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Criminally loud concerts

#282
I live outside a very large retirement community in Florida. They sometimes bring in classic rock and tribute acts and because of the age of the citizens the volume levels are always rather low...and you know what...it usually sounds really really good. Just saw Foghat and it was loud enough to give it some energy but you could still talk to the person next to you without screaming..and it sounded great.

I've been to so many metal and hard rock shows that have been painfully loud and sounded like a messy wall of noise. Makes me not want to go to many live metal shows anymore.
 
#283
HolmeBass said:
Gibb played loud! Often two Fender Super Twins cranked all the way up. Thankfully someone got him to stop pointing them right at the audience, but it was still always very loud. Doug Wanamaker played the organ, he's a buddy of mine, still plays with Indecision. He's an incredible player.
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I was that guy! I saw him one night before in Richmond (at the old Flood Zone), and it was so stupid loud most of the crowd was pinned against the back wall or hiding in the balcony. I found Gibb after the show and told him about the volume, and he was not at all happy about it. The next night, at the 8x10 Club in Baltimore, he announced after the first song that they were going to turn around some amps because "they didn't want to hurt anybody's ears." (I still have a tape of that show somewhere....)

BTW, Gibb's keyboard player for years was Pete Mathis. I don't recall ever seeing Doug Wanamaker play with him. If that happened, it was probably a one-off sub gig.
 
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#284
Last summer, I saw Jackyl at Thunder In The Valley Motorcycle Festival in Johnstown, PA. It was an outdoor concert. My bandmate and I decided to stand at the normally "sweet spot" right behind the mixing board. We were fairly far from the stage. As much as we like some volume and oomph at a concert; we both thought it was way louder than necessary. Many people were leaving because of the extreme volume. It was so loud that there were no dynamics either. Everything was just one solid massive volume. I can't imagine how the people closer could stand it. I have been to hundreds of concerts since 1960s and Jackyl was definitely the loudest show I ever attended.
 
#285
Honch said:
Oh dear, have you been living under a rock recently? They did chatter as much, like these days, but these daysnot at all between each other but on their cell phones, either through texting or actually tries to get heard over the phones.
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Well respectfully it WAS different back in the 60's, at least the part I experienced. My first rock concert was in 1968. Rascals, Animals, Tommy James Hollywood Bowl. My grandparents took me. I was 12. My grandparents were philharmonic musical theatre folks. I still remember my grandmother remarking on the way home in the car how polite she thought the audience was. Admittedly that wasn't a very hardcore show but still.

I've seen nearly 300 concerts since then. I noticed that things really changed in the 80's. I remember a friend coming back from a big Police festival gig and saying, "the entire audience sang along with EVERY word of of EVERY song." I never really saw that in the 60's and 70's. The whole cultural perception about what a rock concert was supposed to be changed. At some point the audience came to believe that they were as important as the artist. I still believe there's a reason that an artist's name is on the marquee and mine isn't.

I do feel that the prevalence of cannabis and other hallucinogens had a lot to do with audiences being mellower for the most part. Those drugs lend themselves to a sort of introspectiveness. Whereas alcohol tends to strip away inhibitions, which can cause some folks to be totally focused on whether they are having a good time, to the exclusion of the social graces that are necessary for a shared experience to work. It only takes a handful of bad drunks to completely ruin a show for hundreds if not thousands of people.

But you're spot on about cellphones enabling a whole other level of narcissism.
 
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#287
Richland123 said:
Last summer, I saw Jackyl at Thunder In The Valley Motorcycle Festival in Johnstown, PA. It was an outdoor concert. My bandmate and I decided to stand at the normally "sweet spot" right behind the mixing board. We were fairly far from the stage. As much as we like some volume and oomph at a concert; we both thought it was way louder than necessary. Many people were leaving because of the extreme volume. It was so loud that there were no dynamics either. Everything was just one solid massive volume. I can't imagine how the people closer could stand it. I have been to hundreds of concerts since 1960s and Jackyl was definitely the loudest show I ever attended.
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Wouldn't the name "MOTORCYCLE FESTIVAL" being that tell tale? Have you even heard ONE motorcycle, how loud it can be? Think of how many at a festival sounds, and how much you have to play louder in order to trump these... ;)
 
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#288
Lobster11 said:
I was that guy! I saw him one night before in Richmond (at the old Flood Zone), and it was so stupid loud most of the crowd was pinned against the back wall or hiding in the balcony. I found Gibb after the show and told him about the volume, and he was not at all happy about it. The next night, at the 8x10 Club in Baltimore, he announced after the first song that they were going to turn around some amps because "they didn't want to hurt anybody's ears." (I still have a tape of that show somewhere....)

BTW, Gibb's keyboard player for years was Pete Mathis. I don't recall ever seeing Doug Wanamaker play with him. If that happened, it was probably a one-off sub gig.
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Doug quit Indecision for a while to play with Gibb. I am pretty sure they worked together for at least a few years.
 
#289
In the first 5 pages alone:

- 3 posts where is was so loud that people walked out of concerts where they had paid good money to see the band.
- 24 posts where people mentioned hearing damage lasting multiple days and pain
- 7 posts where people said it was so loud you could not make out the music

And still some people don't see an issue?
 
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#290
Lobster11 said:
I was that guy! I saw him one night before in Richmond (at the old Flood Zone), and it was so stupid loud most of the crowd was pinned against the back wall or hiding in the balcony. I found Gibb after the show and told him about the volume, and he was not at all happy about it. The next night, at the 8x10 Club in Baltimore, he announced after the first song that they were going to turn around some amps because "they didn't want to hurt anybody's ears." (I still have a tape of that show somewhere....)
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Deeflex for him?

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Here's how Eric Johnson does it - these days (incredibly loud too):

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Don't know if you can see, but a huge black blanket pulled over something the size of an acoustic upright piano (probably some flight case) and you can barerly detect the edge of his Marshall stack to the left of the Fender Twins. I hope he hasn't got anyone standing in the wings. Here's it is more visible, all his line up of amps slightly turned aiming at the side of the stage:

maxresdefault.jpg
 
#292
buldog5151bass said:
In the first 5 pages alone:

- 3 posts where is was so loud that people walked out of concerts where they had paid good money to see the band.
- 24 posts where people mentioned hearing damage lasting multiple days and pain
- 7 posts where people said it was so loud you could not make out the music

And still some people don't see an issue?
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It is. Once it has happened in Sweden that people got their money back. Since it wasn't the major part of an audience, it was those inexperienced who didn't think they had to use/bring earplugs. You just need to get to one concert and then think like "oh, for the rest of the concerts I'll wear them". Outdoors it's a little shady rules, because you really can walk away to places that are less loud. And it's mostly one or two bands. I know that Sweden Rock Festival is now some sort of "senior" thing with families coming and they won't let any youngster under 12 in without parental guidance AND ear protection. If you have kids you have to show them that you got these KIDS PROTETCTION ear buds with you the large ones, and if anyone in the staff notices that you're carrying around a little toddler without those ones on during ANY concert, never mind that if you're far from the stage you'll get thrown out and no chance of getting in again. I've seen this happens, but really, how fun it is to be babysitting at a concert? Any? Really. Thinking that you can pull off both things, and have to leave anyway if the toddler turns cranky. And belive me, NO TODDLER thinks it's fun. At all. Parental advisory: No your kid doesn't want to be there, and doesn't like heavy metal as of yet.

if they don't wearing these all...
41Lz5M72XxL.jpg

You have no excuses for being a parent anyway...
 
#293
Honch said:
Wouldn't the name "MOTORCYCLE FESTIVAL" being that tell tale? Have you even heard ONE motorcycle, how loud it can be? Think of how many at a festival sounds, and how much you have to play louder in order to trump these... ;)
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No, there are not many motorcycles in the area where the main stage is located. I have been there every year (and, also I play there every year) and it was just way louder than any other band that ever played there before. I have seen several national acts on that stage before. The headliner this year is .38 Special.
 
#295
My top 3 loudest shows:

1) Van Halen 1984/Cow Palace-only concert that had my ears ringing
2) The Allman Brothers/Warfield Theater 1994-I believe these shows are legendary for over the top loudness
3) Exodus April 1990 on Good Friday the 13th-I Beam on Haight St. I think it was a record release club date.
 
#298
Charlzm said:
I was about 23 when I saw Leatherwolf at The Country Club in Reseda. It was so loud that the insides of my ears tickled and the sheer noise was painful, crackling and distorted. I tried stuffing some toilet paper in my ears, but it didn't help at all.

Very shortly after, I started wearing earplugs to every single show.

We always kept band rehearsal as quiet as we could but I would often wear my plugs then, too.

Now I'm 52 and I have suffered some hearing loss, but it's not nearly as bad as it could have been.
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I imagine this is the first time that Leatherwolf has been mentioned on this site. Very good first record.
 
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