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How do you define loud?

Posted about 1 year ago
According to their myspace, A Place to Bury Strangers are the loudest band out there now. They are performing tonight in NY but I am scared I may blow my ear drums....What do you think?They got serious raves at CMJ and the bartender at my neighborhood dive bar has been wearing their t-shirt for days.They remind me of the Smiths and JAMC with a darker shade of black...

Comments (24)

  1. Sturgell says Any show can be really loud, depending on where you standing. What blows me away is the people you see standing right in front of the speakers at a show with looks on their faces like it makes no nevermind to them. These days, I never goto a show without some type of ear protection- even if it's just a rolled up napkin shoved in my ear.
    Permalink posted 01/16/2008
  2. xhable says my tollerence for loud noises increases expenentually in the right situations... at a rave it isn't loud enough till my ears bleed a little... and don't regain some hearing till the following weekend :p.... earplugs don't help btw.. try noise canceling dj headphones/earphones :)
    Permalink posted 01/16/2008
  3. Bartleby says It's funny you should ask this question because I was thinking the same thing this morning while being stuck in my commuters' train with music blasting out from other passengers' headphones (I think I must have listened to Rhianna's whole album this morning coming from two different sources). So, I'll say: Loud is when a whole carriage can hear your bloody soupy pop music erupting out from your headphones (sic!!!)
    Permalink posted 01/16/2008
  4. Marigold says please report on how loud it was and take some bitchen pics. us moggers west of you will not get to see how loud it is for a few more weeks. Feb 18!!!! i can't wait!
    Permalink posted 01/16/2008
  5. indiepixie says haha sturgell- i know those types- it's the same phenomenon as ppl to sit front row at at movie theater and still act like they aren't ruining their eyes. xhable- do you really wear those big head phones to concerts? bartleby- been there. hit the kid with the headphones.
    Permalink posted 01/16/2008
  6. Pop Savant says I think they are coming to SXSW...I will probably catch them there...
    Permalink posted 01/16/2008
  7. xhable says heh of course not :).. I'm just full of useless advice... you could also try a vacume sealed fishbowl :P.. hehe not sure how to get around the breathing problem though
    Permalink posted 01/16/2008
  8. Dale says Seriously, don't think about it, go, go now! (Going to see them in March, can't wait!)
    Permalink posted 01/16/2008
  9. ROCKNROLLPIMP says Disaster Area lol In Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the plutonium rock band Disaster Area is "generally held to be not only the loudest rock band in the Galaxy, but in fact the loudest noise of any kind at all." (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, beginning of Chapter 17). The first paragraph of chapter 17 states that "regular concert goers judge that the best sound balance is usually to be heard from within large concrete bunkers some thirty-seven miles from the stage, whilst the musicians themselves play their instruments by remote control from within a heavily insulated spaceship which stays in orbit around the planet - or more frequently around a completely different planet". does THIS count?
    Permalink posted 01/16/2008
  10. White and Nerdy says I would only be afraid if there is an amp head that goes to 11. After seeing Fugazi in 1993, where I forgot ear protection, I ALWAYS have ear plugs in my camera bag, which pretty much goes to every gig with me. Thus I never forget them - ALWAYS wear ear plugs! You'll be fine with earplugs OR in a concrete bunker 37 miles away.
    Permalink posted 01/16/2008
  11. ROCKNROLLPIMP says i think E.V.H. was first to actually do that with those Marshall JCM900's which now go to 20 ;)
    Permalink posted 01/16/2008
  12. Sam The Artist says did they self proclaim themselves "loudest band evarrr" ? if so, im in the worlds most fashionably loud band. all we wear are sombreros, hawaiian shirts, parachute pants, and clogs.
    Permalink posted 01/16/2008
  13. vannatta says Anything over 90 dB (Truck Traffic Noise) at sustained exposure will cause hearing damage, and with a rock concert clocking in at 115 dB - you should _always wear ear protection. At 125 dB you're at the threshold of pain, and above that even slight exposure will cause permanent damage. The loudest exposure WITH ear protection clocks in at 140 dB. (a jet engine at 100', or a gun blast is 140 dB) If you hear what sounds like faint white noise in your ear after the show, you have most certainly done permanent damage on the spot, and typically, the hearing loss as you get older is much more pronounced, and so you think (erroneously) that you're invincible as it returns, but in later years, the curve starts to severely drop off for you. If you value music as much as we all seem to here on MOG, then you should really have ear protection in at all concerts. Period. Otherwise, some day, sooner than you think, you will not be able to hear music at all the way you do now. Side note: any band that has to bill themselves as the "loudest" usually doesn't have much going on musically - I would skip the show altogether.
    Permalink posted 01/16/2008
  14. indiepixie says haha FUGAZZZIIIII! white and nerdy- i think i was there too. sam- i am there. just tell me your touring schedule. vannatta my mate- i hear a tingling at all times- is that bad?
    Permalink posted 01/16/2008
  15. ciphermedia says Unfortunately, I KNOW how loud too loud is. And I can attest to the fact that Vannatta is right. And yes, I thought I was invincible. Ha Ha! (Damn rave...) Now I have tinnitus in one ear - i.e permanent ringing. It can drive you crazy if you let it get to you. Apparently a number of WW1 vets committed suicide because of it. Standard earplugs cut too much of the mid frequencies, and you end up with a very muddy sound. Recently, after many years of not going to live music for fear of worsening the tinnitus, I had some specially moulded earplugs made with 25 db attenuators built in, so you get a clean cut across all the frequencies - no muddiness. When i got them made, I had to have a hearing test done - mild hearing loss in my right ear, and moderate hearing loss in my left. Am off to see Arcade Fire next week, with my earplugs firmly fitted. But as to your question, these guys sound pretty cool. Maybe just don't stand anywhere near the front...
    Permalink posted 01/17/2008
  16. White and Nerdy says Pixie, Phoenix Plaza in Pontiac, Michigan september 1993? That's the gig I was at. I couldn't believe it, the gig was on a Saturday night and my ears finally stopped ringing on Thursday. It was scary, so ever since then - ear plugs no matter what!!! It didn't help matters that John Brannon/Laughing Hyenas opened the show. And this show was OUTDOORS too. I'm still hoping I didn't do too much damage from that one show.
    Permalink posted 01/17/2008
  17. Jonh Ingham says Loud is when you can't hear what the singer's saying between songs because your ears are ringing too much.
    Permalink posted 01/17/2008
  18. indiepixie says white- sounds like i didn't see it....but i can't believe that show really blew your ear drums that much! crazy. Ingham- perfect definition. Should be in the dictionary. Just that. So I ended up chickening out and settling for a quiet asian fusion dinner. I figured I'd let my tastebuds be more assaulted than my ears last nt. was a wise one I think. But I do want to catch PTBS somewhere on the circuit this summer....
    Permalink posted 01/17/2008
  19. TylerDurden says this barkeep, he's been wearing the same shirt??? Loud is always good, I like to feel the power of the waves in the air, ya know...Adam and his rolled up napkins can stand next to the full stack of speakers and jam all night! I always like to see the drunken stage flipper who thinks just because he can do a backflip on a trampoline that he can do one off a stage and land on anything but his head...but that is what makes the show fun...or going with you Faith I'm sure would be fun too!
    Permalink posted 01/17/2008
  20. fistula spume says I DEFINE LOUD WITH ALL CAPS AND EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!! Sorry couldn't resist. If it pierces your ears and makes you hear fuzz for a couple of hours I'd say that's loud. I've heard some techno that did that very nicely. Some noise rock too. Depends.
    Permalink posted 01/17/2008
  21. vannatta says pix. quiet asian fusion? good choice that. not sure what to make of a tingling at all times... if not tongue in cheek, then something that you should get checked out. :( hope you wear plugs in the future - and cipher is right on with the attenuators, it still lets you enjoy the music across the frequency range - definitely worth a Google...
    Permalink posted 01/17/2008
  22. 1234chainsaw says Sorry not to pitch in with my .02 cents earlier, but I was traveling and away from MOG for a week. When I saw APTBS in December, they weren't loud at all. I usually wear ear plugs, but didn't this time, and had no faint white noise afterwards. By the way, they were excellent. Sorry to hear you missed it.
    Permalink posted 01/20/2008
  23. hontzd says A friend of mine who went to a lot of punk shows back in the day -- before anyone talked about wearing earplugs or whatnot -- came back from a Jesus and Mary Chain gig (circa Darklands) saying it was the loudest thing she'd ever heard. And considering APTBS sounds so much like J+MC, I could believe their shows are damn loud. All I know is that last year at SXSW I was going to be cool and go without earplugs the whole week, but by the second night I had to have that squishy foam stuff in my ears. I bring plugs to club gigs all the time now, but don't always use them. And I swear big venue shows like Interpol aren't nearly as loud as they used to be -- liability?
    Permalink posted 01/21/2008
  24. champersnova says In noise we believe! :-) (Well at times...)
    Permalink posted 02/08/2008

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