Bob R.
Yelp
I remember this as it used to be - the Morton Salt Shed, where Morton stored tons and tons of salt. When they closed this, Id heard rumors of it becoming a venue. For my life, I couldn't imagine how they would get the acoustics right in such an ample, irregular space.
When you arrive, you enter an area outside the Salt Shed, where they built a welcome center. It is open, and they have some food trucks, a beer tent (which was not open when we were there, and picnic tables. We sampled some of the food before going into the venue.
When you first enter, you enter a new space they built which leads into the Salt Shed. This area consists of a couple of gift shops, a bar, and another area where you can buy concert merchandise. From there, you enter the venue.
The space is large. Because of how this was initially built, the front of the building is sloped so, facing the stage, there are no seats to your right. There are two balconies straight ahead of the stage. There is another balcony area to the left which is the VIP section. It has its own entrance, table seating, concert seats, and what looked like a top-shelf bar. (Since we couldn't get up there, I can't comment much about the VIP section.)
We sat on the first balcony, about six rows back. In front of you are the sound engineers, using Salt Shed equipment and a mosh pit in front of the sound booth. The mosh pit is enormous but for younger people than me.
We saw two of the three bands. The opening band was not to our liking. The second band was the one we came to see, and we left, so I wonder who played the next set.
They have good (not great) sound dampening, so the acoustics were better than I thought. In my opinion, they need more sound panels to make further acoustic improvements. The other downside to the experience is it appears that the bands can't use their own mixing boards, and are forced to use the ones provided by Salt Shed. The outcome is the mixing could be better. We had a hard time hearing the vocals, primarily. I assume if the bands used their own equipment, they are used to their sound controls, and the overall experience may have been better.
Even with my two criticisms above, it was a very good experience. They are still new, so I didn't see any real headliners scheduled, but I'm sure that will come in time. If a band is playing that you like, this is a unique venue worth checking out.