear good music and not in an environment that circlesthe whole drinking thing.”
Roppolo said the venue will book bands with a wide variety ofgenres.
“We do a pretty wide range of different kinds of music, anythingthat fits the bracket of underground music,” he said. “We stay awayfrom top 40, electronic and rap, although we do some hip-hop typethings.”
The new venue is located at 12341 Florida Blvd. in the FloridaEast Plaza. Roppolo said this location will allow people to come toBaton Rouge from the surrounding cities.
“It’s a much better location,” Roppolo said. “It’s really morecentralized than, say, Prairieville.”
Roppolo said the new venue is bigger than the previous twobuildings that housed The Furnace, and will have pool and foosballtables.
“It’s more [like] a venue than a few places we’ve had in thepast,” Roppolo said.
Thursday’s opening of the venue will include performances byHorse the Band, In Reverent Fear, Torn Apart by Horses, Translationand Justin Bailey, Roppolo said.
Roppolo said there also will be a grand opening in thefuture.
“It’s probably going to be a Saturday all-day thing, with six orseven bands, free food and things like that,” he said.
Roppolo said there have been good crowds in the past at bothFurnaces, and he anticipates the same to happen at The Darkroom, alarge room with a possible capacity of 600 people.
“As soon as school let out and people found out about the place,things picked up, [we had a] pretty steady crowd,” he said. “That’swhy I was wondering why it stopped so abruptly like it did, thingswere going fine. But I think this new location will be better foreveryone.”
Brooklyn Boudreaux, a nursing junior, said she attended shows atThe Furnace and definitely will go to The Darkroom.
“They always book good shows,” she said.
Boudreaux said she hopes the new venue is a success.
“I hope so, especially with it being all ages,” she said. “Ithink Chance has what it takes to keep this place going. He’sreally dedicated.”