NationStates Jolt Archive

The kind of gig that makes you miss your bus stop three days later. That renders you unable to eat soup or cereal for a week. A real turn it up to 11 one to which doctors will later attribute your internal organ rupture.

I've heard Mogwai are such a band, and they're playing Friday (I'm seeing a rather quieter act) so, in their honour, this thread.

For me, it would be My Bloody Valentine at The Roundhouse in 2007. I can't imagine what they were like in their prime. Forget cracking glasses, I think it made the doorman's head explode.

What's the loudest gig you've seen?

Well, I don't know if this counts, but I went to a club the other day but was right by the speaker for the duration of it, which caused a lot of ringing the next day, more so than any gig. As for loudest actual band, I think it was this local ska band, the piercing sound of the brass, going through a microphone, is a real bitch.

The second loudest club night I've been to was Simian Mobile Disco at Fabric (in fair Londonistan). The loudest was in Berlin, and I don't know the name of the act or the club, but it was wirklich insane.

Pelican at Birmingham Barfly last December. After waiting in the freezing cold for an hour because they opened the doors late, we found that inside wasn't much warmer. The main band playing were High on Fire, so most people were there for them and we were right at the front to see Pelican, right by the speakers. They're reasonably bass-y and loud on record, but that is absolutely nothing to how they sound live. That was a Saturday night (I think, might have been Friday) and I still couldn't hear properly for the ringing in my ears at work on the Monday morning.

Second place goes to Youthmovies at an all-dayer in Leicester around Easter '07.

QoD - you're going to the Mogwai gig? You say that's for a quieter band - would that be Fuck Buttons or Errors? And Mogwai weren't really that loud when I saw them...loud, yes, but not on a really epic scale.

Man, I'd love to see Pelican. The Fire in our Throats... is a cool album.QoD - you're going to the Mogwai gig? You say that's for a quieter band - would that be Fuck Buttons or Errors? And Mogwai weren't really that loud when I saw them...loud, yes, but not on a really epic scale.No, sorry, I fail at writing clearly. I'm not going to the Mogwai gig - I'm seeing Aimee Mann that night. But I am going to Mogwai's arches party that night, where Errors and Fuck Buttons are doing DJ sets. And Caribou (Manitoba) is also on! I bought the Aimee Mann tickets before I realized the Mogwai gig was that night, or I would have tried to get tickets to them instead.

Man, I'd love to see Pelican. The Fire in our Throats... is a cool album.
Well, you might be waiting a while...they toured the UK last month. :p

I was hoping to go see Mogwai again, especially with FB and Errors supporting, but circumstances conspired against me. Damn.

Can't stand Aimee Mann, though.

Well, you might be waiting a while...they toured the UK last month.Ha, I hadn't even heard of them last month.
Can't stand Aimee Mann, though.
That's ok. Everyone's got to be wrong about something.

In high school, they called all the students in the school to the auditorium for a mandatory meeting. There was a band waiting there as a "reward", which (naturally) had their systems set for a much larger area.

I felt as if I was nearly deaf when it finally ended.

When I saw Jarboe, one of the openers was Karl Heinz, who played a keyboard. So it was basically incredibly loud keyboard effects.
When I saw Celtic Frost, I was standing by the speaker, and may or may not have damaged my hearing.

Lightning Bolt.

Irresponsibly and stupidly loud.

Forget cracking glasses, I think it made the doorman's head explode.

When I saw Sunn0))) a few years back it was basically tides of low end sweeping up and down the venue, punctuated only by the frequent crash of pint glasses being shaken off their tables.

That night the bar staff spent most of their time pushing the spirits bottles back onto the shelves, only for them to creep their way forward again and again.

Skid Row. Small club, all rock.

The Who, 1980 - Oakland Colliseum Arena (indoors).

My ears were ringing a day after the show. At the time the Who held the record for loudest performers.

We had floor seats 26 rows back from the stage.

Berlin, the Morgenrot. Punk Rock in a cellar. no more words needed.

GlassJAw headliner, with American Nightmare and the Blood Brothers. The kind of bass that makes your clothes flap. Deafness for days, though enough blows to the head in the pit can do that, too. Best show of my life.

The Who, 1980 - Oakland Colliseum Arena (indoors).

My ears were ringing a day after the show. At the time the Who held the record for loudest performers.

We had floor seats 26 rows back from the stage.

You, sir/madame, are awesome.

The Who, 1980 - Oakland Colliseum Arena (indoors).

My ears were ringing a day after the show. At the time the Who held the record for loudest performers.

We had floor seats 26 rows back from the stage.

You...Lucky...Bastard...

You...Lucky...Bastard...You wanna really hate me?


The pair of tickets cost me $20....

The only gigs I've been to have been ones that other people have dragged me along to. Thus I've had the "joys" of seeing B*witched at my student union and Athlete on tour a few years back. As for loud, at a gig in London where I found a band I really like (Fuck Buttons) I also unfortunately was subjected to all the other bands playing, a couple of whom were really bad grind bands. It was like "yeh, lets shout incoherently for twenty seconds. Wow, thats our first three songs done". So, yeh, all that continuous noise basically wrecked my ears...

The Dead Milkmen somewhere between 1990 and 1991 (God knows why - I never particularly liked them).

I was standing near the stage, and found myself squeezed next to one of the amps. I had to wrap a t-shirt around my head to protect my ears in a futile attempt to cushion the volume, but the level of sound still caused physical pain to my poor eardrums.

What's that sonny? What're you saying? Speak up now....

I hate all noise. And what sucks is a lot of monkeys love it, like on vehicles and all. And when they love it they're usually hard of hearing so they raise the volume. They have to go around advertising their primal chest thumping, a sad trait of society.

I try and avoid it, having studied the effects of very loud sounds on long-term hearing ability. Quite probably the incidence of early deafness and tinnitus will go up massively in the next 20 years.

As for loud, at a gig in London where I found a band I really like (Fuck Buttons) I also unfortunately was subjected to all the other bands playing, a couple of whom were really bad grind bands. It was like "yeh, lets shout incoherently for twenty seconds. Wow, thats our first three songs done". So, yeh, all that continuous noise basically wrecked my ears...

Now I happen to like grindcore, but every time I go out to enjoy the musical equivalent of concentrated rage live on stage, I do wear ear plugs. It's just healthier.

... but it was wirklich insane.
Wirklich wirklich?

Anyway, the loudest I've been to was Manowar. They're insulted if you don't put in you earplugs. And even then it's insanely loud. Louder than hell...

Maybe because it was my first concert (and I've been to a lot) but "The Guess Who" concert I saw in the mid 70s was pretty damm loud.

1981 - Hammersmith Apollo (aka Odeon) - The Bomber tour - Motörhead

Nuff said

1981 - Hammersmith Apollo (aka Odeon) - The Bomber tour - Motörhead

Nuff said

Ahhh fuck. I bet the live album doesn't compare, and that's one hell of a live album they put out. :hail:

What's the loudest gig you've seen?Misfits and their two opening bands. It hurt.
Tool a close second, only on their "intermission". And not the good Intermission, neither.

Tower of Power. Screw heavy metal -- weighty brass FTW.

My ears rang with the sound of close harmony played as tightly-fit and funky as it can be played. Oakland stroke, baby.

Screw heavy metal -- weighty brass FTW.Hello darkness, my old friend ...
Yeah, i did, however, kick my Billy & The Boingers Bootleg album up to eardrum-piercing decibles at a few parties (couldn't find my Deathtongue demo :( )
Record got ruined by some scratchers about a decade and a half later. *grits teeth*

Yeah, i did, however, kick my Billy & The Boingers Bootleg album up to eardrum-piercing decibles at a few parties (couldn't find my Deathtongue demo :( )
Record got ruined by some scratchers about a decade and a half later. *grits teeth*

Holy Anxiety Closet, Binkley! Another Bloom County fan! One of the few great things to come out of the 80s. Set phasers to "nostalgia".

Orange 9mm was quite loud. I had a ringing in my ears for days.

King Crimson. Probably not the loudest volume I've been exposed to per se, but I couldn't go home (I got a ride to the gig from someone else) and it wasn't safe to wait outside, so I sat in the back with my hands over my ears and cried. Never been to a gig without earplugs since.

God Forbid - quite a big band, with big kit, on tour playing big venues - when they played at this tiny Barfly pub when i was at Uni. the stage was just about big enough to fit the PA/amps/speakers/monitors and the band, with the drummer somehow squashed in amongst all this touring equipment. it was so tiny (about a 5 meter wide stage) that as the small crowd pushed and moshed, my friends and in the front row were slowly pushed up and onto the stage, having to hold ourselves steady with the bands' monitors, which were periodically kicked back in place by the singer.

and fuck me it was loud. you know when you record a gig on your phone or a camera with an ordinary mic, and it souds totally distorted and like shit? it sounded pretty much like that the whole way through... bit of a shame, but it was an awesome experience :D

Now I happen to like grindcore, but every time I go out to enjoy the musical equivalent of concentrated rage live on stage, I do wear ear plugs. It's just healthier.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I don't like grindcore. Just these bands there didn't seem to have any kind of feeling behind it. And most good grind bands not every track sounds exactly the same, and these bands songs were virtually indistinguishable from each other. So, yeh, bad rage-y noise rather than good rage-y noise. And I would have taken that sensible precaution if it wasn't for the fact that the only band my friend talked about when inviting me was by far the least loud band on the bill:p

For me it was a rave in '02. DJ Tiesto was the main attraction. I was truly fucked up for 3 days after the party.

I've never really been to a loud gig - my eardrums were too weak before I had an operation.

When I saw Jarboe...

*Is jealous*

Manowar back in 86, at the then Hammersmith odeon.

The Jam on their final tour. Not sure they were particularly loud but the treble on Paul Weller's guitar made it feel like it was cutting you in half.

Sepultura/Voivod a few years back. The sound check was actually even kind of painful.

When I saw Celtic Frost

Damaged hearing or no, I wish I'd seen Celtic Frost.

Damaged hearing or no, I wish I'd seen Celtic Frost.

and me.

a friend of mine said he actually fell over when Napalm Death started playing at Download a couple of years back. but then he was probably very drunk >.>

AlexisonfirebutIHaven'tbeentomanyshows. *breaths*
though it was awesome, Small gym at my university, all students, general admission . . .. awesome :D

Holy Anxiety Closet, Binkley! Another Bloom County fan! One of the few great things to come out of the 80s. Set phasers to "nostalgia".
The wheelchair's ready to go. Make sure we're not screaming into our helmets. :)

Damaged hearing or no, I wish I'd seen Celtic Frost.

and me.It was a few years ago, during the reunion tour. As far as I know they haven't broken up again, so you still might be able to.

a friend of mine said he actually fell over when Napalm Death started playing at Download a couple of years back. but then he was probably very drunk >.>Most likely, though it's possible they were louder there than in the smaller clubs I saw them in.

It was a few years ago, during the reunion tour. As far as I know they haven't broken up again, so you still might be able to.
Unfortunately they split up again "for good" last month.

Unfortunately they split up again "for good" last month.I did not know this.

*points and laughs at Callisdrun and Pure Metal*

Never have been to gigs.

Most likely, though it's possible they were louder there than in the smaller clubs I saw them in.

I find that small cramped venues are much louder than big outdoor arenas.

I find that small cramped venues are much louder than big outdoor arenas.

And far worse for your hearing equipment :p

Reflections off walls make up a large part of the sound you hear.

And far worse for your hearing equipment :p

Reflections off walls make up a large part of the sound you hear.

And I have to deal with that very often, as I work as a sound engineer on the two venues in my campus. I worry for my hearing. :(

And I have to deal with that very often, as I work as a sound engineer on the two venues in my campus. I worry for my hearing. :(

Well, you could also wear earplugs for some of the time, it's not like that'll totally cut out the sound, though maybe it'll be harder to adjust levels and things.

In fact, headphones are probably a bigger problem than gigs. The distance between you and the speakers will help reduce the intensity, but with headphones it's going straight to your eardrum, and many have their volumes set louder than really necessary and it will damage their eardrum and ossicles if sustained for longer than 5-10 minutes. It's only really been with popular music in the past half century that such intensities of sound for long periods has been possible because of electronics.

Well, you could also wear earplugs for some of the time, it's not like that'll totally cut out the sound, though maybe it'll be harder to adjust levels and things.


Also I find ear plugs horribly uncomfortable.


In fact, headphones are probably a bigger problem than gigs. The distance between you and the speakers will help reduce the intensity, but with headphones it's going straight to your eardrum, and many have their volumes set louder than really necessary and it will damage their eardrum and ossicles if sustained for longer than 5-10 minutes. It's only really been with popular music in the past half century that such intensities of sound for long periods has been possible because of electronics.

True, but it doesn't help when co-workers crank the volume up whilst I'm putting my ear to a speaker to see if anything is coming out.

The loudest gig I ever went to was Hawkwind. I saw them trwice in the same week and was saying 'pardon' to everyone who spoke to me for ages. I suppose any band that would let Lemmy play for them deserve to be loud!!