Tree House agrees to concert rules, but WMass neighbors say it isn’t enough
DEERFIELD — Concert hotspot Tree House Brewing Co. will end outdoor concerts by 10:30 p.m. this summer, go quiet for the first few days of school on Aug. 26 and Aug 27, and end September shows by 10 p.m.
But the restrictions hammered out by the town and venue this month and made part of the 2026 license renewal don’t go far enough, according to neighbors.
Neighbors say they have an increasingly hard time dealing with noise from a venue that’s hosted big-time acts, like blues guitarist Gary Clark Jr. , 1990s rockers the Gin Blossoms, Keb’ Mo’ and Springfield native Taj Mahal.
Dinosaur Jr., founded in Amherst, also played Tree House in 2025.
“None of the people in the neighborhood want Tree House to shut down and fail,” said resident Vincent Russo, of Hillside Road. “I really like Tree House. Really good beer. Apparently, their pizza is better than my pizza, according to my husband.”
But the house he’s lived in for two years is just over 1,000 feet away, across a street and next to the Pelican Products parking lot. The noise makes it hard to watch television. And it shakes plants down from the shelves and rattles photos from the walls.
Neighbors have been complaining to the town for at least two years.
Low frequencies, particularly from bass players, can travel.
Russo fears the issue might be headed to court.
He has helped organize a group of neighbors who want a formalized conflict resolution system and for the number of concert dates kept steady. Neighbors also want professional sound monitoring and recording, and offered to allow experts access to their homes to prove their point. Neighbors also call for noise-dampening materials in the stage and bandstand, as well as on the property line.
None of that was in the final rules passed earlier in December. Town officials did express concerns; Tree House officials were worried that earlier curfews would make it harder to bring on an opening, supporting act.
“At this point, we are not trying to make life too difficult for Tree House,” said Christopher Dunne, the town administrator.
Engineers hired by Tree House also will work to address those troublesome bass tones, Dunne said. The town’s police and fire agencies will review the new license in January before it is made final.
The town is balancing neighbors’ concerns with the needs of an attraction that’s been a phenomenal driver of visitorship, and of meals and hotel room tax revenue, he said.
“We’re still learning, too,” Dunne said. “We think Tree House has been acting in good faith in trying to limit the impact from the concerts.”
The town still has the power of enforcement. “At the end of the day, the town of Deerfield can enforce cut off times,” he said.
At a meeting Dec. 17, Tree House Deerfield Chief of Staff Sarah Maggi Morin told Deerfield Selectboard members that the company wants to be a good neighbor.
Bands will be made aware of this issue this summer, and it’ll be in their contracts, Tree House management told the Selectboard.
Gary Clark Jr. was one of the performers who played at Tree House in Deerfield in the summer. (Amy Harris / Invision / AP, File)Amy Harris/Invision/AP
Tree House agreed to the blackout dates but pushed back against further restrictions on September shows. The venue regularly hosts three shows a week during the 13-week summer season, for a total of as many as 39 shows.
Morin said Tree House wants the ability to bring something spectacular to town, if the occasion arises.
Treehouse first got its entertainment license in 2021.
Neighbor Matt Tuttle said the town is not going far enough to protect his home.
“It seems as though Tree House just got everything that it wanted,” he said. “It doesn’t seem like there are any limitations.”
Tuttle said there is a noticeable difference in noise pollution between the openers and the headlining acts.
“This indicates to me that Tree House can address noise-pollution concerns when they choose to, but is electing not to do so consistently,” he said. “Tree House has repeatedly stated that they have ‘learned a lot’ about managing concert noise, but I have yet to see — or hear — any meaningful application of that supposed knowledge.”
Tuttle has lived for 20 years about 2,500 feet away from the Tree House site in a house near the southbound lanes of Interstate 91.
“The concerts are regularly louder at my location than the highway,” he said.
When he first moved in, before Tree House, its property was full of employees writing, illustrating and printing educational pamphlets on a dizzying variety of subjects, from managing a checkbook to recognizing the signs of a stroke. All featuring a simplified human figure that became a trademark.
Unable to compete with electronic media, publisher Channing Bete closed in June 2019.
Artisanal brewer Tree House, headquartered in Charlton, bought the 40-acre parcel on Route 5 in South Deerfield, and its manufacturing and warehouse space, for $4.25 million.
“I want them to succeed but not at the expense of my household,” Tuttle said.
Russo said the new restrictions leave homeowners with only one recourse: Call the police and file a noise complaint.
Russo is a real estate agent operating in Western and Central Massachusetts. He knows that Tree House has made homes in the neighborhood harder to sell.
“I’ve heard it’s the first thing buyers ask about,” he said.
Stories by Jim Kinney
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