LOUDEST Concert and Tinnitus

Deep Purple, circa 1976, was the first time I recall that the volume deafened me for a week.

Nowadays, I always wear ear plugs to concerts.  Still, I’ve had to leave a few shows that were still too loud.  Dangerous to my hearing and, frankly, not fun, no matter who’s playing.

Some of the shows I’ve had to leave recently…Steve Morse Band; Hot Tuna; Dixie Dregs; Robbin Ford; Greensky Bluegrass.  I hid in the bathroom during the last half of a John Hyatt show a few years back…I would have left but he’s a favorite of my wife and she stayed for every note.

Many bands I won’t even go see because I know I won’t enjoy it or maybe not even see the whole show.  And there are certain venues I avoid altogether because the sound is always deafening (The Boulder Theater, for one).

I do have tinnitus, which varies in intensity and intrusiveness.  I try to protect my hearing now, wish I’d started that younger.

Atari Teenage Riot in 1998 at a festival. They were extremely loud during their set but when they were about to end they let their keyboardist shower the audience with an incredible onslaught of just digital noise. A pure, screeching, overdriven, chaotic cacophony that went on for quite a few minutes. I loved it. But as I felt my body bending backwards from the sheer power of the sound I noticed that maybe it´s a bit loud. Too late: For a few days I felt like I had pillows covering my ears, which, as it eventually went away, left a slight high-pitched tinnitus-beep that´s been with me ever since. I took it as a warning, I really like my hearing, and now I always put something in my ears.

Here´s a recording from a year later that gives you an idea of what happened there. I love how the it seems to start with a song only to descent into noise at 0:37.

Slade Til Deaf Do Us Part tour, many Motörhead gigs, the last being in 2007 which got progressively louder until it was so loud I didn’t recognise Ace Of Spades or Overkill. Countless gigs over 40 years (mostly rock) where my ears still rang days after the show has left me with very mild tinnitus, but luckily my hearing is ok and I can still enjoy music, but loud gigs are a thing of the past!

Iron Maiden @ MSG 3/30/16. My earls literally rang for 5 days straight. It got to the point where I was truly nervous it wouldn’t stop-honestly could hardly hear anything else but the ringing…I recovered but I’ve definitely done some permanent damage. 
 

Seen Maiden 3 other times and my ears rang but only for a day or 2…

It’s hard to recall, but probably deep purple in ~’72.  There were a few other loud ones. 

I’ve had tinnitus for probably 30 years. One day I noticed a low level ringing in my right ear. I usually can ignore it. My wife says it’s because I play my music too loud (I’m pretty sure that’s not it, as I rarely play it at >85 db. The doctor told me to play music to drown out the ringing . . . I win! ;-)  I’m pretty sure my hearing issues resulted from equipment (power saws, lawn mowers). 

The tinnitus hasn’t gotten worse, though last year I had an episode where the ringing increased so much it would wake me at night. That lasted only a couple of days, but I had my hearing checked (I have a loss in one ear for a narrow bandwidth). The ENT dr put me on a course of steroids to see if the loss could be repaired, but sadly no go. He said I’ll just have to live with it.