Music venue receiving a number of noise complaints
By Nick Kidd
Cosmic Charlie’s has grown into one of Lexington’s strongest concert venues since opening last September on the corner of Euclid and Woodland Avenues. It’s a favorite amongst local musicians because of its ample sound system and ideal size: small enough so that concerts are intimate, big enough to fit about 300 people. Their eclectic booking has given music fans of every ilk reason to visit, making Charlie’s the heir to the original Dame’s legacy more than any other venue in town and a vital place for local musicians to cut their teeth. But last time I was at Charlie’s, on Sunday May 30, something unusual happened.
In the middle of a set by the band Shemale Fiesta, police entered the building over a noise complaint. At an officer’s behest, the band’s set ended immediately, followed by a large, voluntary exodus of the crowd. Charlie’s was issued a citation for a noise ordinance violation, a fine compounded by lost revenue from the fleeing crowd.
In the parking lot outside the venue, members of the band and audience convened and wondered aloud how there was a noise complaint: Shemale Fiesta wasn’t louder than other bands playing Charlie’s on any given night. That’s when I learned that the same thing had happened only eight days prior, on May 22, and on Christmas Eve 2009, giving Charlie’s three noise violations (and cut-short concerts) since opening last September.
Currently, a noise disturbance is any sound that endangers the safety or health of humans or animals, endangers or injures personal or real property, or anything that “annoys or disturbs a person of normal sensitivities.” This includes any sound that creates a “disturbance” to any public space within fifty feet, including sidewalks. This subjective definition, coupled with hundreds of concerts that went off without a hitch, makes it difficult for Cosmic Charlie’s, a music club located on the corner of Euclid and Woodland Avenues, to figure out exactly when their venue is too loud…until it’s too late.
Concert promoter and owner of Sprouse House Productions, Nick Sprouse is familiar with concert venues being targeted by noise ordinance violations. He worked as The Dame’s booking agent for six years where he witnessed selective enforcement of noise violations firsthand. He wonders why bars like Two Keys are allowed to be loud while concert venues, for some reason, are not. “Why the double standard?” he asks.
Sprouse posted a message on Facebook expressing disappointment with the recent “witch hunt against live music in Lexington.” He points out that 388 Woodland Avenue, the property Charlie’s currently inhabits, was home to The High Life Lounge, The Library Lounge, Lynagh’s Club, and the original Library Lounge going back to the 1970s. Each of these establishments featured live music, creating a long-established tradition of sound emanating from the University Plaza. This tradition, Sprouse believes, makes it reasonable for nearby residents to expect to hear music from Charlie’s, and he questions whether past incarnations of the property had to deal with such a frequency of noise complaints.
Sprouse’s words caught the attention of many, including Tom Martin, vice president of the Lexington Area Music Alliance (LAMA), an organization formed to “represent the interests of the Lexington area music community.” After meeting with Sprouse, Martin contacted Linda Gorton and Tom Blues of Lexington’s Noise Ordinance Task Force (NOTF) and set up a meeting for June 24. Gorton, Blues, Martin, Sprouse, a city attorney, a Lexington police department representative and others are scheduled to attend the meeting, where LAMA and Sprouse hope to discuss problematic ambiguities of the current noise ordinance.
Incidentally, Gorton and Blues are in the process of drafting a revised noise ordinance with fellow NOTF members, a revision 2 years in the making. It is LAMA’s hope that any future ordinance will provide more concrete guidelines for venue owners. “The goal is for all parties involved to understand where the other sides are coming from,” Martin said. “In the past, noise ordinance issues weren’t considered with the interests of venues in mind. So we’re hoping to foster a larger conversation on this issue.”
John Tresaloni, owner of Cosmic Charlie’s, says he’d comply with the current ordinance if he knew how. “Police come onto the property because they claim people are calling in noise complaints,” he said. “But we’re surrounded by businesses and college students. We don’t know who’s complaining, so we don’t know how to resolve it. Two of the times we were cited were holidays, when the students were gone. It’s not like an old lady lives across the street. So who could it be? People pumping gas at Speedway?”
Martin thinks Charlie’s has a right to know who’s complaining so the venue can work toward a resolution.
“What is a reasonable level of sound?” Martin asked. “One person’s reasonable is another person’s excessive. It’s an arbitrary definition.”
Tresaloni echoed this thought, asking, “Can you define loud? Is there a decibel level? Because if there was a parameter, we’d take care of it. As it stands, we don’t want to risk money bringing in a band for something like the World Equestrian Games if we’re just going to get shut down at 1:30 and lose a bunch of money.”
Other cities have implemented decibel measurement devices so that police and venue owners are on the same page with regard to acceptable sound levels. This seems like the most likely area for compromise, though Sprouse worries that the decibel parameter might be set too low. “If it’s set at, say, 100 decibels, that might sound like a big number but that’s actually pretty low. It could end up making the problem worse and hurting the audience’s experience.”
Martin, who plays in local band The City, can relate to Sprouse’s assessment. “I measure decibels at our concerts with an iPhone app and, invariably, we get louder as the night goes on. Usually, it starts with our guitar player turning himself up so he can hear, and then the bassist has to turn up to hear, and so on. This is actually pretty common at concerts, but the audience usually doesn’t realize it.”
NOTF members, Martin says, are open to listening to new ideas and he’s confident the upcoming meeting will be the first step toward a broader conversation. “This will be an important discussion about making a long-term impact on the local music scene,” he said. “We want to set up mechanisms so that younger generations won’t have to deal with what Charlie’s is going through down the road.”
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