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Loudest gigs you've been to


JJTee

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Following on from the 'Gigs you've left' thread, I thought we could share our experiences of the loudest gigs we've endured (or left).

My contenders are:

  • Megadeth, circa 1991, Rust in Peace tour, Hammersmith Odeon.  Absolutely deafening; ringing ears for at least 3 days.  Way, way too loud - but I was 16 and didn't know any better, so we stayed irrespective.  Just unpleasant, so much high end.
  • Prodigy, 1997, Brighton Centre, Fat of the Land tour.   When the bass dropped in at the start of Smack my B*tch up, I could literally feel my eyeballs vibrating and was genuinely concerned.  It was just a physical, pounding wall of bass.  Me and my mates just stared at each other in disbelief!
  •  Notting Hill Carnval.  Not a gig asuch, but if you want serious bass, then standing next to some of the floats with kilowatts of amps and loaded with subs is an experience to behold.  I also remember squeezing through a crowd at the focussed epicentre of three huge stacks of speakers, that was the Aba Shanti dub/roots sound system.  An all-enveloping world of bass that has only been matched by the Prodigy.

Anyone else got any notable experiences, good or bad?

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Sleep in the Button Factory in Dublin, around 2012ish. Stupidly loud. I had good ear plugs and, if I hadn't, I would have left. There's rock 'n' roll level and then there's permanent hearing loss level and Sleep were wafting in the latter. I was amazed by how many people were there without hearing protection.

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Lamb Of God, who were supporting Heaven and Hell.  A few years back, might have been Wembley, can't remember.  A huge wall of noise, I went outside in the corridor until H&H came on.  The one and only time I have seen Ronnie Dio live, what a character he was!

 

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Motorhead at the ABC cinema in Chester when I were nobbut a lad...

Swans at the Mean Fiddler (wot a bleedin racket!)

Barf Roco in our living room in a housing co-op place in Vincent Square, Pimlico. In hindsight, 10kw PA with full backline and miced drums was a touch overkill in a 5x8m room... Riot police turned up, and somehow either Jimbob or Fruitbat (can't remember which!) from CarterUSM broke their arm falling down the stairs. Happy days!

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Oddly it's not the ones you'd expect that I've found the loudest. Fun Lovin' Criminals have been ear bleeding loud every time I've seen them. Likewise Carter USM usually reassembled my insides, but I did used to spend most of the gigs upside down with my feet in the air. 

Sultans of Ping made up for ability with volume (and gold spandex). 

The loudest I think though were the Manics when they were still a four piece touring Generation Terrorists, in a small hall with stage about a foot high.

 

Ah, fun times. 

What? 

Fun times. 

Eh? 

FUN TI.... oh never mind. 

 

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Motorhead, De Montfort Hall, sometime mid-2000s. I wore earplugs but by the time they got to Ace of Spades, I wanted to hear it in full effect. I took the earplugs out but lasted about 20 seconds. Savagely loud.

Various death metal bands in the cellar venue of the old Coach House pub in Swansea throughout the early 1990s. It was the days of white puffy trainers, black drainpipe jeans and Marshall stacks, which is perfect for gigging in a tiny, low roofed cellar bar with bare stone walls.

 

 

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38 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Motorhead at the ABC cinema in Chester when I were nobbut a lad...

Swans at the Mean Fiddler (wot a bleedin racket!)

Barf Roco in our living room in a housing co-op place in Vincent Square, Pimlico. In hindsight, 10kw PA with full backline and miced drums was a touch overkill in a 5x8m room... Riot police turned up, and somehow either Jimbob or Fruitbat (can't remember which!) from CarterUSM broke their arm falling down the stairs. Happy days!

Live just down the road from Vincent Sq in Great Peter St. Probably heard you. 🤣🤣 If you knew Carter USM I guess you remember John Beast.?

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The Georgia Satellites at Rock City in Nottingham in '87.

Flaming Lips at The Foundry, Birmingham in '96.

My hearing never recovered from the Satellites gig, and just to mock me, Dan Baird released a solo album a few years later called "Love Songs for the Hearing Impaired." 

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25 minutes ago, bassbiscuits said:

Various death metal bands in the cellar venue of the old Coach House pub in Swansea throughout the early 1990s. It was the days of white puffy trainers, black drainpipe jeans and Marshall stacks, which is perfect for gigging in a tiny, low roofed cellar bar with bare stone walls.

My old band played there with local louts Acrimony.

Loud gigs: Probably too many to mention. Usually in tiny venues with massive PA's & amps.

 

Edited by Skybone
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Michael Schenker Group (Assault Attack Tour) Hammersmith Odeon. Ears zinging for days. 

My Bloody Valentine. Roundhouse. Don't know why I went only liked one Song. They were dishing out earplugs at the door. Took them out experimentally and started tasting earwax at the back of my throat.

Pendulum - Brixton Academy. Pulverising and would have enjoyed it more sans the irksome Aussie MC.

EDIT. Nine Inch Nails at the Royal Albert Hall a couple of years ago.

Going to see Meshuggah at same venue next year, expect that'll be a contender too 😂🤣

 

 

Edited by JottoSW1
Added NIN & Meshuggah
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A couple that were painfully loud, as opposed to just leaving my ears ringing for a day or two afterwards (pretty standard for any heavy metal gig in the '80's & '90's)

  1. Super Furry Animals at Guildford Civic - couldn't tell you what tour or exactly how long ago, but something like 15-20 years.  It was unpleasantly loud throughout the gig, and towards the end the volume  slider got pushed even higher.  Seemed to be some sort of attempt to make a psychedelic swirling maelstrom of sound.  Completely failed. People were genuinely hiding behind columns - the worst view in the place suddenly became the best place to be. I stuck it out, but they'd cleared out half the punters by the end.
  2. Airborne at the Hammersmith Odeon/Apollo/whatever - must have been 2009 as it was the No Guts No Glory tour.  We'd all seen them at the Astoria on the previous tour and loved them, but at Hammersmith a few months later it was just way too loud to be enjoyable.  It seemed to be macho posturing - you like metal so just see how loud we can go!  Really put me off them...as did the album they were promoting, a step down from their debut.  Never really been that fussed about them since
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Tony Williams Lifetime at the Marquee, with Jack Bruce on bass. I got there early to get one of the seats at the front. That wasn't a good move. They all had Marshall 200 watt stacks and used every last watt. It took 3 days for my hearing to recover.

Since then, one of the loudest experiences, after Santa Pod, was seeing the Saints in NOLA a couple of years ago. The sound system must have been on 21. It was painful and I spent the whole match with my fingers in my ears!

Edited by chris_b
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