NORTHAMPTON — Noise complaints and safety concerns at a downtown bar regularly featuring live music and DJs is prompting the License Commission to temporarily restrict the days the business can have entertainment.
The commission at its Jan. 7 meeting voted 3-0 to limit the entertainment license for Haze, 24 Main St., to Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, starting at 3 p.m. and ending at 11 p.m. Tuesdays, and midnight the other three days. No entertainment will be allowed on Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays, though the business can still open as a bar and serve drinks on those days.
The decision will be in effect through Feb. 4, when the commission will reopen the hearing and determine whether appropriate corrective action has been taken, including better sound proofing, and installation of an exit sign over the fire curtain.
Anja Wood, who owns the business, cautioned that the 30-day limit on the entertainment license will impact Haze and possibly her ability to afford sound paneling.
“People don’t come for the bar aspect of it, they come for the entertainment,” Wood said. “If we’re not able to have entertainment past 12, it will greatly affect our business.”
“I sympathize with that, I absolutely do, as do the other commissioners, but there’s a problem that needs fixing,” said Commission Chairwoman Natasha Yakovlev.
Yakovlev said Wood understood, when the license was issued last February, that it could be revisited if there were complaints, and that there needs to be a balance between people living in the building and the commercial aspects.
The commissioners heard from two residents who live in the building outlining their concerns, as well as a complaint about safety issues when a band performing in December blocked an exit and access to the bathroom with its equipment.
“I’m not sure the situation is being very well managed by the establishment,” Yakovlev said. “I think there’s a lot of music happening there.”
Eric Bennett, of 26 Main St., said he has lived in the building since 2009.
“My issue is kind of with the city and the licensing board that what was originally a cafe and a bar morphed into a nightclub, but it morphed into a nightclub without taking into consideration that it’s in a residential block, and that there are people who are living on either side and above it,” Bennett said.
Bennett said the thick walls and tall ceilings don’t mitigate the sounds, and that the venue might not be a viable rock performance space without sound proofing like at the Iron Horse and the Parlor Room.
“I have a club in my apartment, basically,” Bennett said. “I can deal with the noise, I can’t deal with my apartment vibrating.”
The other resident who brought concerns was Maria Grove, who said she is more worried about safety at Haze, even though she gets to hear and feel “all the rock band and all the fun stuff.”
“I wish it could be more regulated and we’d know these are the days that there’s going to be music playing, and instead of every single day having to have it,” Grove said.
Grove said she has also been alarmed by overhearing violent threats made by a patron, and a woman who was screaming and crying while possibly being physically assaulted, in the early morning hours.
Wood explained that Haze opened after Bishop’s Lounge closed last year.
“There’s a lot of people who have been wanting more live music in Northampton, and it’s been more popular than some of our club nights have been,” Wood said
Live bands, usually Grateful Dead tribute bands, perform on Tuesdays. There is karaoke on Wednesdays, with DJs on Fridays and Saturdays and then live music again on Sundays. Wood said she will soon be doing open mics on Sundays and moving live music to Thursdays.
While Haze is allowed to open until 2 a.m. Thursdays through Sundays, it has been closing at 1 a.m. in recent weeks. Bands usually start between 8 and 9 p.m., with DJ’s starting at 10 p.m.
Wood said she is working on sound mitigation through sound paneling, with an original plan to put baffling across the ceiling, but the landlord asked that she not cover the historic tin ceiling. So instead sound paneling is only near where the bands perform.
In addition, Wood said she stopped using the subwoofer completely and she has a sound decibel reader to try to keep music in a safe and reasonable sound limit.
“I try really hard to be understanding of the people who live above me and I make it very clear to whoever comes in the space that we have neighbors upstairs,” Wood said.
Wood acknowledged that the safety concern centered on violent threats and a physical assault was caused by a former employee’s “not so savory partner,” after the business had closed for the night.
“It’s a really unfortunate situation, it was not somebody who worked there,” Wood said. “Her boyfriend came to the back door when she was working and they had a fight.”
Building Commissioner Kevin Ross said Wood will have to use care in the use of sound deadening, cautioning that without a fire rating foam can’t be put on the ceiling.
Still, Yakovlev said the business needs to make sure that sound is mitigated, and if a band is too loud for the space, it’s possible those performers shouldn’t be booked.