From the start, ‘Kool Haus’ was a fantastic name for a venue. So I hope we can at least give it that – Toronto’s in need of an air of German culture, even if it’s only on some warehouse way down on Queen’s Quay.

The Kool Haus – formerly The Warehouse, formerly a garage, formerly an outhouse – is architecturally interesting, expertly-prepared for most of its acts, and one of the most viciously corporate venues you’ll ever see. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, of course; without turning into Donald Trump’s attorney, I’ll submit that the strong corporate whiff from the Kool Haus is actually in its favor, not its disadvantage.

For one thing, the sight of that modernist architecture in an otherwise austere location is an immediate calling-card. While the Haus is certainly not as out-there as the Sound Academy – which, as noted here the other day, exists somewhere between Atlantis and Shangri-La – it’s placed in a more industrialized area. If you walk down Yonge Street to get there, you’ll pass the Toronto Star building, so you’re already in questionable territory (goodbye, future job opportunity). Once you finally get there, though, you’ll forget all about the bleak surroundings; as someone I work with told me recently, the Kool Haus is ‘a tasteful place for tasteful people.’ That pretty much sums it up. See? Sometimes corporations can be good for music.

Now, for the actual interior. The last time I was there, back in September seeing a very feedback-heavy band, I couldn’t have imagined any other venue where a group of such a large sonic aesthetic could be serviced so well. The ceilings are actually perfect for the typically ‘big’ artists that are featured there, allowing every dissonant sliver of sound and reverb to wash over you, as opposed to fizzling away (like in the Sound Academy), or simply hitting you too hard and leaving you shellshocked (like when many smaller venues try to service such artists). But then, the grandiosity of the artists that play there ultimately determines the success of it all.

The wide floor leaves plenty of room for dancing, which by extension also leaves plenty of room for you to trip said dancers when they get in your damn way. And, of course, there’s a bar to the side which I can only assume serves crappy beer for $50 a bottle. But what else is new?

I understand that a lot of people don’t agree with such praise of the Kool Haus – the aforementioned grandiose nature of the venue may pose a distraction for them, and some artists are admittedly just not suited for the place at all. Maybe I’ve just been to all the right shows there, when the acoustics were good and the security guards weren’t acting like evil specters.

But it’s a divisive venue, for sure. And many will obviously be at the Haus in less than two weeks, when Bloc Party plays there for the CMW – they’re the venue’s soonest coming act.

And there’s also Kate Perry playing on the 30th…but, to alter a line from a great film critic, attending a Kate Perry show in the Kool Haus is like attending a Satanic ritual in St. Peter’s Basilica. Okay, it’s not THAT great of a place.