Not necessarily because they are often outdoors and most of the audience is further away from the PA.
Not necessarily. The Badfinger concert was in a small club … 200-250 capacity and the T Rex at the Hollywood Palladium was around 4000. All the big outdoor show throughout the 70-90s or large arena (LA Forum) seemed much more balanced.
Aerosmith Augusta, ME 1983 ... was my second show not long after my first, The Who... Van Halen on their 1984 tour in Worcester, MA... painfully loud Motorhead ..Orgasmatron tour 86. shocked I can still hear after that one.... That last show prompted me to get my hearing tested and thankfully confirmed that there were no signs of any long term damage.
Ha not quite the same, but apparently I saw Pavement (they were the headliners) at Liverpool Sound City 99 and have absolutely no recollection of it whatsoever, though I remember getting the bus to get there. Very strange.
No contest: Whitesnake — April 27, 1990 — Met Center, Bloomington MN Went at the last minute because a friend who liked them wanted to see them — nosebleed seats, about as far from the stage as you could get: we could not hear each other after the show. Had to shout on the drive home. I honestly don't think my ears ever fully recovered. I've seen tons of shows with loud bands at smaller venues — been right in front of Bob Mould's blasting amps many times — so I don't know if it was the acoustics in the old Met Center, or if Whitesnake's sound system was just that over the top, but HOLY SMOKES, that concert was 31 years ago and my ears still ring in sympathy for their younger selves anytime I think about that show!
I don’t recall the loudest, but I do remember most of bands that make my list and they share a venue in common. For most of the 80s, Boston had a very active venue called The Channel. A converted warehouse just off the waterfront. Saw Motörhead there twice, John Entwistle, and the Ramones (and lots of punk shows too), all very loud. You got near the PA stacks on either side of the stage, oh boy! Didn’t have the best site lines unless you were in front, but lots of good music there (at often lower decibels).
I don't go to loud concerts as a rule, but in 1983 a couple of friends and I were out looking for something to do on a Saturday night and we managed to sneak into a Def Leppard concert. I was in there perhaps 10 minutes before I had to leave. My ears rang for three days afterward.
Deep Purple in Wembley Arena in 1975. Hawkwind were bloody loud at Cardiff Castle also in '75. I think Purple were louder as it was an indoor concert. Quo at Wembley Area were loud too, once again 1975.
Led Zeppelin, 1972 Buffalo Memorial Auditorium with an honourable mention to the late great Johnny Winter.
I couldn't tell you. I'm not particularly a fan, although I enjoyed the show. It was at a festival in March of '16.
The Walkmen at The Shelter in Detroit. The straw that broke the camel’s back - my hearing has not been the same!
I wasn't there, but online YouTube comments on Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theater London Calling tour show document the extreme volume AND the band showing up at the Johnny Thunders show later that night.
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Smoked too much dope beforehand and freaked out watching at Siouxsie Sioux on stage. It was a bad night.
Neil Young and Crazy Horse at the Cow Palace south of San Francisco. Rust Never Sleeps tour. 22 October 1978. Neil came out and played Sugar Mountain on acoustic guitar and the volume of that song was mind blowing. Once Crazy Horse came on and they started shredding it went into the stratosphere. The upside? An extremely powerful sound system that did not go into distortion (aside from what Neil et al were inducing on their ends). The downside? My ears rang for a couple of days. Not good at all. I wish I'd had protection. Better yet, keep the volume cool. Loud, but not deafeningly loud. Bill