Next to the pub in the Cesar Chavez student center, an often-vacant venue, the Depot, offers a slew of weekly events that most SF State students do not mark in their to-do calendars.

The empty chairs of the entertainment facility usually only fill during well-promoted events like the packed Oct. 12 DJ Battle hosted by the WB’s hip-hop television show, Distortion 2 Static.

Thursday nights are also often packed, according to a Depot sound engineer, Khem Myrick, 22.

It’s the one night of each week when large groups of friends are guaranteed to be found there enjoying the music, playfully drinking and playing quarters, engaging in impassioned talks, or putting back pitchers over chess or cards.

Coincidentally or not, Thursdays are often when the most well-publicized events have occurred there this semester, like the recent Pub Bash. It’s also a time when students are in the mood to wind-down from a long week of grueling schoolwork.

“It’s like the end of the week, but not like the end of the week (when) I’m going home,” said Myrick, a creative writing major.

Aside from attending large, publicized events and Thursday evening shows, many students don’t utilize the facility for its Monday night football showings, KSFS radio broadcasts, film showings, Open Deck Fridays and/ or weekly shows ranging in genres from Brit-pop to hip-hop.

Even when there is a good band or a hot DJ on stage, the Depot is only occupied by small groups of students studying or passing time and they tend to not stick around long because most people consider it dead, said Myrick.

“People are missing out,” said Zach Feinne, 21, a cinema student and fellow member of the tech service crew that operates the sound in Malcolm X Plaza and Jack Adams Hall on the top floor of the Cesar Chavez Student Center.

After only a month-and-a-half of working there, he said he feels it’s disappointing not to see anybody turn out for a notable event. “But a lot times they aren’t missing out, you got to take it day by day.”

Feinne’s afterthought references events when a DJ train wrecks the beats or people stop nodding their heads because two records are not timed correctly or at events like Open Deck Fridays from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. when two professional Technic turntables never get spinning because not a soul shows up to participate - a definite “catch 22.”

When 22-year-old SF State student Mike Miller first came down to the Depot to watch the Yankees game and have some drinks, he said he was in the company of only three other people.

But he came back for the Pub Bash last Thursday after skipping class to talk with the bartender and was pleased when the music took hold of him - and others - and he got a sense of an on-campus community.

Miller said the bassist for the opening act of the night, Sistas in the Pit, impressed him as she sang with conviction and drenched the ears of those in attendance with the soul wrenched hard-rock grooves of the 3-piece all-female band.

“It’s a great way to meet people and the staff looks out for their customers,” said Miller.

“But it’s not very big and (the pub doesn’t) serve hard alcohol sake shots aren’t much.”

Miller’s impression of the Depot, - alongside the pub - demonstrates how alcohol is the most common way for students to find out about the area.

Although you don’t have to be 21 to enjoy the space and entertainment, drinking alcohol provided by the pub is often the lure for most of the Depot’s regulars.