loudest band you've ever seen

Oh yeah, upfront it was staggering. I don't think they were playing through a PA though, were they? They had these two suitcase-sized speakers - presumably of their own construction - at the sides of the stage and that seemed to be it. We were 15 feet from one of those. If it had been any louder I'd have gone home.

Cheap Trick, Pearl Jam and Black Crowes, all at different times in the Fox Theater in Atlanta, of all places. Strange that it would be so loud in that place but all three, you saw the drummers hammering away but you couldn't hear any of them, no sense of tempo at all. Unpleasant.

Was going to see Husker Du at Liberty Lunch back in the mid-'80s and a friend told me since they were so painfully loud he'd get us up on stage to stand behind the guy who was mixing monitors; maybe we'd get a little less volume. Didn't help--it was just ridiculous.

out of curiousity, does anyone actually like it that loud?

I think the enjoyment of extreme volume diminishes with age. When I was young I loved it, but now I just end up worried about what permanent damage I'm doing to my hearing, even with ear plugs in. Especially as hearing problems run in my family.

No, don't enjoy it loud. The only benefit of extreme volume is that you can't hear wankers talking all the way through the show.

Yeah if you're getting hearing damage with earplugs something is definitely wrong. I wear them because it's often physically painful to go without them and usually it does sound a bit better. I think my hearing is extra sensitive though since there are always plenty of people ahead of me that seem to have no problem with the loudness. Sometimes I feel if I were up front with no earplugs I'd just be deaf ten minutes in. The downside is that you really do feel like a whiny bitch if you wear the plugs. People give you dirty looks. I don't really care but it's just uncomfortable when people scowl at you because you want to protect your hearing.

I think the enjoyment of extreme volume diminishes with age.

yes, but from time to time i experience certain situations of total bliss & euphoria where i would generously trade some of my hearing abilities for...say,
standing in front of DynamixII playing Machine Planet with >140db.
besides, nowadays hi-tec hearing aids can look great.
http://s5.directupload.net/images/101209/x2n8dngk.jpg

i am not talking about drug induced effects

Motorhead by quite a large margin. On 2 seperate occasions I saw them be so loud that it had an alnmost hallucinogenic effect one me, once especially because they were really on it, and the rush from the music + the rush from the volume took me to some other mental space altogether. Probably told the story before, but the next day I was sat next to a telephone and I could not hear it ringing, that part of the frequency spectrum of my hearing was just completely missing. Back to "normal" in a couple of days.

Lousest shit band I've seen would be a joint prize between Loop and Sonic Youth, buth irredeemably lame and slack. If a good band cranked up loud is a great rush, then a shit band loud is the ultimate musical bum-out.

Soul Asylum (I know, weird, but trust me . . . ) during highschool in a tiny club
Pleasurehorse at Fort Thunder (ultra-high frequency power electronics through a BIG Marshall stack)
Sunnno)))/Boris Halloween show
recent shows that were loud as fuck:
Bloody Panda / Monarch
Swans

Mark Stewart and the Mafia in Bristol a few years back were insanely loud (bordering on painful), made all the more so with Adrian Sherwood doing his ear blistering tweaks/overdubs.

Prior to that : Swans - Leeds Poly on the Children of God tour.

Nomeansno were the loudest band I've ever seen in a club. I experienced pretty dramatic hearing loss for a couple of days after that. I was a little bummed, because I was standing around outside after the gig and Rob Wright was out there too, just chillin', but I was in no state to carry on a conversation. But the show fucking rocked.

Lousest shit band I've seen would be a joint prize between Loop and Sonic Youth, buth irredeemably lame and slack. If a good band cranked up loud is a great rush, then a shit band loud is the ultimate musical bum-out.

― Pashmina, Thursday, December 9, 2010 2:03 AM (43 minutes ago) Bookmark

whoa, you saw loop?

Yeah. They played at least twice at Newcastle Riverside, I missed them the previous time, supposedly they were rocking, the time I saw them was the tour supporting their third album and the entire set was like waiting for the intro to end and the band to kick into gear, the drummer played this everlasting fill on his toms, like IDDLEiddleIDDLEiddleIDDLEiddle and on and on and on. I dig Loop's albums loads, even after all these years, but that show was awful, a real bummer.

And, they were filthy loud! If they'd rocked it would have been fantastic.

Soul Asylum (I know, weird, but trust me . . . ) during highschool in a tiny club
Pleasurehorse at Fort Thunder (ultra-high frequency power electronics through a BIG Marshall stack)
Sunnno)))/Boris Halloween show
recent shows that were loud as fuck:
Bloody Panda / Monarch
Swans

― the tune is space, Thursday, December 9, 2010 5:07 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

I saw shawn from pleasurehorse last year doing a set through 10 tiny speakers set on individual stands, it was a pretty tortuous high end washout without earplugs. a guy I was with got so freaked out he had to leave!

(do I know you?)

never mind you are dr3w and I collect my $5

I think it might have been the Butthole Surfers circa 1989 in a small, narrow club. Anyway I remember that as a particularly severe beating. The visual elements were also a big part of the effect.

Big Black.

@pashmina

that's awesome. would like to hear their cover of 'pink moon'

I can confirm loop were a bunch of terrible fucking dullards live

anybody know what the members of loop are up to now?

-Sunn 0))) (even with ear protection four days on, the tinnitus is killing me. Magnificent gig mind).
-MBV
-Swans

those are literally the three artists everyone says

acts, even

Predictable maybe, but true.

Now I think about it Isolée was absolutely deafening at a club in The Hague a few years back

Flying Lotus. So loud I literally couldn't hear wtf was going on and left (it was at ATP so someone else was on).

Six By Seven (at the LA2)
Napalm Death (at the old Marquee)
Sunn O))) as well, but it's a different kind of loud; a sort of body-consciousness loud.

Not to derail the thread, but has anyone been to a show where speakers *actually* blew out Back-To-The-Future-style?

Twice: Borbetomagus, and Khanate. Both at Tonic.

Hahaha, I saw Khanate at Tonic and the dust was like flopping off the brick walls and landing on me

I've seen plenty of SunnO))) and Swans shows, but I still think Black Dice at ATP and certain Melvins nights may have taken the cake for me

hank williams jr.

Borbetomagus

oh, and also: earthless (luna lounge, cmj, circa 2007)

Six By Seven in 2007 may we be my answer too

oddly, procol harum were freaking loud at the cw post dome. grand hotel tour. i think steeleye span opened; i wish i could go back in time and see that one again. i'd bring plugs.

Battles at Supersonic '07, the bass was so loud it gave me mild but permanent tinnitus in my right ear. I was trapped by the crowd right next to the PA, which didn't help obviously, but I didn't have the same problem with more outright hostile bands like Oxbow

Hahaha, I saw Khanate at Tonic and the dust was like flopping off the brick walls and landing on me

Yeah, I saw Sunn O))) there (with Chrome Hoof and Sunburned Hand of the Man) and it was like a gentle rain from the ceiling all night.

you guys should check out strep torso if you get a chance. he's a hoot! he filled my basement with amps when he played at the store. lovely smell of burning wires after he was done. still not as loud as The Body when they played in my basement, but he got pretty damn loud.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1WRxhjGuZM

this was actually the last time i really feared for my ears at the store though. my pal jeff making the walls bleed. i ran for some plugs. overwhelmingly loud given the size of the store.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-woo46kDNc

sounded awesome though.

apparently 誤訳侮辱, Whiney & i mighta been at the same Khanate show! (s.o'm was a coworker, supernice guy)

othwise bloody valentine

this was actually the last time i really feared for my ears at the store though. my pal jeff making the walls bleed. i ran for some plugs. overwhelmingly loud given the size of the store.

He never fails to bleed walls.

Helmet opening for Sonic Youth in 93
Astro/Solmania (not sure which was loudest, I was outside) in 2007 (?)

Black Dice or Deerhunter

are we accounting for venue size here? I can't remember how loud Jucifer actually are.

idk but Swans weren't that loud when I saw them ... nowhere near as loud as those Japanese noise acts I mentioned

Unsane at CBGB in the 90s. Decent show but damn, tinnitus for weeks.

Is there a connection between loudness and Blowing the Other Band off the Stage? Like, there must be acts who use volume purely to distract from a dull performance?

On that subject:

They make a hell of a racket for a two-piece.

...and they make a hell of a racket for three people.

Do some reviewers really not understand what an amp does? Not to say that a review shouldn't mention if a concert is really loud, but "hell of a racket" often seems like a cliché/filler sentence.

Anyway, to answer the question, probably some no-mark band at Donington. But I hear the Ting Tings are pretty loud.

Tricky (97)
Whitehouse (08)
Spectrum (08)