Club owners, homeowners and the battle over volume

The couple who called the cops the night of the infamous Two Gallants show at Walter's on Washington spoke to the Chronicle this weekend: Ryland and Scott Peveto, who own a Victorian shotgun house behind the club, say that the bass from Walter's is shaking their house — and their peace of mind. The Pevetos said when they bought the house a couple of years ago, noise wasn't much of an issue; now, though, the music is louder: "It's actually the bass that becomes so obnoxious and obscene that our windows shake and the glasses in our cabinets are clanking together," Scott Peveto told the Chronicle.

If you don't remember the Oct. 13 Two Gallants scuffle, it started when the Pevetos called the cops about the noise coming from Walter's and ended with an HPD officer Tasering several patrons and arresting a member of the San Francisco-based indie band. And though that case had a pretty extreme result, Walter's isn't the only club that has faced noise complaints from neighbors: Helios, the Montrose-area performing arts venue, recently stopped live music shows because people living in townhomes behind the club were complaining about the noise. As more inner-Loop neighborhoods are gentrified (or townhomed), we expect to see more of the same — and there doesn't seem to be an easy answer to the problem. Some club owners, including Walter's Pam Robinson, have said they have the upper hand because they were there first, but HPD Capt. Dwayne Ready said that's not a valid argument. "That's one of the hazards of living in a no-zoning environment," he said. "Everyone has to live by the [local noise] ordinances." Robinson said she's sympathetic to neighbors' concerns, but noted that neighbors who call the police never talk to her personally first: "I don't think that's neighborly. It seems like they have the intention of running me out of business."

Back in Rice Military, where the Pevetos live, a neighbor pointed out that the older homes aren't soundproof and that trains running just north of Washington Avenue are louder, in his opinion, than noise from Walter's. He also suggested the Pevetos might ought to be concerned about noise from a neighborhood boarding house, which has gotten 83 police calls in the last 10 months for offenses from theft to firing guns to homicide. But the Pevetos said the train and the flophouse are just part of neighborhood life — and Walter's is not. "I'm willing to live with a great deal; that's part of living in this neighborhood," Scott Peveto told the Chron. "But nothing gives them a right to have their activities invade my personal space."

- More from Houston Calling, which wonders if we'll end up with any good venues for up-and-coming bands