…and do you think it permanently damaged your hearing?
For me, it was the B-52’s’ “Cosmic Thing” tour, and as for the hearing, I’m not positive, but it probably did a bit of damage. If I could do it all over again, I’d still go to the show, but I’d wear earplugs.
Rolling Stones in the Pontiac Silverdome football stadium.
It was not only the loudest the acoustics were so bad I could not even tell what song they were playing. I had a migraine headache at the start and it got so bad during the concert that I actually fell asleep or passed out. I had nothing alcoholic to drink that night.
I would not go again.
Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath at Madison Square Garden in the mid 70s. It was painful even all the way in the back. I don’t think it affected my hearing but the 1000 shows I saw of other bands after that probably did.
I take it the domed roof was either permanent or closed, right? I wonder if there’s even such a thing as good acoustics in a domed stadium… :dubious: good for music, I mean, as opposed to intensifying crowd noise for football games, which for the home crowd is a good thing, indeed.
Mine was My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult at Cain’s Ballroom (I think) in Tulsa, OK back in July 1997. It’s a tiny little venue and the sound just bounced from the back wall again to hit you. At one point, I wanted to tell my friend something - I yelled as loud as I could about an inch away from his ear. He couldn’t hear a word I said. My ears rang for five days and I really did have that “Oh my god, I’ve really done it this time” feeling. It eventually went away, but I have no doubt that it did some permanent damage.
If I went back in time and was a month away from 20 years old again, yeah I’d probably do it again. If I was given the chance to do it again next week, I’d pass. Just not there anymore.
Jeff Beck’s “Who Else?” tour, 1999. Second row, right between The Guv’nor and Jennifer Batten. The sound pressure was so intense, it felt like we’d been in a fight afterwards.
Runner up: Blue Oyster Cult/Uriah Heep, 1975. The theremin in Heep’s “Sweet Lorraine” nearly pierced my skull…and BOC? They were turning it up to 11 a decade before Spinal Tap.
The Ramones, in a small club in Santa Barbara in the 80’s.
Gabba Gabba Hey!
LCD Soundsystem at Avalon in Boston. James Murphy likes shit LOUD. I also made the alcohol-fueled decision to stand directly in front of a stack of speakers. It was awesome, but I couldn’t hear right for three days. During the final song, “Yeah”, he beats the hell out of a drum and screams “Yeah” for about 9 minutes, which sounds stupid but is actually a great song.
I also survived a Guns ‘N’ Roses show where I was about 30 rows back but I swear I could feel the breeze coming off the speakers. That was painfully loud, to the point where I would have left but the show was just too good.
Aerosmith/Ted Nugent circa 1986. Maybe it wasn’t really that loud. But it was during the heroin days for Aerosmith and I think each band member was playing a different song. My ears rang for several days, though it might have been from all of the distortion.
BOC / Black Sabbath, Black and Blue Tour, was really loud. We were near the speaker stacks for that one.
The Who might have been loud, but we were at the Pontiac Silverdome and I kept having to duck when jets flew over and I kept getting nosebleeds. So I don’t really know.
Kiss, I Love It Loud Tour, was pretty loud. We were fortunate to get close to the stage, so that helped. It was also a cool concert when someone threw a bottle at Gene. Paul stopped the show and told the audience if they would point out the bottle thrower that Gene would come down and kick their ass. I think he meant it.
Alice Cooper, 1987, may have been loud but I was too busy yelling my fucking head off. I was hoarse and deaf for about a week.
I must be getting old. I took my wife to Rod Stewart in Chicago two years ago. It really wasn’t loud. I have to admit, I kind of enjoyed it too. The most fun was watching the people who were dressing like the first time they saw Rod. Black suspender pants on a fifty-year old are not always attractive. Someone should have clued her in. I kept expecting to see a pair of granny panties hit the stage
Tool at Bonnaroo in 2007. I was about two hundred yards from the stage and couldn’t hear anything but the music. The next day, The Police played the same stage and I was in my tent, at least a half mile away, and could tell what songs they were playing by lyric.
Judas Priest, Ohio, in the 80’s.
All other shows were hum in the night compared to Priest.
Ignoring anything amplified, the loudest concert I ever heard was Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra performed by the San Francisco Symphony.
Anyone can build a big speaker stack and turn the amps all the way up. Big deal.
To play as loudly as the SFSO did that day, on entirely acoustic instruments, that takes years or decades of training for everyone in the orchestra to learn to master their instruments. Sheer numbers won’t do it; this 80-piece orchestra was louder than any 300-member marching band, even if you had to hear such inside. Perfect intonation, and incredible control are required for each instrument to reinforce each other enough to achieve such volumes. True, it’s the brass and percussion that drive the volume the most, but it’s not just them. In order to get that loud, the big orchestra tuttis in the middle require everyone in the orchestra at full volume, with the best possible, richest and most projecting sound, and perfect intonation performing on superb instruments. (“Tutta forza”). Now that takes some real skill.
Pantera (with opening acts Sepultura and Prong) at what was then called Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre in 1994. It was the same day as the World Cup Final up in Pasadena when Brazil beat Italy in a penalty-kick shootout.
My ears rang for three days afterwards. I’d probably go again, but I’d damn sure take earplugs…
The Pontiac Silverdome roof is mostly fabric, held up by air pressure (and not openable). Acoustically, it’s probably not much different than no roof.
Journey circa 1982. My ears rang for days.
Ditto. We saw the Ramones at an open-air concert at my alma mater. It was ear-shattering loud, we had to retreat and listen from a good distance. And that was in the days when I didn’t worry about hearing loss or shrink from loud concerts.
The Ramones, at Trenton State College in 1981 or 1982. I was way up in front, right by the speakers, and on the ride home peoples’ voices sounded high-pitched to me, like they’d all sucked on helium balloons. That was weird.
I heard a low tone at a Diamanda Galas show (I think one of the shows at St. John the Divine) that was physically uncomfortable, a strong pressure on my chest. Not really volume, but intensity.
I saw that tour. It was so loud it made me nauseous.
I have pretty bad case of Tinnitus. Not from that concert alone but from dozens of them at similar volumes. And the gunfire. And working in a metal fab shop. Eventually I wised up and started wearing ear plugs or muffs or sometimes both at once. Wish I’d started sooner.
Kids, WEAR YOUR EAR PROTECTION! Hearing damage is no joke.
Now, get off my lawn.
Motorhead at the Paradise club in Boston around 1983. It took a couple of days for my hearing to get back to normal.
Hotblack Desiato. Solo gig.
(appropriate smiley, no?)