What are the loudest shows you guys have ever been to?
I was really taken aback by my first show because first of all, it was a singer songwriter type and I hadnt expected it to be very loud. Now that show still wasnt very loud, but it alerted me to the difference in how a live rock show works, and why live mp3s often sound shit. The live experience is about the reverberation-- and often in a bad live recording that is about all you hear. But hearing it isnt the point. The way music is produced now, you just dont feel a rhythm, but you FEEL it live, literally. All music, if it has a bass, becomes primal and pulses through you. Thats why even mediocre music can be a powerful experience. That was the first time I really realized what rock n roll was about and why it had caught on in the first place. It wasnt about hooks or tunes, not at all. I can't take it too often. I'm more of a subtle person when it comes to appreciating music, I guess I like the sort of pretend classical music that rock n' roll has evolved into, an album art, a production art, something to listen to many times and absorb the finest details even from the loudest songs. You get banged over the head live. It's fucking awesome, but it could never been an every day or every week thing for me. So I dont go to many concerts, but I should probably start with the earplugs.
Anyway, the most recent earsplitting band I saw was the 22-20s, with Graham Coxon. He was fucking loud too. This is probably nothing in the grand scheme of things cause there have to be punk and metal and noise bands that intentionally go so loud they literally make the ears bleed, but I was pretty stunned/dazed/temporarily deaf when I walked out of there.