LOUDEST Concert and Tinnitus

Without question it was Bassnectar at Red Rocks. I was half way up the amphitheater and my decibel meter in my phone measured 115. It was nuts and forced Red Rocks to change the rules and ban Bassnectar for ever. 
 

as far as tinnitus, I’ve had since a teen due to ear infections. Nothing has seemed to help. I always protect my ears at concerts. 

Some of the ones that had my ears ringing for days were in no particular order, 

Grand Funk

The Cars (Panorama tour - everything cranked to 11!)

Ministry

The Killers (everything super-loud and super-distorted)

The Verve (everything super-loud and super-distorted)

In the older days, the PA gear just wasn't as good and would distort, making the volume just that much worse. These days, it's more down to the sound crew, I think, as I've heard some of these bands at other times, even in the same venue, and the sound was great.

I've had tinnitus for many years; it's a hissing sound that is sometimes louder and sometimes softer, but it's relatively easy to ignore. 

Hot Tuna (electric obviously) in the mid - late 70's.  Louder than all of the others - Stones, Who, etc

Someone mentioned a Clapton show from the Journeyman show. Saw one of those at the Hartford CC and while not loudest I've heard, the sound was extremely harsh and I had to leave well before the end.

Had 3rd row far left seats at the Beacon Theater for an Allman Bros. show in the 90's. We were right in front of a speaker stack on the stage and I couldn't hear a thing when the show ended. Good sound but really really loud.

I've been to over 100 Grateful Dead and Garcia Band shows and the sound was great at most of them. Sometimes it would take the sound guys a few songs to get things just exactly perfect but once they did it didn't get much better. Often extremely loud but the sound was so clean it rarely felt uncomfortable. And when Lesh's bass was dialed in it was heaven.

I've had pretty severe tinnitus for at least 40 years, mostly due to having a lot of ear infections and other issues when I was a kid. All the concerts probably haven't helped but I don't think they've made it much worse either. The brain is usually pretty good at blocking it out most of the time.

I'd like to add one more concert that was way too loud to be even considered music and that was a Lou Reed concert. Nothing sounded right, let alone relatable to the music I knew. It was just painstakingly loud to the point where I tried to walk out but my friend was so bummed out about it that I just sat there with my hands over my ears.

My ears were ringing all the way home. Right now I'm scratching my head as to just what it was that started all this nonsense regarding concerts so loud that it hurt and how that became a rite of passage of sorts. I remember seeing Talking Heads and their Stop Making Sense tour and how much fun that was and never once did I have to cover my ears.

All the best,
Nonoise