ARTS

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ROCKERS BEING FORCED OUT OF GARAGES

JONATHAN MUMMOLO, WASHINGTON POST - Amid the rows of windowless
self-storage units at one of those places where you pay by the month to
stash your stuff, unmistakable sounds are coming from one of the
garagelike structures. Inside the 10-by-30-foot storage unit, with its
door raised for ventilation, the Cana Blessing, a four-man metal band,
rehearsed one recent night beneath the light of incandescent bulbs,
crunched in a semicircle amid amps and dangling extension cords. "It's
about the only thing around, really, to prevent noise ordinance
problems," Ryan O'Shea, one of the Christian group's guitarists, said of
the $460-a-month Alexandria storage unit, which his group splits with
another band.

Suburban rockers have always had garages and basements. But in the
Washington region, where urban sprawl continues to pack residents closer
and closer together, noise complaints are nearly unavoidable these days,
bands say. Forced out of their homes, musicians have found creative
places to practice and jam, including storage units, homemade sheds and
places of business after hours.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/08/
AR2007070801094_pf.html


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