Tool, last year in Copp’s Coliseum. It didn’t seem that loud, but my ears rang for a couple of days afterwards. Great show, and I’d see them again in a heartbeat. In fact, we nearly saw them again the very next day in Montreal, but didn’t want to spend too much time negotiating with scalpers. In hindsight, I think we should have gone!
Korn, it was out of control but even the skin heads head-banging were really friendly.
Was this in 1981 or '2. If so, I was there too. We were pretty far back from the stage. Tickets were $30. That was an outrageous amount for that time period. But it was billed, at least locally, as the LAST STONES TOUR EVER.
One of three never gonna tour again tours. The other two were The Who and Lynyrd Skynyrd, in 1991?. So much for last tours.
Ever been to a Sunn 0))) concert? It’s probably best not to eat beforehand.
As they changed the frequency of the drone through the course of the show, you could see the lights suddenly start and stop shaking violently, and feel different parts of your body start and stop vibrating as the drone passed through various resonant frequencies.
Any of the My Bloody Valentine gigs I went to would probably qualify.
Yeah, the Ramones. I saw them a bunch of times in the 70s, in a tiny little nightclub in New York (CBGB, their home base in those days). They were loud, the room was tiny, and I’m surprised I didn’t suffer permanent hearing loss back then.
These days I pretty much listen much more to classical music (of all kinds) than to pop (of any kind). As **Knorf **points out above, you’d be amazed at the volume levels a symphony orchestra can achieve.
Japanese noise artist Merzbow in a small venue here in Copenhagen. It was so loud that is became as much a physical as an aural experience. The only fitting description I can give of the show is that it felt as being taken on a tour through the giant factory where the universe is created.
Damn, that was loud. (and I think my hearing might have suffered permanently - even though I wore plugs).
38 Special in the 80s. Both times I saw them, my ears rang for a couple of days afterward.
The Flaming Lips @ Club Downunder, FSU, 1986 or '87. The sound was so loud that it forcibly pinned me to the back wall for 2 hours, like those centrifuge carnival rides. I could see the smoke in the air move in waves with the drumbeat. My scalp was furrowed for 3 weeks after from the pounding.
One of the 3 best concerts I’ve ever seen.* 
*(The other 2 were both by Universal Congress Of, in case you were wondering.)
A celtic-rock fusion band called Seven Nations at a small club in Saratoga called The Parting Glass, sometime in the early 90’s. The amplified bagpipes left my ears feeling like my head was under water for two days, and gave me my first bit of Tinnitus, made worse over the years by Metallica and gunfire.
Gregg Allman at the War Memorial in Nashville late 90’s. Indoors. Must have been their same setup to be playing at some airport where they had to be heard over jet takeoffs. Way too loud. Painful. Blood from ears.
Either mogwai last week or the chemical brothers.
The Pogues on their last west coast tour. We were 10 feet in front of the stack, maybe a bit less. It was insanely loud.
I went to a fair number of concerts in the 1980s. Black Sabbath. Quiet Riot. Slayer. Just to name a few.
But there was only one I walked out of. Why? Because my ears were about to bleed. It was Motörhead. At Bogart’s in Cincinnati. Around 1990. Way too loud.
Tool, summer of 2002 at Oakland arena. I was in the very front directly in front of the speakers for the first 20 minutes of the show. It was the first concert I had ever been to and I had no idea how loud it could be.
My Bloody Valentine at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. The floor shook as if an earthquake was underneath. The venue staff gave out earplugs at the front doors.
I’ve seen Tool three times. They are probably the 2nd loudest band I’ve seen.
I saw The Who during their 2008 tour, but it wasn’t nearly as loud as I’d expected.
Metallica at the Schottenstein Center, October 2004. Even with good earplugs in, I kind of had a bit of ringing in my ears afterwards.
Again, The Ramones, circa 1980’s, out of constant concert going then. My ears rang and buzzed for three days after…(noted that the three day thang seems to be the recovery period)
The worst single hearing blast I had was back in my music photographer days, at a rather small Chitlin’Circuit Bluesfest in Mississippi. I was up front stage to work, right next to the speaker bank, and Marvin Sease had an excellent full horn section playing. When the high notes of the saxaphone got going on, it was so intense that I got a jolting headrush; my skullbones were rattling from the high-pitch. I really felt like I was going to pass out from the soundwaves. After that, I respected my ears’ mortality and wore earplugs when working next to bigass speakers.
Yeah I agree. They were loud enough back in the day (Isn’t Anything on the cusp of Loveless at the Barrowlands being a fave) , but the tour last year was just astonishing. The sound techs earned their money, I’ve never been in such a maelstrom of living and breathing noise. I’ve seen loud bands before - Swans, notably- but nothing like MBV. Just another plane altogether - absolutely transcendent.
The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Union College Memorial Chapel, around 1971 or 72.
John McLaughlin (not the same guy in The McLaughlin Report) wanted things LOUD. It may have been the doing of his violinist, Jerry Goodman, formerly of the Flock; as I went it someone who had seen the Flock warned me it would be even louder. He also played nothing but the highest notes possible. And this was a venue where there was a problem with echo, so the sound reflected from all sides. It was loud enough to wake people on other continents.
It was so loud I couldn’t hear the music, and my ears rang for days.