LOUDEST Concert and Tinnitus

Third vote for AC/DC - saw them late seventies in a small venue in Dublin - few hundred capacity. At the back of the hall the bass drum was like being hammered in the chest like punch bag. A week of threshold shift followed - not ringing but the loss of probably 15k hz of bandwidth. But it taught me a lesson about hearing protection.

Rory Gallagher in '78.  My hearing was crap for a week.  I worked in the music distribution business and would get comped show tickets all the time.  But I learned early on right after Rory to just stuff some tissue in my ears.  I ended up with a mild case of tinnitus after standing and watching a pile driving machine pound in a huge support.  I was about 50 feet away.  Stood there 10 minutes.  It comes and goes but the day after, I thought something was way wrong.  It's barely even noticeable most days.

Frank Zappa at an old skating rink in Honolulu was the loudest for me. Now I can’t tell the difference between 320kbps and wav!

Ringing for a week, and other subjectives have been replaced with an iPhone.
And the Etymotic ear plugs are like $15 (USD), so there are not a lot of excuses…

If they worked out a way to power the phone through the microphone I could have charged the battery.

This was at the Margaret Cort Arena in Melbourne on Feb 19th.

+1 for AC/DC (Joe Louis Arena, 1988 or '89)

+1 for The Who (Pontiac Silverdome, 1980ish).

Kiss, Cobo Arena (1977)