Proposed Music Law Changes Hit Sour Note

If a Facebook video posted by local singer-songwriter Nancy Atlas is any indication, the East Hampton Town Board’s Thursday meeting might be as crowded as a rock concert.

Atlas posted a plea for musicians, local music venues, and their followers and customers, to show up at the March 21 meeting or contact members of the town board to protest proposed changes to the music permit laws that could shut down a venue that had two or more violations over a three-year period — and that period would be retroactive.

The video, as of Tuesday, March 19, had almost 18,000 views and had been shared over 400 times, with many comments from people who were squarely in Atlas’s corner.

On camera, Atlas claimed that decibel levels is only one issue that will be discussed, but that when she sang the national anthem in front of the town board with no accompaniment in 2016, it registered at 106 decibels. “Which is a ticket,” Atlas noted.

“I understand that there needs to be regulation,” she wrote on her Facebook page. “I understand that there are offenses that are real and validated. However, to deny a business the right to have live music off of two offenses that could be committed and proven guilty through very real laws that exist but can’t be abided by is wrong.”

Another aspect not being accounted for Atlas said, “is that most hotels or restaurants take weddings or events six months to a year ahead of schedule. How can any business in the Town of East Hampton legally take an event that they are not even sure they will have the right to play music at? Can you imagine the lawsuit that establishment would be facing if someone has a wedding booked and then they come to find out they can’t have a band or DJ?”

Local musicians, she pointed out, have held many benefits for locals in need. “Now we need you to help us,” she said.

The meeting will be held at Town Hall at 6:30 PM.

bridget@indyeastend.com