COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — Neighbors of Dick’s Sporting Goods Park are upset after they said they could hear a loud concert over the weekend more than four miles away.
Bassnectar is an electronic music DJ known for putting on some of the most intense, loud concerts. On its website, it tells concertgoers to bring earplugs because it hits over 110 decibels throughout the venue, even in the bathrooms. That level is where most other rock concerts top out.
Last year, neighbors complained about the noise after a Bassnectar show at Red Rocks in Morrison. In response, the venue enacted strict noise limits.
Bassnectar tweeted, “And sadly Red Rocks is gonna have to run their sound levels so low it will sound like laptop speakers. And I’d feel guilty telling ppl to go.”
This year, Bassnectar decided to play at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City instead. Commerce City does not have established noise level restrictions, and now neighbors are upset.
“Sometime after 11 o’clock I felt the home shake and my first reaction was that it was an earthquake,” Denver resident Joe Quillin said.
Quillin was at home in his basement during the Bassnectar show. He said when he went outside, he could hear the concert clearly.
“I live over 3 1/2 miles away, straight line,” he said. “I was astonished at how loud the music was.”
Quillin isn’t the only one who thought the concert was too loud. Dozens of Stapleton residents posted their complaints on a community website. Some claimed to have been woken up by the noise as far as four miles away.
Dave Jolette, who is part of the KSE Management team that runs Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, said the concert never violated any of the conditions of the permit, but was unable to provide what decibel level the permit allowed for.
Commerce City City Council members briefly discussed the issue at their meeting Monday night. They also said the concert was within the guidelines of the permit.
The city said it gets noise complaints all the time during events like soccer games and concerts at the stadium, especially as new homes are built closer.
“Bassnectar may be over the top, but normal concerts and soccer games may be expected,” Mayor Sean Ford said.
The city council has asked its staff to take another look at the permit process and procedures for large events like Bassnectar.
Commerce City police said they had been expecting noise complaints from the show. They positioned decibel readers in nearby neighborhoods to monitor the noise levels. Those statistics were not available as of Monday evening.
“I think a good rule of thumb is if they’re too loud for Red Rocks, they’re probably too loud for Commerce City,” Quillin said.