When a noise complaint is called in, usually the police’s job is to quiet the fun, not join in on it. But that’s exactly what happened on Saturday night, when police were called to a birthday party in Mississauga to investigate a band playing too loudly. The teenage members of Vinyl Ambush expected to get shut down, but to their surprise, one of the officers sat down at the drums and proved he had some musical chops of his own. The five members of Vinyl Ambush had been playing together for about six months when the mother of Jack Laing, the 19-year-old drummer, had the idea for them to play at a surprise party for Laing’s father’s 50th birthday. The drummer passed around a letter to all the nearby houses letting them know the band would be playing at the party, but bassist Corwin Bjelic, 15, says it’s possible they “misinterpreted it, thinking it would be something like an acoustic set, where it’s not too loud.”He didn’t seem surprised by the noise complaint: “All the houses are pretty close together.”When the officers arrived just before 9 p.m., they asked the band to turn the volume down, but also told them to keep playing for a little bit, much to the band’s surprise. After watching for a couple songs, Const. Joel Clark stepped up and asked if he could join in. Bjelic said he “couldn’t believe it” when the officer sat down at the drum kit. He played through one full song with them, an original by the band called “Curiosity.” Bjelic said the second officer was laughing and recording on his phone when Clark gave in to the call of music. “He had to take his boots off when he tried to play,” Bjelic said. Clark told the band he used to be a drummer, though he said he hadn’t played in five years. Before the officers left, he gave the band some advice based on his own experiences as a musician, telling them that “itȁ ...
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