If the live music is in a tent, is it indoors or outdoors?

The afternoon sun had just reached that angle where you need to squint or reach for the sunglasses Sunday at Reunion Tap & Table. The parking lot tent was partially filled with patrons enjoying music and the unexpected warm November day.

The music. A live band was performing outside, a common occurrence since Reunion’s tent first popped up in the parking lot back in the spring. Live music has always been a part of the restaurant’s draw — Shaun and Josh Briggs, who run the place with Sargon Hanna, are themselves frequent performers. In the time of COVID-19, both gigs for bands and places to enjoy music are few, so it was only natural to bring the music outside.

Some of the neighbors, however, didn’t agree.

“For some people, if they can hear it, it’s too much,” Shaun Briggs said.

Grafton Police notified the Select Board of neighbor complaints back in August and they were reiterated last month in a letter to the board. Last week, the state Department of Public Health and the Massachusetts Department of Labor Standards got in on the action, sending the owners a cease and desist order to stop the music.

Under the state’s COVID-19 emergency orders, indoor performances with singing are prohibited. The state’s cease and desist order notes “When a band is playing in a tent and more than 50 percent of the tent is enclosed by sides or the building, this area becomes an indoor space and they must comply with the indoor standards.”

So why do the bands play on?

Briggs pointed out the plexiglass barrier between the band and the tent’s patrons, which effectively separates the singers — and their potentially viral exhales — from clientele. He noted that a state health inspector signed off on it following the cease and desist, and said both the Grafton Grill and Grafton Inn had similar accommodations.

“We seem to be the only one who is getting these complaints,” he said. “Grafton doesn’t have a noise ordinance. We’ve turned down the music. It’s not even playing very late. We’re doing what we can to stay open for business.”

The warm weather, for now, is a gift. There will come a point where even space heaters won’t be enough to keep the customers coming, and Reunion is already planning an altered take-out menu that will include wood-fired pizza.

“If there’s rules that have to be put in place, we’re happy to do it,” Briggs said. “The last thing we want is Covid in here.”

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