It’s hard to remember when Beaux walked into the courtyard at Bacchanal, his voice stern with more than just a small concern as he shouted between songs that the harbor police were just outside the establishment handing out parking tickets like they were handbills for the next big backyard party. It was the beginning of a year-long offense by the city against this proud wine and food gem at the edge of the Bywater, followed shortly thereafter by threats and orders to shutdown music at the newly established Marigny Opera House, Siberia, and, most recently, the Circle Bar. It’s a rumbling feeling that must be deep in the stomachs of every club owner and musician, the looming question of: who’s next? Who’s safe if even an institution like the Circle Bar can have their livelihood taken away from them overnight? But music is alive and thriving in New Orleans, the courtyard that was briefly a ghost-town at Bacchanal is again full of people listening to new inventions being machinated in realtime directly into their ear canals by the Lynch-inspired music of the Log Ladies.
Even in the midst of summer, open in every direction to the unforgiving elements, they come from all over the city to get away from the city-approved attractions meticulously crafted to cater to the long drunken tourist-nights. It’s alive in balconies and back-rooms on Frenchmen St., on weekday nights and second-hand festivals, at art-spaces and theaters; it’s a howl carrying over the miasma that rebels-- that the city in all its attempts to balance its budget at the expense of its musical tradition can never stifle creativity.
Meanwhile Bourbon St. is still echoing loudly the top 40 hits as swarms shout over their fluorescent-green funnels of alcoholic Hi-C at decibel ranges that beg the nepotism-enforcement of City Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer’s noise ordinance laws, as new zoning goes into affect to divide the city into sanctioned and rogue music-producing territories. And while the city audits its records to determine who does and who doesn’t have the right to host live music, I have to question the implications of requiring an establishment to possess a permit to host live music. It is a conclusion based on a false premise, that music is a commodity only to be sold and not an expression of creativity, for if we accept that the performance of music is not an inherent right, then we threaten two of our country’s most basic principles, freedom of speech and the right to assemble.
So as we as musicians and music-lovers are made outlaws hiding out in the aural badlands, examine the actions of this city’s administration and ask yourselves if at each closing haven it is the attempt to further encapsulate the history of New Orleans’ music for the easy digestion of tourists, a tax-reformation, or a bid to favor a sub-minority of gentrifying special-interest groups. Many are asking themselves what they can do to protect the music, whether it be on the streets, the clubs, or special venues, but it will always be there because we will always seek it out. Our greatest weapon in the war against music is our ears. Make some noise, and be receptive to the noise others’ make. Find it in all forms. Grow with it. Support it and the music will never stop.
