Ear Bleeding Concert Volume - Latest Disaster, GBV at White Eagle Hall in NJ

Unless it’s a huge band with a traveling professional entourage, you can’t really blame the group for extreme volume or bad sound mix. It varies from venue to venue.

Yes, the big bands have a dedicated sound engineer that travels with them from gig to gig, but that’s expensive for bands without huge followings.

And the band often doesn’t know what they sound like from the audience perspective — they have a separate stage mix that’s often not as loud as what’s blasting towards the audience. Musicians often have to go on faith that the sound person knows what they’re doing. And because you’re at the mercy of the sound man, they can quite literally ruin your show if you piss them off.

So you do have to take hearing protection into your own hands.

(Brought to you by my years of experience playing gigs in grimy LA bars and clubs.)

 

I always wondered, doesn't the band know how bad they sound to the audience?

Some memorable loudness:
Prince around 05 or 06 . in the round. I was so looking forward to the show because of the quality of his musicians and the musical arrangements. It was an unbearable din - except for his guitar solos. You could hear the solo but it was painful

Costello in the mid 90's show I saw was unbearable and I have seen him more times then I can remember

Deep Purple in 73. I was in the 9th or 10th row directly in front of Jon Lord's organ. Earsplitting and painful.

One band that I have seen numerous times that should by all rights be loud and painful but is not is Social Distortion. They always have had immaculate sound at acceptable volume levels.

I used plugs for a long time. I got them at Sam Ash but don't recall the brand. But as a previous poster said, ticket prices have mostly kept me out of the concert game. The value is not there anymore for us. 200-300 for a pair of tickets and parking, a few beers etc. No thanks. We have an outdoor amphitheater here that we will go to sometimes. They have a lawn section and tickets are usually 25-40 bucks. And, the sound is tolerable to great. Green Day was fair sound but as expected, Steely Dan was perfect.

 

Have never used earplugs and I've been going to concerts and auto races for 40 years. No issues for me. I can only recall one show where I wish I had them, Yngwie Malmsteen in 1988 I think.

 

Who are CATCS, some metalcore band?

 

I take earplugs EVERYWHERE.
I am over sensitive, I know.
But I really enjoy being able to shut off that awful chanting noise at the supermarket!
And the mechanical space lounge ambient "music" at restaurants!
And the simply stupid Rap music at the Pizza parlour!
It's like being "assaulted" taking your life in your hands just leaving the house nowadays.
Think I'll sit here and maybe listen to some vinyl.
AAAAhhhhhhhh.

 

Swans, yikes can't even imagine that volume. I had most of their albums but NEVER wanted to see them

 

Ha, I saw them a few years ago, and it just happened to be at a venue that’s kind enough to keep a big jar of free earplugs at the bar.

 

Last concert I went to was Summer of 2003. I saw Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Sigour Ros open for Bjork in a minor league baseball stadium in Coney Island. Sound was great, crowd was fine, and Bjork was fantastic. My only disappointment was I would have preferred to see the alternate opening acts she had on that tour, Peaches and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I pretty much promised myself that would be the last one since in order to see most of the shows I'm interested in, there's a great deal of travel involved. It's becoming not logistically possible.

As far as shows that pushed the pain threshold, Soul Asylum in the mid 90s. Honestly, I forget who the opening acts were, I just remember the volume increasing with each subsequent act and this was an open air venue! It was on a Sunday evening and my ears hurt through the week.

 

I didn't bring ear plugs and smoking wasn't allowed so I couldn't retrieve a couple of cigarette butts from the floor.

 

Crime and the City Solution

 

I hope they work well for you. There are a number of brands out there that work well, but I stick with Etymotics as their founder Mead Killion is a personal hero - an audiologist working to make hearing aids cheaper for everybody.

 

I get your point but I think you are letting bands off the hook. I've played many gigs where we've had plants (family/friends) in the crowd to let us know the volume level. Given the knowledge about hearing loss these days, I find it hard to believe that bands simply have no interest or say in volume control.

 

Funny (or not so much), GbV was the last club show I didn't wear earplugs to. This would've been the Universal Truths and Cycles tour. I don't recall it being overly loud but by the time GbV finished their nearly 3 hour set my ears were shot and I couldn't hear well for a week. Been wearing earplugs since unless it's a really mellow show. Rolled up toilet paper works fine in a pinch.

I've seen GbV twice since then and I will take the earplugs out to hear Bob's stage banter.

 

Here's a link to the Wall Street Journal article from 2004 where I learned about Dr. Killion's campaign for cheap hearing aids.

WSJ Article on Mead Killion's Fight for Affordable Hearing Aids

That's where I learned about "Hunter's Ears", hearing aid like devices sold for bow and gun hunters that boost the quiet sounds of an animal like a deer in the forest, yet can block loud noises like a shotgun. I've recommended them to friends with age-related hearing loss, and they've told me that the $200 hunter's ears outperformed $3000 hearing aids.

 

I second this recommendation. Etymotics are comfortable and very effective, with a good frequency balance. Road-tested by me at Swans, Acid Mothers Temple, My Bloody Valentine, Boris, and Sunn O))) shows, among others.

 

These bands do it for me! Came here to basically say just this LOL. One you missed though. Melvins. They are pretty loud. Hearing damage loud for sure. Killing Joke last time I saw them were fairly loud too! It is pretty worrying for me how many of these bands I adore just don't seem to care about their audiences ear health. Punter beware, bring your ear plugs.

 

As well as taking ear protection to concerts, we also need to be taking sound level meters in and posting the results. Level meters are inexpensive these days. I think concert promoters need to be held accountable for the OHS implications of excessive noise, and publicising quantifiable evidence will move it from one person's subjective "that was loud" to the attitude "we need to address this as a public health issue".

 

I extend it to sporting events and any other place where you may be at the mercy of volume crankers.

 

Yeh, belongs right up there with the published set list

 

I'll Second Mastodon here. Saw them for the first time on the mid-afternoon main stage slot at Download/Donington 2013 and they were fabulous. Thought I must see them on their own. 2014 Manchester Academy - utterly pointless.

The sound level was cranked so high that everything (vocals, guitar, bass, everything) was a painful, indistinct wall of sound. If you didn't guess the song from the opening couple of chords, you had no chance. Falling back to the sound desk at the back of the room didn't help. Towards the end of the main set the sweat was running down the walls, so they opened up the side doors of the main room. Outside was a subzero winters evening. Having gone in in just t shirt and jeans, icy blasting wind coupled with the sweat on top of the painful sound pressure and levels and I got out early. Ramones at London Astoria in 1995 were loud (pleasantly so, even with a day or two of ear ringing) but that Mastodon show was unpleasant and is pretty much the only show I've left early for any reason.

Great band but that night they were indistinguishable from a white noise generator cranked to unsafe sound pressure levels.

 

My tinnitus started 10 years after (no, not the band) stopping going to gigs and playing twice a week in bands. Please look after your hearing, you will really regret 40 years of tinnitus.

In 25 years of playing in bands, how many times were we asked to turn up? Twice!! Once was at a bikers bash, and at the end the organiser told us at the end how many had commented about the good sound!

I've seen half a pub listen to a band outside the pub, my wife and I certainly did simply because the band was too loud. They were our friends, were very good and we liked the music - not one person stayed within 15 feet of the stage!

Ian McNabb playing an accoustic set, had that hard metallic, just on the edge of feedback sound that was horrendous. I went to the front of the stage bypassing the PA, listening via the stage monitors.

I often wonder if the musicians have the remotest idea of how awful they can sound out front.

Were the band good to watch? Don't know, listened behind the fire safety doors at the bar!

 

I'm sorry to hear about the bad sound. It took several years for the renovations to be completed at White Eagle Hall, but it looks like a beautiful ballroom venue and I've heard nothing but good things about it.

I can only assume that GbV had their own sound man who thought it was a good idea to dial it up to 11. The sound man may not get the full impact in that recessed booth, being sandwiched between the mezzanine walls...

 

I'm not much of a Metallica fan, but I've seen them twice, both times at the Bridge Benefit, where, of course, they were required to play acoustic instruments. I enjoyed both shows because of the interesting covers that they played, but was struck by the fact---particularly in the second show---that they didn't play very well. Not every electric band makes the transition to acoustic with ease, but they were inept.

 

Never used ear plugs but wish I did for my only New York Dolls show... didn't enjoy the show at all because of the volume...

 

Agree in theory, but you know "plug-wearers" are in the severe minority at concerts, right?

I'd be surprised if more than 5% of concert-goers wear them...