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Citizen complaint of the day: Boston Calling making windows rattle, babies cry for four miles around
By adamg on Sun, 05/29/2022 - 12:45pm
Boston 311 this morning is chock full of complaints from people living nowhere near Boston Calling about all the noise, noise, noise:
For example, this complaint from Coolidge Corner way, way down in Brookline:
Is that Boston Calling noise I can hear in my living room? My windows are vibrating.
Or this one from even further south, in Brookline Village:
LOUD MUSIC FROM BOSTON CALLING! My whole house is shaking and my dogs are freaking out due to the music.
Way down at Fisher Hill in Brookline comes this complaint:
How is it possible you can hear Boston Calling 3 miles away?!? You can clearly hear it on fisher hill. Windows are rattling. Shut it down!
But no, not every complaint is from Brookline, such as this one from the Boston side of Cleveland Circle:
Boston calling noise is absurd. A bit of noise doesn't bother me, but our windows are literally vibrating in Cleveland Circle. I'm all for the festival but this is extreme. I can hear the vocals all the way over here.
Or this one from Audubon Circle:
Shut down Boston Calling! I live 3 miles away from the Boston Calling Music Festival which is being held at Soldiers Field Road. 3 miles! I live near Kenmore Square and can hear every drum beat, every thud and every vocalist. Call them now and get the organizers to turn down the volume. Such a loud music festival is completely unacceptable.
Boston 311 marked all the complaints "noted."
Oh, but the city did take action on a complaint that wasn't about noise but about the Boston Calling-goers parking in neighborhood-only spaces. That one they responded by saying cars were ticketed.
H/t Gordon Bedford.
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Comments
Cloud cover pushed the sound further
At least better than living with military helicopters and fireworks most of 2020 as in JP
Concert Noise
Concert noise is a huge problem in the Fenway, and the City has shown no inclination to deal with it. Fenway Park is a baseball stadium, it was never designed or intended to be a concert venue. The city and licensing board has allowed the Red Sox Group to police themselves on noise monitoring which lets them off the hook entirely. We deal with concerts throughout the summer, along with sound and lighting checks beforehand. No one cares what the residents think.
Post Your Deed Please
I just want to make sure you have been in the Fenway since 1911 to legitimize your complaint.
Fenway has had non-baseball events since it opened. They had concerts in the 60's and 70's.
I lived across from Fenway once. Loved it. I also knew that there would be noise before I moved in. I dealt with it.
Lived in Kenmore in the mid-80s
The noise from Fenway was by far the most predictable and the least annoying of the noise in that area.
There was the pike, the nightclubs, the douchebags pregaming on the street before the night clubs, BU Cops deeply in love with their sirens, random people screaming on the street, fratboy antics and boomboxes in windows, Storrow Drive, etc.
Yeah, that's living in the city. If noise is an issue for you, Fenway should be way way down the list.
Ahhh, the mid 80s
They weren't having concerts at Fenway in the mid 80s, Swirls.
There were no amplified rock
There were no amplified rock concerts in 1911.
They weren’t complaining about the baseball.
And should no existing problems ever get solved?
Thanks
I have lived here since 1998 and not only was aware of the ballpark but when there was talk of moving it out of the neighborhood worked to keep
It here. Good for you for living here in the 80s. That was 40 years ago and doesn't really give you much legitimacy to comment on what is happening now. The concerts are almost constant after All Star break, and have almost always included a show or two over the first weekend in September, which, given your history of living here 40 years ago, you will know is Move-in weekend. And isn't the "it was noisy 40 years ago so it can be noisy for you now" argument just a little bit lazy?
You’re right
Residents doing get a say and shouldn’t. Enjoy the summer concert series coming up. I know I will. You live in the city. Deal or move.
Stop complaining…it’s only a
Stop complaining…it’s only a one or two night event…………the city needs .. more concerts more noise….. yes we need it…..
You chose to live in a city.
You chose to live in a city. Should everyone suffer b/c you chose the wrong place to live for the quiet you desire?
Boston Calling happens once a year and it's not like Fenway Park is like Great Woods.
I live near a police station - should I ask them to not use their sirens?
It's no wonder this city never moves forward...
won't someone think of the children
I don't know why people with children think it makes their complaint more important than the others, and the younger the child even more so.
I do appreciate the one that mentioned her dogs for that reason.
And what is "the other side of the North End?" The whole area is about a block and a half.
TL:DR it's a city. Cities are noisy. The festival is once a year. Get over it.
It is what it is
I agree - I love living in / around Boston, but I know to avoid the city and immediate area on Marathon weekend (used to go away that weekend) as well as New Year's Eve / Fourth of July if I didn't want to attend any of the events.
I've trying to figure out how people are hearing it so far when I am closer to it and hearing nothing, but ok. Same with Fenway, most of what I see is lights, I have windows closed and AC on.
This goes a little bit back to the whole 'outdoor dining' arguement - yes if I choose to live in the north end I deal with lots of tourists, traffic, and noise during the summer, though a hundred new patios is a different beast. Same with Newbury street, or the condos near the Garden, you can't choose to live within 2-3 blocks of a major transit hub / event space / area and then be like, oh wait I didn't know it was THIS NOISY. Before we were married, we'd look at places to live at least twice, once during busy hours vs a Sunday afternoon to get a sense of what we could live with.
My first apartment was on the edge of Kenmore, across from the Beacon Club / Stiches and next to PJ Killroys (Father's Too) - with the 'Boston Climate Control' - eg radiators running all the time, so you open your window to cool it off, so I got to hear the sounds of 2-3 bars on weeknights when having to be up at 7 for work.
Everything has pros and cons, so a once year event, you kinda suck it up. It isn't like you have to deal with, I don't know, 70 baseball games, and a dozen graduations.....
Different if you're miles away
You say you scoped things out when you were looking at apartments in the North End or Kenmore. That makes sense. But why should people living 3+ miles away expect to get this noise and how do they know to scope it out?
I grew up over a subway station and bus stop, across the street from a hospital. We put up heavy drapes for sound absorption and dealt with it, because it was predictable when we chose that apartment. But that's very different from unexpectedly hearing music from a concert miles away from where I live - no reason to expect that when choosing a location.
what was unexpected about boston calling?
it’s heavily advertised and it’s happened in the same location on the same weekend every year since 2017 (obviously except for 2020).
That’s a big assumption
That no one who lives in the over 3 mile radius from the concert location lived there in 2016.
*heavily advertised*
regardless, it's 9-10 hours a day for 3 days out of the year on a holiday weekend. short of just not doing a live music festival, it really doesn't get much more considerate of the general public than that.
if the argument is "people who don't like loud music are allowed to be annoyed" then sure, i'll happily concede that point.
Also except for 2021
no festival last year either
yes
my fault, i thought i remembered one last year.
BOSTON CALLING, LOUD MUSIC
I'm all for Boston Calling, but the only people who need to hear the music are those who are actually attending it, not folks who live miles away. This "crank up the volume" thing happens everywhere. When our city has its Caribbean Festival, the music coming from the parade floats is so freaking loud that some on the sidewalks cover their ears or duck into stores to escape it. It's idiotic, with the volume turned down, those watching the parade would still hear the music, and the same goes for Boston Screaming.....er, I mean, "Calling".
Caribbean carnival
By 'our city' do you mean Boston (Roxbury) or Cambridge? Both have Caribbean carnivals with parades and loud music.
Someone’s never had kids
And yes, the younger they are the harder it is to make sure they get the sleep they need, especially if there is constant loud music.
Compared to dealing with a preschooler and loud noise, people with dogs have no issue.
Meanwhile
People without kids often find young children to be quite vexingly noisy.
I have little problem with it, knowing how little kids are and having considerate neighbors, but that police whistle scream from the little one next door could pierce one's eardrums!
Where do you get "more important than the others"?
Besides that, kids have less ability to cope with disruption than adults do, so it's worth noting when kids are affected.
I dunno, my kids are pretty
I dunno, my kids are pretty well adjusted. When my youngest was 1 we redid our house and she slept through most of the drill hammers - it is the parents who get more agitated - like shushing people louder than the noise they are making,
If you have young kids and live next to Fenway or other venues, that’s on you.
Found the problem:
They're now booking death metal acts (Nine Inch Nails and Metallica) who are 25+ years past their prime. They don't have any new music to play, so they just play the old stuff only louder. The complaints all came from when Nine Inch Nails was playing and all from neighborhoods in line with the main stage speakers.
Note how few complaints there were in past years compared to this year. That complaint from the North End, by the way, was from 7 years ago when this was at City Hall Plaza.
Nine Mile Nails?
As soon as Nine Old Nobs finished, the sound pollution in the surrounding area went down significantly. I'm sure many of those who were annoyed at 9 would be surprised to hear the end time was an hour and a half later.
Nine Inch Nails, Metallica...
Is Boston Calling an oldies festival?
The question remains who
The question remains who controls the volume knob - the band, a random sound technician, or the concert organizers?
And ...
What agreements and permits for the events say about what noise measured where was the limit.
“These go to 11”
nigel tufnel
Yep
>death metal
LOLLLLLLLLLLLLL
Wow, fact-challenge: NIN (who
Wow, fact-challenge: NIN (who are now Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) stepped in for their grieving friends, Foo Fighters, and the sudden death of their drummer Taylor Hawkins. It’s what allowed the Friday headline act to keep the festival solvent.
Then, after the festival started, the Strokes got a positive Covid case and TR/AR agreed to stick around another day. They were never booked: they stepped up.
Further, they’re not a 25-y/o has-been: TR and AR have been working regularly to release music under the NIN monogram (roughly every 14 months or so), partnered with NASA on the Jupiter project, have won multiple awards for film and television work (including Disney’s “Soul” collaboration with Jon Baptiste), and were inducted into the R&R HOF in 2020.
Who are you to judge one of the most prolific contributors and influencers to electronic music, film scores, and television soundtracks?
I don't phrase means what you think it means
Neither Nine Inch Nails nor Metallica can even remotely be considered death metal. Most death metal makes them sound like Barry Manilow.
HAMMER
SMASHED FACE!!!
Metallica
Is death metal?
Ignorant
Why NIN won a CMA in 2020 for 'Old Town Road' two years ago and Reznor won an Oscar last year for a sound track!
Wait
Did you just call NIN and Metallica death metal? I’m cry laughing.
Metallica is not ...
Death Metal, more like bubble gum metal and its fucking timeless so get a clue.
I dunno about bubble gum
but they're one of the Big 4 of thrash metal for goodness' sake!
Timeless indeed (as long as it's nothing past the black album) :D
Eh?
Death metal??? This format won’t allow me to insert a rolling eye emoji, so I’ll just say Pshaw.
The place was packed for both acts, they’re obviously still doing something right despite their advanced years, so get off your own lawn.
The festival is once a year.
There's no "rule" saying that an annual music festival has to amplify music extra-loud. They can just play it normal-loud, and it would be fine. They could even play it barely-loud, and it would be audible to everyone there.
Wind
I’m less than a mile away and couldn’t hear anything until I got to the turn before the complex. Very little of that area is residential. If the wind managed to carry the sound several miles in the opposite direction, it was a fluke of nature and not par for the course. It’s amazing anyone even attempts to host events in this town anymore.
There’s city noise, and then
There’s city noise, and then there’s noise you hear 5 miles away with your windows closed.
Wait until tonight!
Let’s see the complaints they get tonight when the greatest heavy metal band in the world, Metallica hits the stage and unleashes it’s Master of Puppets to the area!
End of passion play,
End of passion play, crumbling away
I'm your source of self-destruction
Veins that pump with fear
Sucking darkest clear
Feeding on your death's construction
Taste me and you will see
More is all you need
Dedicated to
How I'm killing you
Come crawling faster
Obey your master
Your life burns faster
Obey your master
Master
Master of puppets I'm pulling your strings
Twisting your mind and smashing your dreams
Blinded by me, you can't see a thing
Just call my name, 'cause I'll hear you scream
Master
Master
Just call my name, 'cause I'll hear you scream
Master
Master
Needlework the way, never you betray
Life of death becoming clearer
Pain monopoly, ritual misery
Chop your breakfast on a mirror
Taste me and you will see
More is all you need
Dedicated to
How I'm killing you
Come crawling faster
Obey your master
Your life burns faster
Obey your master
Master
Master of puppets I'm pulling your strings
Twisting your mind and smashing your dreams
Blinded by me, you can't see a thing
Just call my name, 'cause I'll hear you scream
Master
Master
Just call my name, 'cause I'll hear you scream
Master
Master
Master, master
Where's the dreams that I've been after?
Master, master
You promised only lies
Laughter, laughter
All I hear and see is laughter
Laughter, laughter
Laughing at my cries
Fix me
Hell is worth all that
Natural habitat
Just a rhyme without a reason
Neverending maze
Drift on numbered days
Now your life is out of season
I will occupy
I will help you die
I will run through you
Now I rule you too
Come crawling faster
Obey your Master
Your life burns faster
Obey your Master
Master
Master of Puppets I'm pulling your strings
Twisting your mind and smashing your dreams
Blinded by me, you can't see a thing
Just call my name, 'cause I'll hear you scream
Master
Master
Just call my name, 'cause I'll hear you scream
Master
Master
Anything?
Looks like that's a no.
Yeah, it was fine on Sunday
Yeah, it was fine on Sunday night. I heard nothing at home with my windows closed.
Saturday night was much worse. Not sure if it was louder, or the weather conditions, or both.
It was definitely the wind on Saturday
There was a northerly component to the wind that would obviously drive the sound to the south, and towards Brookline.
Ironically, those of us inside the festival grounds were complaining about the sound quality of the Red Stage all weekend -- we couldn't hear it.
Weather. Low/heavy cloud
Weather. Low/heavy cloud cover can reflect noise in the right conditions.
NIN played Friday night as well at about the same volume.
The greatest show ever in Foxborough was ...
Faith No More, System of a Down, Guns n Roses (Axl was actually on time) and Metallica.
No reason to ever purchase another concert ticket...
Not even close
1976 - Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Boz Scaggs
Fun fact:
In a "free field", the low-frequency sounds of a jet aircraft taking off in Los Angeles would be audible here in Boston.
Thankfully we don't exist in a free field. But yeah, sound outdoors can be freaky about how and where it travels. Even just wind can make things audible at distances one day, but not the next.
noise noise noise
is for heroes
resident parking?
Does Allston now have resident-only parking spaces for Sundays, too? Pampered creatures! Back in MY day.....
A few years ago, I could hear it in Somerville
in Gilman Square and along the Community Path. The sound echoed off the railroad embankment and other walls.
2023 Tickets now on sale..
Boston Calling/Brookline Shaking, headliners to be named at future date.
Parking ticket waivers for overnight, on-street parking in Brookline included with each ticket purchase.
I heard it and could not
I heard it and could not figure out why anyone was playing Nine Inch Nails or where it was doming from.
I think it was louder the higher you were in Allston and Coolidge Corner. At ground level, it was not noticeable. Four stories up or in front of large flat surfaces (e.g. Herb Chambers) you could hear it.
It was weird. I have not noticed the other acts.
Weird, heard nothing here in Brighton last night
Then again, we are a few blocks south of the Pike, so maybe the noise pollution from there drowned out Boston Calling.
"Shut it down!" I guess, right?
Saturday was loud, Sunday wasn’t
Noise was not a problem on Sunday night, by my own experience as well as the lack of complaints. Maybe because they lowered the volume, or maybe because of weather conditions.
Wind direction
n/t
I'm in Cleveland Circle and I
I'm in Cleveland Circle and I didn't hear shit.
If you have a problem, I guess it's part and parcel of living in the "big city" LOL. Enjoy the exposed brick walls.
Shut it down!
lol
People around here can be such dramatic, entitled babies. Next year they should make it even louder.
Heaven forbid people are allowed to have fun
Boston really needs to get with the times and allow the younger generation to enjoy themselves sometimes. It’s literally the only festival all year. Live with it for one day.