On April 29 the Murfreesboro City Police shut down a rock concert planned to kick off the grand opening of Guitar Town on Greenland Drive. However, the police may have overstepped their legal boundaries in shutting down the show.
The outdoor concert was shut down around 2 p.m. because of a noise complaint called in by an anonymous neighbor.
After planning the show for months and spending over $1,000 in its production and promotion, Guitar Town owner Jesse Pittman was a bit upset with the outcome of the event.
“I spent a good two months organizing this show,” Pittman said. “I just wanted to get our name out there and get involved with the musicians in the area. All I was wanting to say was, ?Hey look, you can buy your equipment here.’”
Pittman claims that he did everything in his power to legitimize the show. While trying to obtain a sound permit?weeks before the show?Pittman claims the Murfreesboro Police Department and City Hall gave him the runaround. No one seemed to know exactly what he needed to do, he said.
“I first tried the police department. They transferred me eight different times to other people and finally told me that I needed to hang up and call again. Needless to say, I got a bit frustrated with that.
“So, I then called City Hall. Pretty much the same thing happened there. I finally was told that I needed to speak with a lady named Kelly Baker,” Pittman said. “I left her several voicemails and she never called me back. I called again and again. She finally called me back about two or three days prior to the event. She told me a little about the sound ordinance in Murfreesboro and told me to call Murfreesboro Principal Planner Doug Deomafi.”
But Deomafi did not call back until the day before the show,” Pittman said. Deomafi told Pittman that he had 30 minutes to get a public announcement to City Hall before the deadline in order to get his sound permit, according to Pittman.
“He (Deomafi) then says, ?Hold on, I need to ask someone a little more about this.’ So he then puts me on hold for at least 20 or 30 minutes. I could’ve gotten up to City Hall in that time period, but he wasted all of my time,” Pittman said.
At this point it would have been too late anyway, the city said.
“Jesse wouldn’t have been able to get his sound permit anyway,” Deomafi said. “He should’ve gotten all of this done about a week and a half before the event. He just waited too long.”
However, the concert was not shut down because of Pittman’s inability to obtain a legal sound permit. It was shut down because of a noise complaint. The sound permit does absolutely nothing but to exempt an event from certain laws regarding noise, according to the Murfreesboro sound ordinance.
Sound can be measured in decibels. The Murfreesboro city code allows up to 95dB for 30 seconds as a maximum limit for entertainment purposes.
Just across the street from Guitar Town is MTSU’s football stadium.
“I would imagine that on a good game-day the stadium at MTSU would but out at least 120dB from 50 feet away, maybe more,” said professional sound engineer Kevin Kane.
Pittman claims that he couldn’t even hear his drums coming out through the PA system, which was directly behind him.
Still the decibel level is still not the reason that Guitar Town’s show was shut down. It was shut down because someone complained about the loud music.
“I know that if someone next door can hear the music, then it’s a legal complaint,” said Lillian, a police employee who wishes to keep her last name anonymous.
However, this is not true for all times of day. Murfreesboro’s sound ordinance code is pretty clear when it comes to live bands. In Section 21-103 of the Unnecessary Noise Standard it is clearly stated: The operation of any such instrument, phonograph, live band, or device between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 7:30 a.m. in such a manner that is to be plainly audible at a distance of 50 feet from the building, structure or vehicle in which it is located shall be prima facie evidence of a violation of this section.
Ironically, the concert was shut down during Pittman’s band’s (Trees Leave) set at 2 p.m. They were only the second band to play.
It would seem Guitar Town’s grand opening in no way violated the law even if there was a noise complaint.
“It was in the middle of the day. I had 10 bands going on. The concert would’ve had to end by 9:15 p.m. at the latest. Hell, we rented the stage and it had to be back by 10 p.m.,” Pittman said.
However, this dilemma doesn’t seem to slow Pittman down. He plans on doing this again and covering all of the bases.
“The way this system goes it may take me four months, but we will hold this concert in its entirety. The next time I’ll have my sound permit and we will rock out as loud as we want. And the cool thing about it is there is nothing they can say about it,” Pittman said.
