The early shift

John Beninghof, singer-guitarist for the Falmouth-based Old Silver Band, had been looking forward to last weekend's show at the Paradise Lounge, where he and his guitar-playing brother Matt were booked to play a coveted Saturday-night slot. Friends and family were driving in from the Cape, and from the Beninghofs' hometown of Norfolk, to see the show and cheer on the folk-bluegrass outfit .

On Friday afternoon, Beninghof got word that the next night's concert, originally booked as an 18-plus show, had been changed to 21-plus -- the result of a city directive that took effect late last month, requiring that all 18-plus shows finish by 11 p.m., and that nobody under the age of 21 remain in any club after that time. Beninghof says he spent the rest of the day e-mailing and phoning his band's family, fans, and friends, alerting them to the sudden switch. He says he told many of them not to come after all.

"My brother and I are both mid-20s," said Beninghof, 23, by phone before last Saturday's show. "But we have a lot of friends who are under 21 who really want to come see us. . . . So an opportunity to play the Paradise [Lounge] and have it be 18-plus was really exciting. Until yesterday."

The new city directive comes in the wake of an outright ban last month on underage events in Boston nightclubs operating in the downtown and theater districts, as well as the Lansdowne Street and Fenway areas. That earlier order was triggered by mounting public safety concerns and an increase in complaints of noise and disruption, according to city officials.

According to a Jan. 2 letter issued to licensees by Patricia A. Malone, the city's director of consumer affairs and licensing, "underaged admission events create safety and order issues for the surrounding area, as the younger crowds have been associated with increased incidents of noise and disruption. This places significant additional burdens upon police resources in the late evening hours."

The unconditional ban on underage events has since been lifted, but the 11 p.m. time limit for 18-plus events remains. The measure has left bands, fans, promoters, and club representatives perplexed and outraged, and has prompted a flurry of e-mails and blogs protesting what some claim is a punitive and misguided attempt to quell problems concerning noise and disruptive behavior.

City officials say the latest directive is meant only to be a short-term solution. "From what I understand, this was a temporary action," said Jennifer Mehigan, spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino, in a phone interview. "We want these clubs to be able to have events for younger people. Unfortunately, public safety comes first for the city and these [disruption] issues have come to our attention. And this is what we've come up with as the best way to deal with them at the moment." But critics of the measure claim the city is cracking down on the wrong age group.

"The most unruly behavior is usually fueled by alcohol, and you assume that kids between the ages of 18 and 21 aren't consuming alcohol," says Rob Davol , drummer for the Boston hard rock outfit Cocked 'N' Loaded. Although his band plays mostly 21-plus venues, Davol says when the band has performed for an 18-plus audience, "the security's pretty tight. They're probably keeping 99.9 percent of the kids alcohol free."

Menino spokeswoman Mehigan sees it differently. "I don't want to get into the specifics, but why we have the ban on younger events is that issues were occurring on the nights of those younger events," Mehigan said.

Malone says her office has been barraged with complaints from bands, clubs, and promoters. "I've been getting hate mail and phone calls," said Malone in a phone interview this week. "I don't want to hurt anybody. I know that some of the smaller clubs are not the problem, but when you make a policy, you have to be consistent across the board. We are not trying to keep people who are under 21 from going to a club or enjoying music. This is not a ban."

Malone declares that "there's been a lot of misinformation" concerning the city directive. She cited a clause in her latest letter to licensees that allows for an 18-plus show to run past the cutoff time, provided that the club notify her in advance to ask permission and provide an explanation for an exemption request. "I don't think it's too much trouble to ask a licensee to send me an e-mail or write me a letter if they booked a show weeks or months in advance and think it's going to run past 11 o'clock," Malone said. "Even if it's the same day, get in touch with me and I'll get right back to you." Malone said she granted three such requests a week ago.

Still, the clubs surveyed on Lansdowne Street -- which primarily had been booking 21-plus shows even before the directive took effect -- have adopted, for the moment at least, a strict 21-plus admission policy. Club representatives and employees declined to comment on the city directive and referred all questions to Mindy d'Arbeloff , vice president of public relations for the Lyons Group, which owns most of the venues on Lansdowne Street. D'Arbeloff did not return a telephone call requesting comment before deadline.

Carl Lavin, head booking manager for Great Scott and O'Brien's, called the directive "myopic. "

" This obviously puts us at a competitive disadvantage with clubs in Cambridge, like the Middle East, that have the same kind of programming we do ," he said. While O'Brien's is a 21-plus bar that hosts live music, Great Scott has emerged as a popular live - music venue offering a hip roster that occasionally features 18-plus bills. But given its usual schedule of hosting several bands per night, the club has switched to an exclusively 21-plus establishment .

"We are complying with the directive, but we hope this will be temporary and that cooler heads will prevail," said Lavin, 36. "If the city is forcing kids out of the clubs at 11 p.m. -- where they are supervised -- but isn't providing another alternative for entertainment, I think you'll see a rise in [private residence] basement shows and house parties, where kids will be unsupervised."

There are other long-term effects to this short-term plan, says Beninghof. "You're basically cutting off the bands from a sector of the audience that, in my opinion, is the most important in growing a band. Music travels a lot faster among kids in that age group."

Caitlin Koenig, 20, stood shivering outside the Paradise Rock Club Saturday night with her friend David Morgan, 21. Both of them hoped to score tickets to 20-year-old Scottish singer Paolo Nutini's sold-out concert (they did). She didn't like the city's 18-plus restriction one bit. "There are a lot of shows and bands and experiences that I miss out on," said Koenig, a student at Fitchburg State. "Being under 21, what is there for us to do? It's either trying to illegally get into a club where you'll eventually get kicked out, or we sit in a dorm room and get drunk. I want to go out and experience Boston. I'm not 21, but I still want to have fun and see bands."

Kalli Giaritta , 21, singer-guitarist for the Boston band Ascetic Junkies , was handing out advertising fliers outside the Paradise Saturday night as part of her job as a college rep for WEA Corp. Many of her friends and fans are 20, so if the clubs switch to a 21-plus minimum age to avoid having to shut down a show early, she worries that she'll lose a sizable chunk of her audience. "When you're a new artist, you have to prove to a club that you can draw," said Giaritta. "It'll be harder for me because half of the people who would come to my show won't be able to come."

Steve Lord, 23, who plays drums with the Allston band Baker, said he and his 19-year-old girlfriend, Soizic Stein , were told to leave the Paradise right after the Nutini concert ended at 11 p.m. " She tried to get a [non alcoholic] drink," Lord said . "And because it was after 11, they said they couldn't even serve her a Coke."