Profanity, Not Volume, Unplugs Heavy Metal Concerts In Pinellas Park

Anne Lindberg of Florida's St. Petersburg Times has issued the following report:

Five e-mails, five phone calls and a sick cat have put a stop to heavy metal concerts in Pinellas Park.

That's what city officials decided after their very first one, on Oct. 1, when an estimated 3,500 people crowded into a makeshift mosh pit in front of the England Brothers Bandshell to hear 10 bands [including HATEBREED, MESHUGGAH, DEVILDRIVER and GOD FORBID] and headliner MOTÖRHEAD play from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

"No, we won't be doing that type of event again," Pinellas Park spokesman Tim Caddell said Monday.

It was not necessarily the loudness of the music that brought the complaints, Caddell said. It was the language that could be clearly heard whenever the music paused.

"As soon as they'd stop, they'd go, "F---!"' Caddell said. "You could hear that clear as anything all the way through town. It was clear, I've got to admit. I heard every single one of them."

At least one person agreed that the language was bad. "I don't even mind the noise," Ron Miller wrote in an e-mail. "My complaint is only with the strong language that was used. . . . Even several blocks away it was very clear what was being said."

Pinellas Park police Capt. Mike Haworth said there was only one arrest during the event.

Police charged Steven Michael Ray, 21, with trespass after a warning, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest without violence.

Police said Ray bumped into a Pinellas Park officer, used insulting and obscene language, and tried to whip the crowd into a frenzy as officers escorted him from the park. Ray was still in jail Tuesday.

After the music really began, Caddell said the city received only four or five calls to complain. Throughout the day, Caddell and police officers took sound readings.

At the edge of the band shell itself, the noise ranged from 92 to 118 decibels; 90 decibels is about as noisy as heavy traffic or thunder, and 100 decibels is the amount of noise a jet plane makes at takeoff.

The city's allowable noise levels depend on zoning, but generally range from 72 decibels during the day to 55 during the evening. Those ranges can be expanded for special events.

Across the street at the nearest homes, the noise was about 72 decibels, about the level of normal traffic or a quiet train, Caddell said.

Several of the five residents who e-mailed the city were clearly not fond of heavy metal. "That "concert' held on Saturday in the "park' was just a horrible nerve-grating racket," read an e-mail signed by Christine, who included no last name. "The repetitive screaming through the microphone and the incessant drumming was not to be believed." Christine added, "My cat actually vomited, he was so upset!" Caddell said he answered all the e-mails to apologize.

Was it the sick cat that sealed the fate of future heavy metal concerts in Pinellas Park?

"We are an animal-loving community," Caddell said. "When poor, defenseless animals get sick . . ." His voice trailed off.