Noise complaints won’t stop live music at downtown SLO bar. ‘I want to rock out’
Live, late-night music will continue at The Libertine Brewing Company in downtown San Luis Obispo despite complaints from neighbors that the popular bar’s noise was disrupting nearby homes.
Since December 2024, police have received a dozen complaints of noise from the bar located on the edge of downtown at the corner of Broad and Pacific streets, according to a city staff report.
The more recent complaints kicked off a code enforcement investigation, with the city looking at whether Libertine was operating outside the parameters of its use permit, which among other things, regulates when and what types of events the venue can host.
Given the code enforcement action, the city also called for an administrative hearing review of Libertine’s use permit to determine if changes needed to be made.
The announcement sent ripples through San Luis Obispo’s music community, with many questioning why a downtown bar was seemingly being targeted for noise.
Libertine event manager John Pranjic said the issue was larger even than just Libertine: If live music were pulled back there, he worried, what would that mean for the rest of downtown?
“If this can happen to us, it can happen to anybody in downtown, and there’s nothing, there’s nothing that would be able to stop it,” Pranjic told The Tribune ahead of the meeting. “That’s what scares me as somebody that’s enjoyed downtown for the majority of my adult life. ... I’d hate to see that go under attack.”
Jake Hesse of local rock band Outside Dog told The Tribune most people he spoke to about the issue were one word: confused.
“Most people don’t understand it, because everyone I talk to goes, like, ‘What? It’s a bar downtown,’” Hesse said. “That’s just like a no brainer to most people: How are they getting complaints?”
Hesse, a Cal Poly senior whose band often plays at Libertine — including an upcoming show in March — said losing a venue like it would be detrimental to the local music scene, which already struggles with strict noise ordinances that limit once-common house performances and a lack of otherwise sanctioned places to play.
“We don’t have any plans to actually leave SLO, but we’re booking San Diego and Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, Orange County — like we’re already planning to just find other places to play, which is sad, and I don’t think anyone wants that to happen,” Hesse said ahead of the meeting. “I think everyone wants to have a local live music place they can always rely on.”
Crowd packs SLO meeting to support Libertine
Hesse wasn’t alone in those concerns.
A noticeably younger-than-usual crowd packed the San Luis Obispo City Council Chambers at City Hall on Monday afternoon for the administrative hearing to determine Libertine’s fate.
In the standing-room-only meeting, more than 30 people spoke to the city’s appointed hearing official, begging them to preserve Libertine’s ability to host live music.
“All of my friends, when they tell me they want to go downtown — ‘Well let’s go to this’ — I want to go to Libertine,” one person said to laughs during public comment. “I want to rock out. I want to bang my head around. It’s such a powerful experience, and taking that away from the community would be just devastating.”
Others shared favorite memories at Libertine and their stories of how it helped them find family and acceptance at difficult times in their lives.
Many noted that with official venues for live music in San Luis Obispo few and far between, losing that ability at Libertine would irreparably harm the local entertainment scene.
“As we’ve shut down venues from the original SLO Brew here in downtown to the very, very tragic closure of Bang the Drum, it’s been harder and harder for musicians to kind of find places that they can have a platform to make shows, to gain home, to make a life worthwhile in this town,” comedian and musician Henry Brewington said during public comment.
“I think it’s so important that we kind of lift up this place that has a platform to kind of grow artists and create a sense of community,” he added. “It is so much more important than the occasional sound complaint.”
Neighbors say noise persists despite soundproofing home
Not all who spoke Monday afternoon were there in support of Libertine, however.
Husbands Tom Bernard and Chris Baisa, who live near the bar on Broad Street, also spoke, sharing how Libertine’s noise has detrimentally impacted their lives since moving into their home two years ago.
Baisa said despite repeated complaints, they “received no help controlling the noise” and Libertine “did not make any earnest attempts to curb their noise.” They also alleged that Libertine’s management used “a strategy of intimidation” to attempt to stop the pair from complaining of the noise.
Baisa added that they have spent roughly $70,000 soundproofing their home but can still hear the music.
Other neighbors in the area spoke in support of Libertine, however.
Ethan Stan, who has lived one block away from the bar on Broad Street for eight years, said Libertine “has never once been a problem.”
“Libertine and all its staff have been excellent neighbors,” Stan said. “The city should let them keep doing what they are approved to do.”
As roughly an hour and a half of public comment wrapped up, Pranjic also came forward to speak, once again reiterating the important role Libertine plays in San Luis Obispo.
“We think that we are exactly where we are supposed to be, and we want to be there for in a very, very long time,” he said, “providing this opportunity for all these positions, all these artists, all these beautiful people in this room for a long time to come.”
The city hearing official ultimately found there was “no evidence” to indicate that Libertine’s use permit needed to be modified — meaning it could continue to go on hosting live music as it has been.
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