3 years... 3 years we have been in our rented house, for 3 years we have rehearsed in our modified garage practice space, 3 years without a single complaint, not one. Then a new neighbor moved in next door, an angry, bitter man with seemingly no job, no friends, and who for some reason, never seems to leave his house.
We sealed off our garage door, we put wall to wall carpet on the garage floor, we sealed off the outer side door and window, and we added extra insulation in the ceiling. And for 3 years we practiced 2 or 3 times a week, daytime only, and had friendly, tolerant neighbors, who smiled and waved as we mowed our respective lawns, who chatted with us at our mailboxes and driveways, and who understood that we are respectful and friendly people who need to make some noise once in a while to do what we do.
Now this asshole comes beating at our door, like brigadoon, as if from nowhere, and demands that we shut up or get the police called... We apologized for disturbing him, we tried to reason with him that maybe we can come to an agreement on days of the week and times of the day that we can practice and everyone can co-exist peacefully.
"There's never a good time for that noise!" he said...
"Surely you understand that we can't afford a practice space, and we're more than willing to come to an agreement to make everyone happy.." we said...
"That's not my problem!" he said
"Listen, we have been here for three years and we've never had a problem" we said...
"Well now you have a problem with me!" he said....
un-fucking real...
We of course all know how this story ends. The noise ordinance in Orange county vaguely outlines that up to 60 db is acceptable from 8am to 10pm, to put that in perspective, watching a movie in your bedroom can easily exceed 70 db. This is intentionally done to allow the officer responding to the call to make whatever decision he sees fit about what is, and what isn't disturbing the peace.
The minute we click on our gear from now on, the police will be called, they will tell us that we're disturbing the peace and will side with the neighbor no matter how rationally we attempt to defend ourselves. We are, of course, young men with long hair and guitars.
The officer, faced with the choice of shutting us down and appeasing the neighbor, or siding with us and having to make a wasteful trip to our house twice a week when the neighbor keeps calling in, will simply give us a warning, and inform us that the next time he has to come out, he can fine or possibly arrest us. There is no incentive for the officer at all to defend us, regardless of how unreasonable we think our neighbor is being. We are automatically on the defensive, because we are the ones making noise.
The simple fact is, we know it's a battle that we cannot win.
So thanks a lot asshole, we now must find a practice space that we can somehow afford, which is no mean trick considering we are a band, and by default, broke. And our band is dead in the water until we do.
We hope a sinkhole develops under your house and swallows you whole.