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Loudest Bands

#41
In a small venue, OM was easily the loudest, followed by High on Fire, and then Dead Meadow.

In a large venue, I've got to go with either Phish, Tool, or the Mars Volta, but that has more to do with the reverberations of a big arena than actual stage volume, I think.
 
#42
Not sure who is loudest, or when.

Seems to me, at least in the smaller venues, things are a LOT louder than 30 or 40 years ago.

The PA speakers and amps are much more powerful, and people are no smarter.

Expect to see bands exceeding 140 dB regularly.

Saturn launch.
 
#43
Sam Black Church in a place that held about 100-150 people was pretty horrendous. Also Nile at the Palladium in Worcester MA. It wasn't even fun anymore. The worst I ever dealt with was any band playing in the central Maine Civic center. PLAce has the acoustics of a gigantic dumpster. Saw the Melvins opening for Tool there and it was the most painful experience of my life. It didn't help that the entire 45 minute or so set was entirely mindless racket. From that day forward I have ground my teeth at the mere mention of the Melvins.
 
#45
AC/DC on the Back in Black tour.... a little background for yah... at the time I lived in a medium sized town, a couple of hours from Toronto. This stop on the Back in Black tour was really just a warm up for their North AMerican tour... work out the bugs on a small audience and make sure everything is working, before we hit the stadiums...
So they had their entire Stadium sound system up and running in a venue that only held 5000 people, including everyone standing (read hockey arena). I was in the front row, general admission tickets and it was incredibly painful it was so loud. The gong in Hell's Bells solved my constipation issues immediately!
Actually, it was so loud that between songs when Brian Johnson spoke to the audience, we could not hear what he was saying... it simply hurt too much.
I ended up stuffing tissues in my ears and only after that, was I able to understand Brians audience chatter... barely!
A close 2nd for me was Blue Oyster Cult opening for Black Sabbath, at Joe Lewis arena in Detroit. The BOC boys were loud, but when Sabbath hit the stage, I was pretty sure that I would never be able to father children from that point foward... and I have seen the Who a few times, but only at out door shows... still pretty loud!
Fishheadjoe
 
#46
daystcity said:
+1 to the atmosphere, seeing sunn, holy crap. When they hit the first note my breath got shorter and faster. It was uncomfortable to breathe deeply due to the oscillations in amplitude. I lost track of the time, I stopped paying attention to the music and just felt it and stood there. The coolest parts were the silence (of sorts). At the end, I couldn't stop smiling for 15 minutes. During one of the parts all the members ring out a solid note in high feedback and I look up from my zone to see and feel this, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A2LWIHCsI4
Click to expand...

I know you said this clip doesn't do them justice but I don't get these guys at all. I watched a few other clips as well. They look like a bunch of punk *** Death Eaters trying to be brutal. :ninja:
 
#48
My vote is for Slipnklot face it manowar is good and so is GWAR but, they don't have 3 drummers, 2 guitarists, a bassist, a DJ, or one of the best and most recognizable metal vocalist in modern metal Corey Taylor either.

I mean it's nine guys each all blasting out metal on a nightly basis breaking eardrums and snaping necks.
 
#51
Definitely not the loudest ever, but when I saw Velvet Revolver a few summers back with Alice in Chains they were insanely loud(and this was an outdoor gig where I was easily 60 yards back). It was nothing but boomy mud coming through the speakers. Alice in Chains, OTOH, sounded PERFECT. You could hear everything and it was more than loud enough to rock out to, but not loud enough to cause your ears to bleed.

In all honesty, I only think VR played as loud as they did to try and outshine AIC. Cant blame them either because most people were there for Alice :p
 
#52
Perhaps not the loudest, but Between the Buried and me is loud without stopping for an entire album. It's one thing for AC/DC to blast you and then give you a reprieve, but Between just tears and tears and tears.
 
#53
Saw Van Halen in '81 and Def Lep in late '82 and nothing compared in volume. Both went on to be very poppy right afterwards. When EVH did his solo, 10,000 people had their fingers in their ears. I walked across in front of the stage at one point, and Michael Anthony's bass stacks would blow your clothing. It was freaking thumping. You couldn't even hear Eddie in front of him. When he threw his Yamaha bass on the ground and jumped on it, it was beautiful... Saw Yngwie once and he came out and ran his fingers under all his knobs and all was on 10. Two Marshall heads just blew up when we hit the first note. He was so loud I couldn't even hear Iron Maiden afterwards. Yngwie may have been the most annoying rock guitarist ever. He didn't even have a bass player at that gig. I mean ***?
 
#54
... I have LONG ago stopped going to loud shows as I don't find them amusing anymore.
During the 80's I went to alot of metal shows.. THE loudest concert I ever heard was Pink Floyd at Foxbourgh Stadium.. maybe the sound wasn't as loud because it didn't have the sheakingly loud guitars but I do know I felt the ground shake and it knocked many a people standing on thier chairs off of them... the stage actually seemed like it exploded and the first 50 rows of people fell completely over.
I remember the feeling of an earthquake though the ground actually shook and was hard to stand.
 
#57
Awesome idea:
The Worlds QUIETEST Rock Band!!!
We will play unplugged electric instruments (electric drums as well) and only take gigs in large venues (i.e. stadiums, etc.).

Who's with me!!!!


.... Okay, maybe not an awesome idea... but definitely an idea.
 
#59
swspiers said:
the loudest, most painful experience for me was seeing Torche supporting dredg in Santa Cruz a few months ago. With earplugs in that cut 10dB's, it was painful beyond description. I have no idea what the measurement was, and don't care. Love the band, but I'm DONE with admiring loudness...
Click to expand...

You think they were loud on THAT tour? I saw them at Dudefest 2008 when they still had two guitar players. Loudest band I had heard at the time. I've since seen bands far louder than them (Zoroaster, Sunn, Eagle Twin, etc...) but Torche still blows me away every time I see them.
 
#60
krovx said:
I know you said this clip doesn't do them justice but I don't get these guys at all. I watched a few other clips as well. They look like a bunch of punk *** Death Eaters trying to be brutal. :ninja:
Click to expand...

I just watched and had the same response.. seems.. kinda.. hokey. Doesn't help that they took an amplifier brand for a band name.

I'm going to call my drone metal doom band:
Aguilar O)))
 

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