Your hearing I mean. I was talking to a friend last night and she had just gotten back from a show and was talking about the ringing in her ears. It reminded me of loudest single show I have ever been to.
The year was 1996 I believe. The Afghan Whigs were playing at the Newport Music Hall here in Columbus and I was like front row, stage right...right in front of that wall of speakers. Great show...but I really think that was the beginning of the end for my hearing. What was the loudest show you guys have ever been to? Do you wear earplugs to shows? I can't bring myself to do it...i will probably pay for it later in life...along with all of my other vices that I indulged in as a younger man.
Here is a great clip of king of cool, Greg Dulli and the boys....and then an appropriate song
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I'm trying to think what must have been the loudest show i ever went to - i remember a Zappa show in '72 at the Fox when someone yelled "Turn it up!" and Frank replied "We're playing on the threshold of pain as it is"...
The worst damage i can recall came from a Kinks show (also at the Fox) where the tinnitus didn't subside for close to three days; i was beginning to be afraid it was permanent.
The most painful at the time it was happening was Tom Petty opening for the Kinks in '78 - the time Tony Paris asked Ray a question he didn't want to answer; Ray excused himself and vanished.
Blondie had already played their set when they realised that Ray had disappeared instead of just going to the restroom as they assumed at first and began frantically hunting for him - meanwhile, they told Petty to keep playing, and he wound up doing a double set.
The problem, though, was that this was his first night on the tour, and apparently he'd decided to prove that he was going to blow the Kinks out of the joint, or something like that, and cranked his amps up to about "12".
Unfortunately, they were the kind of amps that probably shouldn't be used over about "9".
Hideous distortion. I was beginning to get a headache pretty quickly.
My wife, who had never been to a rock concert (indoor, anyway - she'd been to several at the Louisville Fairgrounds) was actually sick. But she hung on.
And then the Kinks finally came on - and they were even louder. I thought she was going to cry.
But then she realised that it was clean sound, without the THD that Petty had been slamming us with.
And she never missed another Kinks show.
I understand that Ray raised hell with Petty and told him his first night on the tour could be his last if he wanted and Petty turned it down the next night [They were here for two nights.] and that Blondie got to do a proper sound check [which they hadn't done the first night] and that the second night the Kinks ditched their regular set list and pretty much did all of the singles in order.
I wish we'd been at that show.
Hell - i wish we'd been at the Cambridge show that closed the tour - Blondie was still there, but the regional band in the middle slot that replaced Petty was the Cars. Both Blondie and the Cars were only months away from their big breakthrough hits... It would be a real coup when geezering if i could brag that i saw Blondie and the Cars together before anyone knew who they were...
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You give me hope Fairport...sounds like you have been through some real volume wars...and you are still functioning!!
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The loudest show i've ever been to was Gavin DeGraw at the Starland Ballroom that one sticks out because I had seen him before that at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park and I was right next to one of the monitors, which was really loud, but the starland show blew that one out of the water. I always wear earplugs, but during that show it didn't even seem like i was wearing them, that's how loud it was. I was glad i had them because I'm sure my ears would have been ringing for days afterwards if i hadn't worn them.
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you mean there's audio at concerts??? What did you say??? Geez, speak up people!
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I saw Ministry back in, like, 1994 or 1995....still the loudest show I've ever been to....
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that would be my second concert I ever went to. KISS in 1985. (this would be the Lick It Up KISS sans make-up.) I remember my ears ringing the next day in school. It is also the first time i ever drank--peppermint schnapps.
also, my friends and I were sitting on the top of a metal gate at the front of bleachers and about halfway through the show gene simmons went to the side of the stage and wiped his face and throw his towel at the crowd and it was coming our way and we all reached up for it and leaned back and all three of us fell backwards off the gate. I must say he gave a sympathetic look and seemed to make sure we got up ok.
peppermint schnapps and some KISS...the memories.
my tale pales so much in comparison to fairportfan.
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As far as national acts go, the loudest show was - oddly enough - The Psychedelic Furs at Red Rocks, around 1987. I was working in a record store at the time, and I feigned illness to get off of work that night so I could see the show. I stood in the front row, with the monitors scorching my eardrums. When I showed up the following morning, my ears were still ringing so loudly that I could hardly hear a customer who was asking for help about two feet away from me. I was scared to death, to be honest ... I thought I had lost my hearing forever. _And_ my boss found out about the fib. It took days before I felt like my hearing was anywhere near "normal" again.
But really, the absolute loudest I have ever experienced were shows for a local band in which my boyfriend was the drummer. They were very high energy with a lot of distortion, and the sheer volume was ludicrous. They were so loud that even the Denver news and arts paper had complained that people attending the shows were going to be in need of cochlear implants. That wasn't far from the truth ... someone reportedly clocked in a show at 130 decibels! man, it was good though!
I hate wearing earplugs, but given that it's hard enough to hear conversations that take place right in front of me, I'm changing my ways. If only to keep hearing the music for a little longer ;)
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Last year the Bedouin Soundclash concert was so loud that my chest hurt from the vibrations!! It was painful. Another concert last year affected my hearing for 3 days. I am starting to worry that my ears may lose their ability to recover, so since then I took the plunge and started wearing earplugs. They only lower the volume by ~ 20 dB so it doesn't sound like the shows are on mute. I just can't hear anyone I'm with, when they try to speak to me!
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Oh yeah, a friend of mine went to see Motorhead, and as you may have heard, they SELL earplugs at all their shows!
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Yeah. For sheer painful noise and distortion evels, nothing beats a local band that haven't yet learnt that quantity is not necessarily quality.
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I gotta say for me the loudest I've ever seen was Peeping Tom last year at Avalon. Holy shit Mike Patton (from Faith No More) was screaming. Then Rahzel came on stage and did Busta Rhymes' "Touch It" c o m p l e t e l y b y h i m s e l f. It was pretty cool because he did it identically to the song almost.
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It was one of the Authority Zero concerts I've been to this year - I actually woke up in the middle of the night with a sharp pain in my eardrums.
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Hahaha....you can't even pinpoin WHICH A Zero show it was....you are a hardcore fan!
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Heh...well there were alot this year. Haha. But I do know which one it was - I was trying to be less of a nerd by not spelling out which one...ahem. ;P
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Gogol Bordello (the first time)...my ears were ringing for about two weeks afterwards.
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Unfortunately, as I found out, it doesn't necessarily need to be THE loudest gig to get ear damage. I'd seen lots of really loud bands (in particular, The Birthday Party), been to heaps of live music over the years, worked on lots of music videos, and big concerts (INXS, The Eurythmics, Crowded House etc), but it was a small rave in an abandoned masonic hall that did one of my ears in. That was five years ago, and I now have permanent tinnitus in one ear. Occasionally it dries me crazy, and there is no such thing as silence anymore, which I really miss.
Have hardly been to any live music or clubs since then, 'cos I'm petrified of it getting worse. (Some World War 1 veterans are said to have committed suicide as a result of really bad tinnitus). Earplugs tend to block all the midrange, which I find really annoying, so have largely stopped going out. However, a friend of mine who also has it recently told me about a hearing centre where they take moulds of your ears, and then make special plugs that have attenuaters built in. That way, you can go out to hear music, but still get the full range. They cost about $250, but I'm so getting some of those.
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Thanks for sharing cipher....that is scary stuff man...especially when it happens to a music lover! I guess $250 is a small price to pay in the long run
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Yes thanks for your details, Cipher. You just never know which one time will take your ears past the point of no return!
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Maybe I got deafened back in the day because none of the recent gigs have bothered me that much even though I know they're loud. For pain it had to be the Rolling Stones in '76 - right in front of the speakers...but it was all the treble that caused the damage. For all out volume it was two times at Hammersmith Odeon - Neil Young in '76, when he unleashed all the noise and feedback for the first time. It was so dissonant that I kept wondering if it was just me that thought it was great, then as each song crashed to an end the whole place would explode in cheering. The other time was the same year with The Who. It was so damn loud I couldn't hear Daltrey talking between numbers because my ears were ringing. Great gigs both of 'em. Interestingly, the so-called kings of big, Led Zeppelin, were never overbearing.
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You have seen some severely classic gigs, Jonh!
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A combination of luck, tenacity and serious hustling.