Have you ever been shut down due to noise complaints?

Is that at one meter?

 

Just once. We were in a big house upstairs and the neighbor called the landlord so we stopped. After that
the drummer used an electronic kit and that solved that problem.

Another time at a different house we got a knock on the door after a song. It was the neighbor kids that wanted to tell us we sounded good.

 

Once upon a time ~ 1986, I was rehearsing with a band, a reasonable volume Top 40 band, unlike my other ear bleeding metal bands, in a two car garage. It was a nice spring New England day, so the doors were open. During one of the songs, I wandered out into the driveway and spotted a patrol car in the street, near the end of the driveway. Continuing to play, I walked back into the garage.

2-3 minutes later, a cop walks into the garage, waves his arms, and tells us to stop playing. We do... He tells us we need to play quieter, we all nod and say "Yes, officer".

He then points at me and yells "Why didn't YOU come down the driveway and see what we want?" I reply with "What do you do with people who see a cruiser and stop to see what's going on? I had no idea you were here to see us!" He makes a face, then turns around and leaves... We kept playing exactly as we had.

 

Not lately.

One guy tried. We were playing outdoors in a tent (thanks Covid) last fall and the guy next to the bar that hired us came over and said he was calling the cops because we were too loud.

Our rhythm guitar player, an off-duty county deputy sheriff, identified himself and explained in great detail the local noise ordinances by decibel level and time of day. Then for giggles he pointed out the penalty for filing a false complaint (he was well into b.s. mode at that point). The guy went back into his house and we never heard from him again.

 

The guys at the pointy end can't function without staff, supply, chow, etc. One team, one mission. You did your part brother!

 

You know the rules, pictures or it never happened.

 

Playing at home for my little sister's birthday party when she turned 13. We set up in the carport. After two songs the cops showed up and told us that we had to stop because the neighbors said there was a "drug party" going on. Sadly, no drugs! Not much of a party, either...

 

My first band's first gig was shut down by the cops. It was the summer of 1997 and Sophmore year of high school had just ended. A friend of a friend of a friend was having a house party in Clifton (near Cincinnati, Ohio) and wanted a few bands lined up. He was charging at the door, so each band wound get $100 to split. Awesome, especially when I made about $4.75 an hour scrubbing pans at a bakery.

The night was a disaster. Our drummer needed to cancel at the last minute so it was just the guitar player/singer and myself. The guys PA wasn't working, so I had to borrow an ancient Peavey SP1 setup from my dad. Transporting it was difficult, but at least it didnt catch fire. I lugged my old Peavey Combo 300 for my 1996 Ibanez SR800 and the guitar player had a solid state Fender Princeton Chorus.

The most popular of the bands went on first, we were the third and final to play. 30 seconds into our first song, the cops showed up and told us to shut it off. We waited a bit and tried to play quietly, but the cops had nothing better to do that night and were waiting. They said shut it down, no more warnings or we would get tickets. Looking back, they probably had the other bands play first because they knew there was a good chance the cops would be called.

Since the night ended early, I had to wait for what seemed like forever for my dad's van to arrive. To top it off, something happened with the cover charge so we only got paid $5 each. My mom was nice enough to get a cheap frame, so I still have that $5 bill.

 

Mom's are great that way.

 

Yeah, she was fine until she started meddeling in my relationships.

 

Yep, more than once. First time when I was in high school and my band at the time. There's a music store here that at the time had a small stage inside. They used it for clinics and such. At one time they had a drum kit, bass amp, and guitar amp set up as a display. I'm sure you know where this is going,lol. My band gets there at the same but walk in one at a time. Upon entering, we each go to different sections of the store, me to the basses, Mark grabbed a guitar, and our singer asked to look at a mic. We walk to the stage at different times, turn on everything on while looking to make sure no one is paying attention to us. After a quite 3 count, we rip into Hair Of The Dog by Nazerath. We got about halfway through when the manager hurriedly walks up, shuts everything off, and yells that he's trying to sell a piano but we ran the lady off. We got band from the store, which lasted about two weeks, lol

 

If she ran off over that, she wasnt going to buy it. She was looking for an excuse to leave. You helped her out.

 

Many times. Some popular venues in Sydney no longer have live music because of the number of complaints. One of our local clubs had a nearby resident who complained every time there was music. They were forced by the liquor licence authority to install a sound level meter wired to the power that would light up green, yellow or red depending on the volume. If you got too excited the power cut out mid guitar solo (usually) and the drummer was left on his own. It happened a lot so we gave up playing there.

 

yup bought brand new in 1975

 

thank you my friend!

 

John

 

You guys were hot! You must of been gigging in Bomont.

 

I won't deny that we were loud also, but that never got us into any trouble. At the time, I was playing the Alembic almost exclusively with an '81 G&L L-1000 as my backup, through a pair of Peavey CS-800 power amps into a pair of Peavey 1810 cabinets. I kept the clip lights lit from the word go until we were done with our set. Those were some spectacularly good times.

Here's a clip of the band, resurrected from an ancient cassette my son found.



John