That real? I mean why stop at 10?
Seriously, first sound quality, then volume - otherwise it's not \m/ but
Obviously I wasn't there, but that's what he said happened. Seeing how he told his company that he's doesn't want to work that cruise again I'd say there's something to it.
Why stop at 10? I guess because it wasn't a Spinal Tap tour?
I think he said it was called something like 50000 Tons of Metal.
HA! That story cracked me up. I guess that's one way of getting what you want.
I totally agree that many shows, especially nowadays, are way too loud, and can cause harm to peoples' hearing. I remember when Motorhead played on the Tonight Show, they announced (on air, nonetheless) that there were earplugs under every seat for the audience to use. It's so easy to do; I have never experienced harmful effects of loud music while wearing earplugs. Rather than trying to legislate everything, how about we promote common sense?
I definitely agree with promoting common sense. But common sense on the part of all involved - concertgoers, bands, promoters, venues, etc. - would be wonderful. Like I said earlier, I like loud as much as anyone, but even back when I was young and stupid I realized there was a point where you just have to say "Enough!". So many times my ears rang and my head was pounding the day after a concert.
Someone a few pages back mentioned The Smithereens. I saw them in a small venue in Philly several years ago and holy crap were they loud! I've been to a lot of shows in that venue and never heard a band that loud there, so I suspect that was them. I'd give them another chance just because I really like them, but my wife has no interest in seeing them again after that experience. I also saw Living Colour in a small club before they broke and they were so loud we left. That was a shame because I really like them. Another insanely loud one that comes to mind was Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush opening for Rush. Rush sounded fine but Frank Marino was so off the charts loud you couldn't tell what they were playing. It was reduced to pure mush at that ridiculous volume level, which was made even worse by being in that kind of old basketball/hockey arena (The Spectrum in Philly).
On the other hand, I've seen plenty of large venue shows (10,000+) where there sound was excellent. I remember Kansas in their prime having AMAZING sound, plenty of volume and every voice and instrument perfectly mixed (yes, even in The Spectrum). Genesis and Yes have also had some great sound as well. I never saw them at their arena-playing peak, but I saw Foghat in a really small venue before Dave Peverett died. I was expecting them to be earbleedingly loud but was surprised at how good their sound was. I mentioned the drummer I play with in my previous post. I saw a Jeff Beck / ZZ Top show two years ago when he was doing FOH on that tour and he got me and my brother passes so we could sit at the board with him. The show was in a large outdoor amphitheater in Atlanta and that was one of the best outdoor sounds I've heard. It was also kind of cool when they played songs that we play and he'd pass me a set of headphones so I could hear Dusty solo'd and ask me if I could make my bass sound like that on those songs.
