It was about 11:30 in the morning on Independence Day. I had spent the night at the Jamescave. He was sprawled out taking more than his share of the bed and sleeping peacefully.

Then the music started. Hip-hop. Modern R&B type stuff.

Right outside the bedroom window.

And it was LOUD.

I think I was the first to vocalize my distaste about the music that I didn’t want to be hearing. It took us about a song and a half to get out of bed. Grumpy and irritated.

We end up going to the living room and talking to his roommmate, who also has a bedroom along that back wall, also annoyed about the sudden influx of sound waves.

The first thought was not to stick your head out the window and kindly ask the neighbors to lower the volume. The first thought was how can we blow whatever they’re playing out of the water.

Oh yeah, did I mention these guys do live sound for a living?

Musing about if the giant speaker sitting in the living room would fit into the window.

We went back in his room, and he started playing Pantera about as loud as it would go without risking blowing out a speaker… which let me tell you, is an experience at that volume. Couldn’t hear a thing over the loud angry rock music. After two or three songs, and noticing the roommate scope out the window for the even larger speaker, the neighbors surrendered and lowered their volume.

Moral of the story? Don’t bait sound engineers into a sound war. They will always win.