I thought my ears were going to die.

After that, I started taking earplugs to concerts.

I noticed a few people last night had them.

in about 1985. It was something else.

for loudest show ever around that time. It was compared in decibels to the sound of a 747 on takeoff.

but the acoustics were still pretty good for a stadium show.

I think it sounded even louder because the opening band, who sadly I don't remember, was pretty quiet in comparison.

My ears were ringing.

But the best part was THE CLASH opened!

I'm only familiar with the live recording from Shea. Wondering if The Clash opened for The Who anywhere else or is was just that NYC gig.

Now it's "O.co Coliseum."

The Clash toured on The Who's "Farewell Tour" that year. ... 33 years later and The Who is still at it ...

I love The Clash and The Who. Must have been so cool to see them both at one show.

John Mellencamp opened, followed by Loverboy. It was The Who's first farewell tour.

Led Zeppelin

That was the one band that never made it near me, and then Bonzo passed. At least I have the DVDs!

because as old as I am, I was too much of a progger back in their heyday and didn't get into them until the 1980s.

My loudest concert I went to was KC and The Sunshine Band in Providence, Rhode Island, at 17.

they rocked that loud.

Hi Crewleader.

joined the horn section.

It's a Good Thread, A Fun Party Time of loud Music of Yesterday!

from last night. That was a shock. The band that preceded my buddy played low-key Appalachian music.

thought sitting up close to the band would be cool. My ears were clacking, it didn't even sound like music!

They are my time machine band. As in, if I could go back in time to see any band...and it would have been the 77 tour too - although I'd probably go for the 6/23/77 show at the Forum in LA. That's one of my favorite boots.

would be on my time machine gig list, but Led Zep around that time would definitely be on my list as well.

Rolling Stones around '72 with Mick Taylor, Charlie Parker in a St. Louis club, Ella Fitzgerald maybe in a nice piano bar would be some others.

to the '77 tour, but they canceled the date. I wish I had seen them, but it wasn't through lack of trying.

the enormous speakers.

That's some seriously loud bands.

close second

but in Tampa. I was far enough back that it was not the loudest I've seen. I saw Metallica headline in Daytona a year or two later and they were much louder and, of course, got to play longer.

Four 18 inch Yamaha subwoofers with four 1.7 magaplaners driven with 18,000 watts of class A amplification with selective modulation foots the bill.

I have to wait until the family is away to create the earthquake that does ensure.

I'm picturing an earthquake, lol.

What kind of music do you usually listen to?

I'd crack up if you said something like 'Bach's Brandenburg Concertos.'

I have a friend who loves that kind of music. He's a mellow guy and appreciates all types of stuff. He went on this thing in Florida called the Heavy Metal Cruise. He loved it & has gone twice. He said everyone there is really cool. The captain of the ship congratulated them on being one of the best groups he'd ever gotten to know. And for drinking more beer than on any cruise in his lifetime.

In my personal experience the loudest concert was at the Trenton War Memorial. Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. I had a 3rd row seat, right in front of a bank of humongous speakers. Now I love a good horn section as much as the next person but oh baby! it was painful! My friend who came with me is a nurse. She kept checking to see if her ears were bleeding. I only found that out about 2 days later when I regained my hearing.

That with music loud and song
We'll rock the marble pillars
At Alexander Hall
They will crack!
Our hair is long!

Perfect!

I noticed last night that the high frequencies really hurt my ears. That's why I ran outside. Talked with a sound guy outside & that's what he told me.

The Airplane concert was so loud my ears hurt for two days afterwards. Halfway through the concert I went to the back of the converted movie theater, an elaborate movie theater from the '20s, up several flights of stairs, through heavy walls into a marble-lined bathroom. The volume was correct in the bathroom.

Janis Joplin. Her band was so loud in the warm up phase that my seat was vibrating from every note of the bass guitar. I was in the fourth row. I thought "The band is so loud I will never be able to hear Janis." I was wrong. It was painful.

with their volume, not an easy thing to do. We were right at the stage. My friends and I could not hear much for a day or so.

Never saw them live but I like their music. Some friends have mentioned that My Bloody Valentine was their loudest show. That Swans one must have been insane.

After Jesus & Mary Chain my girlfriend & I couldn't sleep. We walked around the city for a few hours. Had trouble hearing or talking for a day or two.

I don't know how bands like that can do it for a bunch of shows. One was enough for me.

they were loud but the house sound system was even louder. Jesus and Mary Chain did 20 minute sets back then. I don't know if they ever played on stage for any longer. Niether were as loud as the Swans.

actually disorienting. A friend of mine saw them in Chicago last year and he said they're still skull-splitting. Presumably that's because M. Gira is stone deaf by now.

The fine post-punk band from (Australia? New Zealand?).

Called Club Lingerie.
Holy shit.
They pummeled me.
Actually thinking of seeing them Tuesday night!

At the original Boston Tea Party in 68..terrible band with 6 Marshall bottoms each in a pretty small room .

The bands with no dynamics can be painfully loud even wiyh small equiptment .

don't want to.

Saw twice, louder at Fillmore West than at original Fillmore (but they had a reputation by then).

at the Shrine Auditorium with a bunch of other bands. I had recently found out I was pregnant and so was the only one of our group not high. Probably the only one in the whole place. For some reason the guards at the door let us in free. No wonder my hearing sucks in one ear! I never listened to Blue Cheer ever again - live or on vinyl.

...a Hot Tuna show at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago, circa 1973.

Here's Water Song, performed live in Brooklyn NY, the same year:

Mine would have been 4/12/72 at Wesleyn, Middletown, Ct. Loud to begin with, but they played inside of a hockey rink & the sound just bounced off the walls! Good times.

From what was posted here, they sound kind of like a hippie band. I'm stunned that there's now three references to them playing notoriously loud gigs. When I watched that video posted above, last night, I thought they kind of sounded sort of like the Grateful Dead with a cool violinist. Maybe I'm all wrong. I'm not at all familiar with their music.

...and, believe me, "hippie bands" were not low on volume levels.

In any case, Hot Tuna is a spinoff of Jefferson Airplane, but you're in the ballpark with the Grateful Dead reference.

The "cool violinist" is Papa John Creach.

But, yeah, the Grateful Dead had the most awesome live music amplification of anybody, ever, and they may be the "ultimate" hippie band of all time...they're certainly in the top ten.

and I no longer go to rock concerts as my hearing just won't take it. In my opinion the method of making up for bad acoustics in a sports hall seems to be increase the volume so it bounces off the concrete and it is simply painful.

I feel like it has for me. I'm going to see one of my favorite bands next month, Sleater-Kinney. I will definitely bring ear plugs.

but, I am never returning to a rock concert. It was never my favorite style of music and the pain is simply not worth it. I do enjoy a jazz or symphony concert from time to time, but the settings are different in that they are in a concert hall or outdoors.

For me no more rock concerts - no more sports venues.

If you get close enough, please tell Carrie I love her.

I love her too.

This was the Darkness on the Edge of Town tour. That was the next album after he hit it big with Born to Run.

I have been to a number of loud rock concerts but this one I remember because I walked out and felt like my head was wrapped in a bale of cotton. That feeling took a few hours to go away. This was in a large concrete barn auditorium.

Nowadays I think the sound systems and acoustics have gotten a lot better. They must have figured out how to eliminate the ragged frequencies, if you could call them that.

in a better way. I don't know how to say it better either. I think what freaked me out the other night was the high pitched frequencies from the feedback. I've never experienced noises so shrieking before. I'm not a sound expert and don't know how to describe it in better technical language, but that's what I'm trying to say.

Regular concert goers judged that the best sound balance was usually to be heard from within large concrete bunkers some thirty-seven miles away from the stage, whilst the musicians themselves played their instruments by remote control from within a heavily insulated spaceship which stayed in orbit around the planet - or more frequently around a completely different planet.

sP

I read the first line of your reply thinking that it sure looked familiar. I'll have to dig those books out again.

tried to make it post 42 and just missed

sP

It was also the only concert where I landed on the floor at one point.

About 5 people immediately helped me up.



But, my ears were ringing for days. I definitely have permanent hearing damage from that show.

Fun fact: I'm going to see Ministry in May!!!

This time I'm bringing earplugs.

when you see them again. Enjoy!

The original Mahavishnu Orchestra in a medium sized theater and The Dictators in a club. Head rang for a couple of days after both of 'em.

early 70s

My folkie friends thought he was a folksinger, and went to the concert. Me, the rock fan, turned it down. I thought "didn't he play with Miles Davis and all that?" This did not compute.

They came back traumatized.

and I became a big fan of the Mahavishnu Orchestra that played there. "Ever-Mounting Flame".

well hell. I also turned down opportunities to see Cream and Hendrix as well ...

Mid eighties at L'Amour's in Brooklyn, even with earplugs my ears were ringing. The club was empty before the second set. They used their stadium amps in a small club. My sons are Metal fans now and are amused that I saw Judas Priest, Metallica, Maiden, Scorpions And Twisted Sister in my 20's.

They were so loud we couldn't identify which song they were playing. We left.

Is he still with the band? I haven't heard a KMFDM album in a while.

I saw him in Atlanta in 1968 before that and thought it was loud but it didn't compare. In 1969 I saw a British power trio called Bach-Handel in Paris, France in a small club in which they'd jammed several Orange amps. That one was loud for the small room.

Very cool.

so pretty sure was same concert. It was a high school field trip!!

Loudest probably were MC5 at Fillmore West.

Blue Cheer at original Fillmore and Fillmore West.

Grand Funk Railroad at Winterland (but Santana was better that night by far).

Holy crap my ears were ringing for like a week straight after watching that show, but it kicked ass though!

Cool to know that their show in L.A. kicked ass!

They are easily one of the loudest bands you'll ever see. I could feel the walls at Staples Center shaking.

so I never forget them at a concert any longer.

I do the same thing and also keep a big jar of disposables for other people, just in case.
I have 3 shows in 4 days next week and am debating seeing The Swans as well.
My feet will be hurting...

Next tour by A.M. I am going. And I'm taking my fifteen-year-old with me.

AC/DC, Ozzie... Monsters of Rock.

as their loudest show.

I didn't go (thank god!) but still heard it at my house 22 miles away! It got a LOT of complaints to the police and the city!

more than once. Seen them in big coliseums and little House of Blues and it's always crazy loud.

Bolt Thrower is probably a pretty close second but I've only seen them twice and both times I was up against the stage right in front of a speaker stack so it's not a fair comparison. Motörhead was ear-pain loud even from the back of the room.

Repugnant, Repulsion and Wormed all gave it the old college try though.

I'm sure all of them have contributed to my tinnitus.

for motorhead!

I didn't technically do it on purpose...at least this time. But I love Motorhead and at some point I did look up the alt-key code and used it and I guess Chrome remembered it - but it doesn't always do it and I have no idea when or why it will. It's definitely more Motörheadly with the umlaut...

At least 3 or 4.

They must be very very very loud.

Like, amp to 11 loud.

The Turbo Lover tour.

Saw them at the Charlotte coliseum and the bass was rattling the rafters

When they raised KK Downing and Glen Tipton withing five feet of the rafters and they ripped a ten minute back and forth solo....juat amazing....add the bass and it was the loudest thing i ever heard in my life

But I saw AC/DC at the Charlotte coliseum and now that I think about it, the cannons in For Those About To Rock might be the single loudest couple seconds at any show I've seen. But overall Motörhead is still loudest for me for a whole show.

A very cool guy who did their sound system. He also did the Dead's sound system after they were busted in New Orleans (Truckin').

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Heil#Major_tours

that played the hockey rinks. They were designed to do on thing: be earth-shatteringly loud without distorting. Supposedly Grand Funk were insanely loud live and I think they were one of Heil's first project bands.

IIRC Heil's systems were the Dead's inspiration for having Ron Wickersham of Alembic create the legendary Wall of Sound system. Wish I had heard that.

People were rushing the stage in the aisles, because that was the custom. I went into the aisles because I couldn't see the Who because everyone was standing on their seats.

The crowd rushed the stage, I went with the flow, and ended up right in front of Pete Townsend and his wall of amplifiers.

I won't get fooled again.

And I had stuffed so much TP into my ears, it had to be flushed out by a doctor the following day

& party every day.
Not rock n roll all night & see an ear specialist the next day.

A friend wanted me to go with her. We had to find new seats during the first song. Left early, cause the whole concert sucked. I don't even like Megadeath at all. Alice Cooper I liked okay in the old Schools Out days when I was 13.

On edit.. 1983. I kinda quit going to concerts in the late 70's but saw a handful in the 80's.

Especially for a band you don't like.

ZZ Top with Sammy Hagar, and Foghat opening in '82. Both shows were at the old Hollywood Sportatorium on the eastern edge of the Florida Everglades. This place was a huge echo chamber. I was in the second row for ZZ Top and they were so loud I couldn't make out what they were playing. The Uriah Heep show gave me an instant headache. I couldn't tell what they were playing either. If you're going to any kind of concert where they have a large sound system you should always pack ear plugs. There's no need to injure your ears. The old Sportatorium was torn down years ago. I got tear-gassed at a Rush Concert there in 1981. I was the only one walking upwind through the cloud so I wouldn't have to deal with it twice. Everyone around me was panicking. I guess I just didn't understand the situation?

relieved they tore that venue down. They're like 'Thank goodness, no more Foghat & tear gas.'

Just one long deafening roar.

That's a funny paradox but I know exactly what you mean.

Yeah, I can imagine Tool in concert being super loud.

I've only ever seen Tool at large venues like the Nokia Theater. Their last show I think I paid like $95 to see them.

toss up

I'm impressed a bunch of DUers have seen them live. Great band.

Late 60s. So loud I couldn't really hear it- it just went through me.

Ears still a-branginginging!

head banging in the mosh pit!

What did me in was, Perry was crowdsurfing
& one of his Cordovans caught me in the windpipe
and I sounded like Alfalfa ever since.