This week's cover story in Time Out New York wades into the whole too many bars/too much noise on the Lower East Side debate, explaining the position of the coalition that's trying to curb the spreading of the booze bringers. But is there really that much of a problem? Wait, we can't hear you; the marching band is warming up:
Suddenly, the hubbub is pierced by the wail of a saxophone, followed by the steady thumping of a bass drum and the crashing of cymbals. The Hungry March Band, a 25-piece brass ensemble, has emerged from a gig at Cake Shop with an appetite for a bigger audience. The musicians parade up Ludlow, accompanied by shouts of encouragement, and for a few moments everyone on the street seems to be smiling. Even a pair of cops sitting in a nearby patrol car look tickled by the cacophony. But a few stories up, in an apartment across the street from the indie-rock sanctum Pianos, 46-year-old Patrick Walsh is not amused. The marching band has talent, he admits, but the white-noise machine near his ten-month-old daughter's crib is no match for the drums and horns. "You can't tell me that if this was happening on the Upper East Side, the neighborhood and the police would do nothing," he says.
Oh, he went there! Although the question we'd really like answered is how a 25-piece brass band fit into the basement of the Cake Shop.
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