Waterfront Concerts in Bangor

A big topic of conversation in the Bangor area this summer has been the Waterfront Concert Series. It is hard to know if the shows taken overall have been successful. Some of the shows have had good crowds but without knowing the cost of each individual act we are unable to assess if a profit is to be made.

A few observations can be made however. The site at times can be very nice. Last evening as My Morning Jacket played to end the Kah Bang festival the full moon offered it's blessing over the site. It was very picturesque. Most outdoor concert areas are either well away from a residential area or enclosed or remote enough not to be a bother to their neighborhoods.

We are told that next year the stage will be set up on the opposite end, thus pushing the noise away from the residential neighborhood. This might help. I think however that the noise issue is overblown. In any neighborhood you live in their may be times that events are bothersome. The Bangor Auditorium events are stresful perhaps for Buck Street residents. Those who live on Stillwater might wish that the Bangor Mall did not induce such traffic. On the West Side of Bangor many are familiar with the sound of planes at all hours of the night. When you live in a city sometimes things are not quiet. In my neighborhood we have a set of neighbors who hate dogs. we have two, and other families surround this poor couple with canines. Dogs it must be pointed out bark. We try to keep it to a minimum but it happens. Kids make noise in the yard. These things happen.

We had neighbors move in behind us this summer. Before they were in we saw a sandbox and swing set erected. My wife told me and I said we are not going to be those people who have any negative feelings about that. Not with our sons playing basketball until dark, hitting whiffle balls into the neighbors yards, and the dogs barking at dogs as they go by.

In short I think we all need to relax. Did the people who live in this neighborhood adjacent to the concert stage know that concerts would take place when they purchased thier homes. No they did not. Unlike those of us on the west side who knew their was an airport and an interstate that could be noisy or a person who purchases a home next to a park they did not have the foreknowledge of this activity. Still, any neighborhood in Bangor will at times be noisy. Complaints about children going to bed are overblown. Turning a fan on will negate 90 percent of the noise. These neighborhoods are near Main Street, noise is not a rarity. The only justifiable complaint is that perhaps it is hard to sit out on the porch or in the yard and have the same level of peace and quiet.

This is a viable complaint. However in a society such as ours at times there is the greater good. If thousands of people can enjoy an evening and lets not forget provide some revenue for the city, at the cost of a small minority's imagined tranquility being disturbed for a few nights a summer then the trade off is viable.

We have enjoyed a couple shows this year, Ray Lamontagne and Peter Wolf thus far and will be attending Bob Dylan next weekend. Last night I must confess my wife and I went downtown about ten to hear the closing set from My Morning Jacket. We were not paying members but did listen to the show. It was loud, there is no doubt. It was not crazy loud. I have a hard time believing that inside a house with some kind of background noise that this would be life affecting.

The curfew that has been imposed for noise is reasonable in the sense that is an effort made to appease a vocal minority. Still a curfew of 10:30 on weeknights is arbitrary and is serving to cut the enjoyment of the paying customers. The J Geils Band for one would have played longer and did not get to their full encore and for a festival such as Kah Bang My Morning Jacket too were rushed off the stage. The acts still get paid but again it makes our town fathers seems silly and a bit from the movie Footloose.

In short you cannot please everybody. Folks who like to complain will complain about something. The city needs to decide to embrace the concerts or not.

I am sure that on a practical level the compromise reached thus far is a good one. For my part though I think the curfew is unneccesary and limiting.