VENUE

In some ways, it is only because of our personal connections with the lessees of the venue that Interzone has ever run. The club is situated at 448 Murray Street, just around the corner from the old Firm site (see History) and up the road from several other major nightclubs. While this "West End" area of Perth is not the prime nightclubbing district (situated about 15 minutes walk away in Northbridge), it is quite a respectable area with good passing trade potential.
448 Murray Street is occupied by a laser-tag game centre: one of two Perth-based franchises of the Melbourne-based "Zone 3". Zone 3 was already a great-looking venue internally, and they had some experience running live bands in the venue for private functions. The game requires a large area with plenty of cover, with multiple levels to make it interesting. HKC (the company operating the franchise) had chosen a pretty dark-future look for their game area, utilising a lot of cyclone fencing and black paint, with exposed air-conditioning ducts running through the suspended ceiling and plenty of small effects lights (including mini-searchlights which scanned back and forth automatically). As such, all we had to do was to install a sound system, nightclub lighting and make a few modifications to their sunken mezzanine floor to turn it into a sunken dancefloor. Unfortunately, the Accommodation Notice on the building allowed for only 30 people in that game area: not really enough for a nightclub. This problem led to a long gap in operations (see History) while very expensive toilets and extra ventilation were installed, exit signage and fire systems upgraded and other modifications made.
The Zone 3 site consists of over 900 square metres over two floors (some of which is not accessable to Interzone due to ventilation restrictions) and a carpark area which we fully enclose and carpet before use: the "Wasteland". This works as a chill-out space, a beer-garden and the venue for our Performance Art. Interzone has its own door, above which our sign hangs (encircled by barbed wire) all week, but transforming the inside of the venue from a game centre to a nightclub involves considerable time and effort each and every Saturday, so in some ways the Zone 3 site is less than perfect. It has, however, seved us well to this point.

INTERZONE: Venue