The Cubs are blaming what one alderperson called a “perfect storm” of “temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure and wind direction” for a barrage of noise complaints stemming from the Fall Out Boy concert Wednesday night at Wrigley Field.
Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) said he lives “south of Fullerton” in Lincoln Park and could still hear music from the Fall Out Boy concert loud and clear.
“I’ve lived here six years now. I’ve never heard a Wrigley concert,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins said he received “a lot of complaints” from constituents asking whether the noise limits had been changed. Others thought they heard the music after the 11 p.m. cutoff time for amplified music at Wrigley.
“I know atmospheric conditions, wind conditions, can really affect how far the sound waves [travel]. It might have been a perfect storm scenario where they played a little bit louder than they’re supposed to and weather conditions facilitated the sound traveling a lot farther than they normally do,” Hopkins said.
“The Cubs should have their sound engineers look at the amplification of the PA system [and] the direction of the PA speaker columns and maybe check in with [TV weather forecaster] Tom Skilling. See if there was anything particular about the weather that night that would facilitate sound waves traveling farther than they normally do.”
After talking to the Sun-Times, Hopkins called the Cubs.
A team official assured him that Fall Out Boy stopped playing at 10:57 p.m. Wednesday — three minutes before the 11 p.m. cutoff. The Cubs also told Hopkins that the “amplification system was not in excess of the maximum limits” that the city imposed, he said.
“They said that Morgan Wallen, who played Wrigley on Thursday night and was scheduled to appear again Friday night, was at the same decibel level on the PA that Fall Out Boy was and there were no complaints,” Hopkins said.
“The weather factors that they cite are temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure and wind direction. The combination of those factors creates conditions that can allow sound to travel more efficiently than normal. And they believe that was the case during the Fall Out Boys.”
Realizing now that what I thought was music from a block party a couple blocks away last night was actually Fall Out Boy playing at Wrigley Field 2.5 miles away
— Kyle Wolfe (@KylePWolfe) June 22, 2023
To support the team’s claim, the Cubs told Hopkins it had “collected a pattern of complaints” about noise from the Fall Out Boy concert.
“There were no complaints from the east between Wrigley Field and the lakefront — not even from the residential condo towers a lot closer to the field than Lincoln Park. The complaints were coming from the south and the west. So that does lend support to the idea that it was atmospheric conditions and wind direction that caused it. It does support their contention that this was a one-off,” Hopkins said.
Cubs spokesperson Jennifer Martinez called it a “rare Mother Nature occurrence.”
“Stronger winds and low humidity pushed the sound 3 miles in that direction, where as we had folks in our parking lot in the other direction where you couldn’t hear as much of the sound,” Martinez said.
“It was such a rare occurrence. We haven’t experienced that since we installed our video board back in 2015.”
The Cubs have hosted “nearly 70 concerts” since 2005, she said.
“We conduct soundchecks for every show, and the noise levels are consistent from show to show, regardless of artist, in accordance with the city’s night [game] ordinance,” Martinez said.
The Cubs are cashing in on concerts while the team is in London for a two-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals that begins Saturday.
I can hear Fall Out Boy playing terrible Journey covers a mile away from Wrigley. Make it stop.
— Garrett Karp (@garpo3000) June 22, 2023
Ald. Bennett Lawson (44th), whose ward includes Wrigley, could not be reached.
Neighboring Ald. Timmy Knudsen (43rd) said he got three complaints from constituents. “But looking at Twitter, it sounds like a lot of people heard it,” Knudsen said.
Ald. Angela Clay (46th), from another neighboring ward, said she read some of the tweets complaining about the noise but did not get an earful from her constituents.
Wednesday’s concert by Fall Out Boy was the talk of Twitter — and not necessarily in a good way.
Residents of Lake View, Ravenswood, North Center, Roscoe Village, Bucktown and Lincoln Park claimed they could hear it. The hometown show that kicked off the band’s “So Much For (Tour) Dust” tour could be heard from right outside Wrigley’s brick walls to several miles away, they said.
“The Fall Out Boy concert at Wrigley is so f---in’ loud it needs to end expeditiously,” wrote one user named Andy.
We stepped out for a walk. Why does it sound like Sugar, We’re Going Down? Because I can hear Fall Out Boy from Wrigley Field, and I’m on the other side of the river. This is incredible. And that song is a banger. pic.twitter.com/YalKxDpqEL
— Carolyn Kassnoff (@ItllGlowOnYou) June 22, 2023
