The biggest sound from 3 man instrumental band u2 who or zeppelin

James Gang

 

For the early days, before giant amp/speaker combos and stage monitors, I vote for The Who, Cream and the JHE.

 

The Police... three fabulous musicians playing nice and loud

 

Yes.
From the OP:

 

Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Rush

No one comes close to them

 

Coming onto this forum I never have to wait too long for the stupidity of people to be displayed in full view

 

US Maple. Not only were they the finest rock band in the history of the genre, they've actually made music this century.
Storm & Stress come close.

 

Between these three I'd pick Zeppelin, but none of them sound as big as King's X.

 

Sleater-Kinney

What about a 3 WOman instrumental band?

 

Blue Cheer were supposedly the loudest band of their time.

 

Yeah ELP - no prog BS here, listen to Pictures and you will get your ass kicked hard. Screw the guitar Keith made keys in 1970 sound like a damn monster.

YMO also fits here - did their live band consist of the main three? Either way the debut is a wall of sound despite it being all overdubbed.

 

White Stripes? Royal Blood? Oh wait, only two players in those bands . . .

 

Motörhead?

 

I've seen Dinosaur Jr starting in the 80s through last year and enough to say that they have probably cost me at least 10% of my hearing, but for me nothing matches The Who in their heyday. Both Entwistle and Moon are in the conversation for the best ever with their instruments and the tightness of the three of them was amazing.

Second for me is Mission of Burma, although they cheated a bit......

Just one additional shout out to the New Bomb Turks. Destroy - Oh Boy! is the best hour of rock and roll you can listen to in 40 minutes.

 

Yep! Early GFR would have to be in the discussion!

 

or U-Zep.^^

 

Again, we are not talking pure volume...