It's who you know...
...around here. Well, I'm happy to say we made it through rehearsal tonight without police citation, arrest, or even neighborly complaints.

But I did some legwork first. Last night, Rachnid and I visited an old friend of his - in fact, the 2nd guitarist in the oldies band he was in, back in high school. The guy happens to be Captain in the local police force now. He'd actually attended a rehearsal a couple months back, and is recording a demo of songs that he wrote at the Secret Lab. His advice was to go into Harahan City Hall and see the mayor. Which is precisely what I did. (for those of you reading this outside of Louisiana, we're not based in New Orleans proper, but rather an incorporated suburb of the city near the riverbend. Hence the 'small town' politics.)

Mayor Paul Johnston turned out to be a really nice guy, and was quite willing to listen to my rebuttal to the accusations. After telling me that the noise ordinances don't really take effect before 10pm anyway, he tried to get the guy who wrote the letter on the phone, but that fellow was out 'enforcing codes'. So I invited him to stop by rehearsal and hear for himself whether we were in violation of any laws or statues.

Which to my knowledge he didn't, but I did take the opportunity to borrow an SPL meter from work and take some readings. Noise of traffic in front of my house: ~70db. Noise of dogs next door: ~82db. Sound level inside the Secret Lab during rehearsal: ~105db. Sound level outside the Secret Lab during rehearsal: ~76db.

Fingers crossed, but I think we're in the clear! More news on this IF it develops... but for now, my attention can go back to the show coming up this next weekend (and to my continuing research in replacing the 20 year old back-screen Amiga computer - almost got all the kinks worked out of the replacement software/hardware.)