In the beginning

It was the fall of 1998 when one of my musical friends mentioned to me that he'd love to come out to Pittsburgh to do a house concert at my house. At the time I had never heard of the concept, but Ivan explained that all I had to do was invite my friends to a party to hear him perform live in my living room, provide some snacks, and ask everyone to chip in. It sounded like a really great idea, so we set a date. I put together a flyer and handed it out to everyone I came into contact with for six weeks before the concert date: friends, business associates, students -- a real cross section of my life. I sent out e-mail too, but in late 1998 e-mail was not as pervasive as it is now, so hand-delivered invitations were necessary.I was thrilled when thirty-odd people RSVP'd for the party. And we were all thrilled with Ivan's performance: Ivan's a crowd-pleaser who plays four or five acoustic instruments, sings beautifully and has an interesting and eclectic repertoire with something for everyone. For the next two weeks I couldn't go anywhere without someone literally grabbing me to say what a great time they'd had and asking when I was going to do it again.

So after that it was easy. Sometimes I asked my musical friends to come and perform in my living room, sometimes they asked me if they could come. Some of the performers were incredibly talented musicians I'd met in my travels but whose names would not be recognized outside of a small circle, and some were very well known performers with national reputations who I'd had the good fortune to meet and get to know as individuals. Sometimes 40 or 50 people came for a party, sometimes only 15 or 20, but it was always good clean fun. At any given concert there might be rapt listeners ages 7 to 70, all enjoying the same performance. By the time we took a break for snacks even those who had arrived knowing no one besides me would be chatting away like old friends, and because they had the music in common they discovered other things to talk about as well.

I learned some things early on about hosting house concert parties. Some people's drinking habits made me uncomfortable, so after the first couple of parties we made it a rule not to serve alcohol. We have a non-smoking house, so no one ever smoked. Potluck suppers following the concert were always great and no trouble to host, so we tried to schedule concerts to accomodate the food. I encouraged people to bring their instruments and stick around after the concert for an informal jam session, so we'd often spend several hours sitting in a circle trading tunes and songs. We found ways to accomodate friends with young children and friends in wheelchairs.

From that first concert with Ivan in 1998 until early 2003 we hosted 26 concerts. My neighbors were invited with flyers, but none ever chose to come. Neither did they voice any concerns. Nor should they have: in any given year I'd host anywhere from 3 to 8 concerts between September and May -- far less than one a month on average even that year we had 8. No one was ever ticketed for illegal parking, no driveways were blocked, no property was damaged, no litter was discovered, and since we didn't use any amplification there were no complaints about noise. During one concert that took place during a snowstorm a Township police officer came by to ask that a few cars be moved to let the plow through -- no big deal, just doing his job. These were ordinary parties in an ordinary neighborhood, no different from my neighbors hosting a football party with friends chipping in for pizza and beer, or a Cancer Society fundraiser, or a Mary Kay party, or a children's birthday party with a clown to entertain, or a graduation party with a live band or DJ.

So we were very surprised in February of 2003 when we received a notice from the Township that we were in violation of the Zoning Ordinance and ordering us to cease and desist hosting house concerts or face fines and penalties. It seemed that they somehow had gotten the impression that what were were doing was some kind of commercial activity. So the next morning I went down to the Township to speak to the Zoning Officer, sure that this was just a misunderstanding that could be quickly cleared up and we'd all go on our way. But it wasn't that easy. The Zoning Officer seemed understanding, but she had received a complaint from a neighbor that advertising and publicity from my activities was bringing too much traffic and undesireable strangers into the neighborhood.

The "advertising" the neighbor was worried about was a web page on my personal space on my access provider's server. No special domain name, just a web page like this one that gave the details about the upcoming house concert and links to an archive of pages about past concerts. By that time we were inviting friends exclusively through e-mail having merged our list of friends with those of others in the area who were also hosting house concerts so that we'd all have an easy way to invite everyone without duplicating effort. Even with nearly 400 people receiving e-mailed invitations to visit the page, there were rarely even half that many visits to the page. Clearly only those who were receiving the e-mail bothered to visit the web site to get the details -- it wasn't attracting any kind of public attention. From our perspective, it was just a convenient way to make a whole lot of information about the upcoming party available to our friends without sending a long e-mail.

The "publicity" was a very brief item that appeared on the local paper's "Weekend Hotlist" feature. Our February house concert was going to be held on Superbowl Sunday and we were jokingly calling it an "Avoid the Superbowl" party. When a friend at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette who was desperate for something he could print about interesting things to do in Pittsburgh that Sunday asked if he could mention the house concert I agreed stipulating that they not publish our address.

After we went over all of this, I asked the Zoning Officer if she'd be willing to tell me who had filed the complaint so that I could address the problem directly with them. No dice -- those who file complaints have the right to remain anonymous, so she could not tell me who it was. But she did offer to arbitrate the dispute, and I was happy to accept the offer. Unfortunately the neighbor was not willing, so at that point the only thing the Zoning Officer could recommend is that we appeal the cease and desist order to the Zoning Hearing Board.

Wow, who would have thought that inviting friends to hear a little live acoustic music in my living room could get so complicated? But it did, and the story isn't over yet....