What was the L O U D E S T concert you ever attended?

[Free For All]

I don't know if we've covered this already, but I was just thinking about a couple that stand out in my mind.

One was a concert by Bill Chase's last group. Deafening.

But the loudest.....and this was not "fun loud", this was PAINFUL, stick-your-fingers-in-your-ears loud....was Weather Report in the late 70s, the Jaco/Erskine edition. It was a great concert, but there was no reason for it to be so friggin' loud. It definitely "harshed my high" (it WAS the 70s, you know....I think that was a "brownie" event, IIRC).

A good loud concert was the Chicago Symphony in the mid 70s performing Holst's Planets. That was an awesome brass section.

Now will someone answer that damn phone already?

[Shawn]

Motorhead @ The Ballard Firehouse around 1998...they had a PA system large enough for a theater packed into that tiny club. I thought the foundations were going to crumble.

[BFrank]

Jeff Beck Group, Foghat, Argent - Hollywood Paladium, 1972.

"Technically" it may not have been the loudest show, considering improvements in PA systems over the years, but it sure felt like it at the time.

[mjzee]

Hot Tuna, SUNY Binghamton, 1976. It was so loud that when I walked around the hall (actually the gym), it felt like I was walking underwater.

Close second: Lou Reed, Beacon Theater NYC around 1984.

[ValerieB]

Tina Turner the other night at the Staples Center!!! thank goodness i had ear-plugs with me otherwise i would have had to leave!! it was absolutely deafening although i do know that my ears are very sensitive.

[sidewinder]

Supersilent.

[7/4]

Girls School & Motorhead at the Royal Manor, North Brunswick, NJ sometime around 81-82.

ouch.

[DukeCity]

I didn't attend the concert, but one night I was playing a lounge gig in Dallas (mid-1980's) and two of these guys walk in to the bar:

I had never heard of their band, but they told me that they were listed in the Guinness Book as being the loudest band ever. Later, I looked it up, and sure enough...

[Shawn]

Girls School & Motorhead at the Royal Manor, North Brunswick, NJ sometime around 81-82.

ouch.

Man, I would have KILLED to have seen that show!!!!

[ejp626]

I saw Camper Van Beethoven in Ann Arbor on their last tour before the break-up. This was probably 1989. My ears were ringing for a couple of hours after the concert, and that rarely happens to me.

David Bowie in 2001 ? was also very loud, and the bass was boosted.

I enjoyed both concerts but they were certainly loud.

[Indestructible!]

Metallica, in Calgary, during their "...And Justice For All" tour. Had seats on the floor, next to a huge stack of amps.

Left the gig (was great, BTW), drove home, went to sleep... and woke up an hour later with blood pouring out of my nose. I never get nosebleeds, so... thanks Metallica! I don't think my hearing has ever been the same since.

Cheers,

Shane

[Larry Kart]

Ted Nugent at the Chicago Stadium in maybe 1968. I had to cover it, had not heard many rock acts, and didn't know from earplugs. Didn't regain normal hearing for several days.

[Christiern]

I have long ago lost track of how many concerts I have attended, but the loudest was without a doubt this New Year's event...

[JSngry]

Zappa, ca. 1975-76 (Roy Estrada & Napoleon Murphy Brock were both in the band if that pins it down) at the old Dallas cConvention Center. I had 12th row seats or something and lost my high-end for about a week afterward.

Fine show, great playing, but just too damn loud.

[Dave James]

This is gonna sound weird, but The Eagles at the old Paramount Theater here in Portland, We were sitting on the main floor maybe 3/4 of the way back and I literally had to put my fingers in my ears for almost the entire concert. I never heard anything that loud. Needless to say, there was a group of crispy critters sitting down towards the front who kept yelling "louder" in between every song.

Up over and out.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

hands down Alice Cooper, late '02 or so, Emerald Queen Casino- Tacoma, WA: louder than the who by far

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

so Christern over the years you have had music expierences not just with the Prez and Billie but the Dead and Band of Gypsys?

why did you have to concern yourself at all with rock or pop music...were you genuinely interested or there "on assingment"?

what was your favorite rock band, or one you liked more than most, etc

[marcello]

Miles Davis - Artpark, Lewiston, N,Y, 1973 or so.

[BillF]

A post-Weather Report Wayne Shorter group at Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester. I had to walk out!

[JohnS]

My first encounter with electric Miles in London. Possibly at the Rainbow, can't recall the year.

[A Lark Ascending]

A performance of John Cage's 4' 33" in a Sheffield steelworks.

Edited October 19, 2008 by Bev Stapleton

[Jim Alfredson]

I didn't attend the concert, but one night I was playing a lounge gig in Dallas (mid-1980's) and two of these guys walk in to the bar:

I had never heard of their band, but they told me that they were listed in the Guinness Book as being the loudest band ever. Later, I looked it up, and sure enough...

I think they may also be in the Guinness Book for "Gayest Album Art".

[robviti]

...I think they may also be in the Guinness Book for "Gayest Album Art".

not that there's anything wrong with that!

[martini]

I saw AC/DC in Portland, Oregon, in 1991 and that gig was excruciatingly loud (but WTF?, it is AC/DC, right? Yeah, "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution!"). I recall about three tunes into the set that some guy in front of me who had probably smoked/drank too many "chemicals" got sick from the pure gravity and density of the drum beats, and lost his stomach contents right in the aisle. Maybe he was going to get sick anyway, but the loudness of the music facilitated the process, I'm sure (or at least that is what I'd like to think).

Probably the loudest gig I've ever been to was seeing Blue Cheer at a small club called El Corazon in Seattle a couple of years ago. Blue Cheer was one of the loudest bands of the '60s, and often show up on the old Fillmore posters in support of the major acts of the day (Jimi, Cream, Big Brother, etc.). Well, they are still around--2/3 of the original three piece band is there--and they are still loud. That night the bass player (Dickie Peterson) was playing so loud that you could literally see people's hair blow backwards in the crowd when he played his bass. I recall thinking how strange it was to see a guy's bass rig literally blow the audience's hair back. Weird.

Edited October 19, 2008 by martini

[Tom Storer]

A tie...

1) Ornette Coleman and Prime Time, early 90's. It was so loud I began to feel panicky--like the sound waves were seriously doing me harm. I thought I might get sick, it was so loud. I had to leave. Out in the parking lot, about a hundred feet from the door, I turned around and could hear the music with full detail, at reasonable concert volume. I hung out for a while enjoying the music outside, kind of a surreal experience.

2) Johnny Thunders, long ago, not sure just when. A friend took me to the Gibus, a rock club in Paris, to see this. The canned music on the sound system before the concert was so loud that all conversation was impossible. When Thunders and his band came out the volume increased a whole lot. I had hissing in my ears for a full 24 hours afterward.