Montreal's Turbo Haüs — one of the city's leading alt-rock venues — has been hit with a hefty fine following a noise complaint from a nearby resident of the Saint-Denis Street bar. According to a notice from the city, Turbo Haüs could be fined anywhere between $1,500 to $12,000.
Owner Sergio Da Silva has taken to social media to air his frustration with the situation. "Nice to know it's illegal to have des spectacles in the fucking quartier des Spectacles," he wrote on the venue's Instagram page, sharing the email notice he had received from the city.
"The music coming from your business was clearly audible from the immediate residential area," the notice reads, translated from French. "It is your responsibility to stop the nuisance immediately."
In a series of posts to X, Da Silva detailed the lengths to which he has already gone to prevent noise complaints about the establishment — including renting two apartments above it at $3,200 monthly to "offer a buffer to the other apartments" and spending the majority of the Turbo Haüs budget on soundproofing measures. The owner also alleged that, outside of very rare instances, the venue's shows end at 11 p.m. sharp.
In an interview with the Montreal Gazette, Da Silva noted that this is far from an isolated case: "There's not a single small venue that hasn't experienced this," he said, adding:
Everyone in this industry is still suffering. For most people, the pandemic is done and gone. But for people in bars and restaurants and especially venues, your job is to get as many people as possible in one room, and it's still very difficult to make that work. We spent two years closed. We don't have the scratch to absorb a $12,000 fine because one person decides to move to the wrong place and is now upset that at 11:30 there's some noise.
It wasn't until during the pandemic that the city's famed Bar Le Ritz PDB was taken to court for outstanding pre-COVID noise complaints, which were thankfully later dropped. However, as Brendan Kelly reports, back in 2018, Divan Orange had to close after years of noise-complaint fines — and earlier this year, Plateau-Mont-Royal theatre La Tulipe lost a Superior Court case against a neighbour bothered by the noise.
A spokesperson for the city told CTV News that this was the first time Turbo Haüs has received a noise complaint.
Owner Sergio Da Silva has taken to social media to air his frustration with the situation. "Nice to know it's illegal to have des spectacles in the fucking quartier des Spectacles," he wrote on the venue's Instagram page, sharing the email notice he had received from the city.
"The music coming from your business was clearly audible from the immediate residential area," the notice reads, translated from French. "It is your responsibility to stop the nuisance immediately."
In a series of posts to X, Da Silva detailed the lengths to which he has already gone to prevent noise complaints about the establishment — including renting two apartments above it at $3,200 monthly to "offer a buffer to the other apartments" and spending the majority of the Turbo Haüs budget on soundproofing measures. The owner also alleged that, outside of very rare instances, the venue's shows end at 11 p.m. sharp.
Our shows end by 11:00 sharp outside of very rare cases. What else can we fucking do. Jesus Christ.
— Turbo Haüs (@TurboHaus) November 20, 2023
In an interview with the Montreal Gazette, Da Silva noted that this is far from an isolated case: "There's not a single small venue that hasn't experienced this," he said, adding:
Everyone in this industry is still suffering. For most people, the pandemic is done and gone. But for people in bars and restaurants and especially venues, your job is to get as many people as possible in one room, and it's still very difficult to make that work. We spent two years closed. We don't have the scratch to absorb a $12,000 fine because one person decides to move to the wrong place and is now upset that at 11:30 there's some noise.
It wasn't until during the pandemic that the city's famed Bar Le Ritz PDB was taken to court for outstanding pre-COVID noise complaints, which were thankfully later dropped. However, as Brendan Kelly reports, back in 2018, Divan Orange had to close after years of noise-complaint fines — and earlier this year, Plateau-Mont-Royal theatre La Tulipe lost a Superior Court case against a neighbour bothered by the noise.
A spokesperson for the city told CTV News that this was the first time Turbo Haüs has received a noise complaint.
