What was the loudest tour??

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U2387

U2387

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I was thinking this over in the context of the enormous PA stacks hanging up on the claw. Having seen Vertigo indoors and 360 outdoors, both were loud shows. My ears rang and in the case of Vertigo, hurt a little after the shows.

However, I have heard alot about people having their hearing blown out at U2 concerts. Some guy actually proved in a court somewhere that a U2 show caused him hearing loss. Portland, Or had record noise complaints, some from miles a way at a U2 show. It is still infamous today.

Both of these cases I mentioned occurred during Popmart.

All of you experienced, seasoned U2 concert goers, lets hear from you! What was the loudest tour? Pop, Zoo, something else?

How loud was it compared to other shows you have seen?
 
Popmart was quite loud, as was Vertigo indoor in GA versus in the seats.

360 tour audio seemed clearest of all U2 shows I have seen

but nothing beats the decibel level at the 90s and early 00s raves, and the recent Bloc Party show I have been to.
 
I found the Leg 5 Vertigo shows were too loud and way too bassy. The sound lacked clarity. It seemed to me that they sacrificed quality and instead just made it real loud. I hope 360 is better but it needs to come to Australia for me to find out.
 
i remember when Zootv hit town. there was a mall across form the stadium at the time. the roof of the mall was glass. needless to say the day after the show a good portion of the roof lay on the floor of the mall 2 stories down. residents around the stadium, one of them a friend of my parents, had broken windows and complained of their homes vibrating during the concert. my dad was parked about 1 mile from the venue waiting for me, he got there about 30 mins before the end of the show. when i got in the car he said he could every single thing loud and clear. he wanted to know why bono called the white house.
popmart in the same stadium was also pretty loud.
zoo tv PA system seemed to be really "boomy", sometimes this muddied the mids and highs. popmart on the other hand was crystal clear.
 
One of the interesting technical aspects of the 360 tour is that the sound seems to be an arena style system in a stadium. People seem to be praising the 360 tour so this is good.

I found PopMart pretty loud and grating, the same as Vertigo Leg 5.

Stadiums are so fickle and variable when it comes to sound quality. So many variables, even the weather, it makes it hard to make meaningful comparisons.

The best concert sound I've experienced was Roger Waters at the Acer Arena in Sydney a few years back. It was perfect. Loud enough to have an impact. Very very clear. And not too much bass.
 
Brussels 84 actually registered on the Richter scale as a small magnitude earthquake. Nearby buildings actually shook.
 
I was suprised at how clear the audio was for 360. I was near the bass speakers on the front of the stage, and I still had my hearing, lol
 
360 was very clear and not overly loud... it probably would have been clearer if I had not been under a complete overhang at Soldier Field (which stopped me from seeing most of the spire, too), but I still didn't have any real issues with sound quality. I went 80% of the show without earplugs and didn't have any ringing or pain after the show (although my dad, who is thirty years my senior, did, and he went 100% of the show without earplugs).

I would take an educated guess at PopMart and Vertigo being the loudest, by virtue of the albums that they supported. I can also see TUF and TJT being loud, in an amateur-ish, uncontrolled way (it was Adam's bass that caused that TUF concert in Brussels to register as an earthquake).
 
theFly51 said:
I read somewhere that Zoo TV was the loudest cuz it had close to 1,000,000 watts of power.
Click to expand...

This is correct. In FACT.....had it been pumped up to full outage, it was capapble of killing people too close! I read that in a science magazine about the zoo tv tour
 
Out of the tours I've actually seen them on (Elevation, Vertigo, 360), Vertigo was definitely the loudest. I like that though, even if the sound gets a bit murky. I want to feel the bass vibrate inside my chest.:wink:
 
this is pretty funny....is this normal for rock shows/bands? the whole shattering windows, measuring on richter scales story, etc....or is U2 known for abnormally loud shows?
 
I meant to add earlier....that i remember having my hearing affected for a few days after the Zoo Tv Shows......something i dont ever recall having after any other gig. So...methinks thats deffo the answer
 
I was in the heart front row for the Elevation Las Vegas show. It was sooo loud. I should have wore ear plugs. My ears where ringing for days after.
 
tsweeney said:
I was in the heart front row for the Elevation Las Vegas show. It was sooo loud. I should have wore ear plugs. My ears where ringing for days after.
Click to expand...

A similar thing happened to me following the Vertigo show I saw in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre. Horribly loud. As I was leaving the show, the high pitched ring kicked in immediately. The strangest thing, however, was the sound of my own voice (which I did not like). It sounded like a squirrel or chipmunk. Thankfully, this quickly corrected itself, but the ringing lasted a good week.

The Toronto show this time was pitch-perfect, delightful, and free of chipmunk-inducing after-affects.
 
the only time i remember the sound being uncomfortable was in seats 2nd deck indoor vertigo (charlotte, i think). it was one show, the GA shows didn't bother me at all for vertigo. i don't remember popmart or zootv being overly loud. 360 is significantly quieter inside of the inner circle because the stacks are above and almost behind you. it is much, much louder outside of the inner circle.


subnet said:
but nothing beats the decibel level at the 90s and early 00s raves, and the recent Bloc Party show I have been to.
Click to expand...

dinosaur jr. is far and away the loudest band i have ever heard and its not even close. the first time is saw them in front of a small club, my ears were ringing for two weeks. i have seen 100's of different bands (including bloc party), and no one has come even close to those guys. they have be banned from many,many venues. its obnoxiously loud, it really is just about unbearable without earplugs.
 
My hearing after the 2nd Chicago show was awful for the next hour. All I could hear was echoes. That's the first time that ever happened to me. Next show I see, I will be buying earplugs.
 
outer rail for vertigo was ridiculous. By the end of the show I couldn't even hear Bono. I think that show messed up my hearing for future concerts.
 
I was at an outdoor Australian gig for Vertigo's fifth leg, in Adelaide, standing by the stage at the end of the runway on Edge's side, about 30 metres from the main stage. I have to say that while the sound quality was quite good, the volume was nowhere near loud enough, my hearing wasn't affected at all afterwards! Maybe it has something to do with being below the level of the speakers?
The Zoomerang Adelaide gig I was in the stands and that was louder.
 
I thought Vertigo was really, really loud in Sydney - the design of ANZ Stadium had a lot to do with it though. Having seen the Stones there as well it wasn't a U2 specific issue.
 
jphelmet said:
dinosaur jr. is far and away the loudest band i have ever heard and its not even close. the first time is saw them in front of a small club, my ears were ringing for two weeks. i have seen 100's of different bands (including bloc party), and no one has come even close to those guys. they have be banned from many,many venues. its obnoxiously loud, it really is just about unbearable without earplugs.
Click to expand...

wow, what a bunch of fuckin morons
 
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