The Bands Will Play On: Selectmen Lift Amplification Ban

Dozens of Island musicians, ranging from keyboardists to bluegrass players to Carly Simon, packed a standing-room-only Oak Bluffs selectmen meeting on Tuesday to pressure the selectmen to lift a on amplified outdoor music on the harbor. Their efforts paid off.

Musicians will now be given a two-week trial period, during which time outdoor amplified music will be allowed until 9 p.m. After 9 p.m., musicians will have to move indoors.

“If they abuse [the trial-period regulation], then we end amplified music for the rest of the summer. We won't have any option," said selectmen Greg Coogan.

Selectmen instituted the ban at their May 24 meeting, after failing to come up with a suitable solution to address noise complaints pertaining to amplified music at, primarily, two harbor restaurants: and the .

That decision drew the ire of musicians, who argued that a wholesale ban on the harbor area should be scrapped in favor of stricter guidelines—including, possibly, the issuance of decibel readers, which would alert restaurants when outdoor music had reached unsuitable levels.

Island musicians used the weeks since the ban was imposed , drafting an online petition and calling on fellow musicians to attend the latest selectmen’s meeting to plead their case. More people showed up than could be allowed time to speak, turning the meeting into a sometimes rowdy affair that broke tradition with usually staid selectmen’s meetings. Selectmen chair Kathy Burton repeatedly banged her gavel, reprimanding those who interrupted the selectmen and spoke out of turn.

The musicians’ impassioned pleas at times gave the impression they were battling cultural warfare. Without amplification, this will be the end of singers and keyboardists, some said; others challenged the logic of the ban, stating that some non-amplified instruments and groups, such as drums and horns, are louder than amplified guitars and yet would be allowed.

Ann Smith, executive director of , questioned whether the ban would interrupt the non-profit’s Musical Mondays, a yearly series of outdoor concerts on the Featherstone Campus, set to recommence on June 20, that has drawn repeated praise and no noise complaints.

Selectmen assured the assembled crowd that fears of the ban’s scope had been blown out of proportion. “We’re not banning outdoor music. We’re saying we’re banning amplified outdoor music without a special permit,” said Burton, adding that the ban as it previously stood applied only to the harbor area, which has been the subject of repeated noise complaints. Other areas of Oak Bluffs would need to be addressed separately.

Special permits could still be issued for individual events.

In the end, the distinctions—in the short term, at least—proved inconsequential. Selectmen heeded the protests of musicians, and voted 3-1 to grant musicians a two-week trial period.

Selectmen Mike Santoro, managing partner of Season’s and the Lookout Tavern, abstained from the vote and discussion. Selectman Gail Barmakian dissented, stating that the trial-period restrictions were not dissimilar enough from past guidelines to prevent further abuse.

If noise complaints continue during the two-week trial period, said the selectmen, they will be forced to revisit the issue and ban amplified outdoor music in the habor area for the rest of the summer.

"I don't have a problem with amplified music," said selectman Greg Coogan, as he steered his fellow selectmen away from extending the band and toward the trial-period resolution. "I have a problem with it being loud. And I have a problem with it being late at night."