Loudest show you've been to

[MillionsOfSpiders]

AC/DC. 

When I saw Iron Maiden in Feb they weren't louder than GnR, about the same. I saw Maiden in an arena rather than stadium. 

[JimMorrison4]

Slayer. Saw them in a smaller venue. My God.

Iron Maiden a couple months ago. 3 rows back. Longest and worst case of tinnitus I've ever had from a concert.

Black Label Society. They had enough amps to be loud in an open stadium, much less a 6000 seat venue. My father in law had to go walk around the concourse because he said the sound was making him sick.

Fear Factory in a House of Blues. The drums sounded like machine guns.

No GNR show that I've been to stands out as being very loud.

 

[Loot Man]

Motörhead. I saw them 4 times and they played fucking loud (and good).  

[dgnr]

AC/DC too. I remember that during their intro video - in an open venue with crazy wind - I was feeling I was in a movie theater with all those fancy 4D sounds. GNR in the same venue but front row wasn't nearly that loud.

[wasteofammo]

Axl/DC and Van Halen. 

Halen I had to take breaks during show, It felt like my head was going to explode.  

[houseri]

Marilyn Manson 2001. Mindblowing loud, could not here anything after that (great) show

Edited August 4, 2017 by houseri

[ThermoNuclearWarrior]

Pantera - January 1998, ears were ringing for days. I saw them another 5 times before and after that, but that show sticks out. 

Sleep is another one that comes to mind. They're a different type of loud though, you hear them with more than just your ears. 

Napalm Death shows are always deafening as well.

 

 

[Silverburst80]

2 hours ago, Oldest Goat said:

At the Nivara Lounge to see this guy:
 

What was loud af was the local rock/punk bands that opened for him especially since it's a small basement venue so it was really way too fucking loud for me.

I don't know what i just watched but boy does he have a lovely voice....the man not the puppet i mean.

Edited August 4, 2017 by Silverburst80

[drbunnig]

My ears were ringing for several days after Fear Factory in 2010. Alice Cooper in either 2005 or 2007 was really loud too.

[Sekh-met]

There were many smaller shows I have been to that left me almost deaf for a few days, don't remember which ones though. Sometimes the drums are so loud that it almost gives me heart arrhythmia .
Went to most of these with a friend and she always tells me that the loudest gig she went was A Place To Bury Strangers. Will find out how bad it is this fall when they play Vienna..expectations are high.

GNR never seemed very loud to me and to be honest I am thankful for that. 

[bucketfoot]

Motorhead.

4 hours ago, ThermoNuclearWarrior said:

Sleep is another one that comes to mind. They're a different type of loud though, you hear them with more than just your ears.

Great comment.

[Nicklord]

I'm really sad I never saw Motorhead in an arena, saw them twice on festivals but it's not the same 

[Zeppelin]

The Down/Megadeth/Heaven & Hell show I went to back in 2007. I distinctly remember wondering if my ears were going to be ringing forever while I was walking at university the week after that show.

[Mendez]

Loudest was some local-ish ska band as part of a little mini fest. Shit instantly gave me ringing after like 2 songs. Tiny room that only fit about 100 people, with a too loud of a PA. Oddly enough the other bands that went on after them didn't have this problem

 

Saw Metallica a couple days ago and that was just a tiny notch too loud, but still completely enjoyable

[Eric Cantona]

One I played. I was supposed to play with a band but the band cancelled, so I had to use backing tracks. I remember when a song started the first notes I played were loud as shit, and for the rest of my songs I barely heard anything from my guitar, but the backing track was loud as all hell. I remember fucking up the "climax" solo.

[Bono]

Soul Asylum - Calgary, November 1993
U2 - Vancouver, April 2005
AC/DC - Las Vegas, February 2016

Those are the three loudest shows I've been to. The U2 and AC/DC shows were not a good loud. Both were just way too loud on the high end to the point it wasn't that enjoyable at points. 

[Carburetta]

I've found Guns pretty loud on this tour, Coma outro hurt my ears in Slane, surprisingly didn't see any stacks further back as I was leaving, and it was a lot quieter.

I found Guns loud in London too. Wore ear plugs to Guns in Copenhagen and they were a bit too effective.

[Tucknroll]

Saw John fogerty at the Ryman and it was painfully loud. He even got sued once for eardrum damage to someone in the crowd!

[Bansidhe]

Killing Joke supporting Motley Crue at the SECC in Glasgow in about 2004/5.

I saw Motorhead 10+ times and they certainly made a racket but this was outrageous.

It was the bass & synths more than anything else.

Hilarious seeing the tight trousered Crue types being completely bewildered and a bit scared of Jaz & the lads.

[classicrawker]

two that stick out for me are Johnny Winter at the Waterbury Palace theater on his comeback from drugs  Still Alive and Well tour in the early 70's.....It was painfully loud and I felt like I had ear muffs on for days afterwards.

the other would be Emerson, Lake and Palmer at the Yale bowl in 1974. they had a quad sound system with these huge speaker on either side of where we were sitting in the stands so we were surrounded by sound......it was so crystal clear and sounded amazing I did not notice how loud it was until after the concert at which point I had trouble hearing my friends talking in the car ride home......

Edited August 7, 2017 by classicrawker

[MrShankly]

For me, it would be when i seen Turbonegro 

 Seen them at King Tuts in glasgow and jesus christ were they loud, especially the vocals. Was a shame cause it made it harder to actually enjoy them. 

[The Black]

My bloody valentine.

They actually handed out earplugs to everyone prior to entering the venue and had sign warning people to wear them. I remember this guy in front of us acting cool like he didn't need them. At first he was doing ok, but a few songs into the set he was desperately searching for them. They close their set with a huge cacophonous earblistering noise that goes on for at least ten minutes. It was like having your face in front of an airplane engine on full power.

[CheapJon]

Tribulation probably, opening for Ghost a couple of years back. Never heard an opening act playing louder than the main band.  I was way farther from the stage than usual but I was blown away by theyr loudness. 

I think Wednesday 13 comes in second, but that was in a small club with me being very close to the stage. It was the first time I was experiencing ringing ears for days and I got a bit scared actually.   

[Jabberwocky]

Atari Teenage Riot at 9:30 Club in DC back in 97.

It was like the inverse of a rave

[Len Cnut]

PiL.  There's a particular song from their early days called Religion which is almost entirely bass and drum driven.  In fact it is entirely bass and drum driven.  So anyway this one time i go and see the lads right and the bass players playing this big weird fuckin' upright looking monstrosity....and Rotten starts going' 'more bass....more bass' in this repetitive monotone way...and the bass gradually goes up and up and up...to the point where it's so loud it's no longer an audio thing but it's something you can physically feel, in your teeth.  And Rotten keeps going' 'more bass...more bass!'.  A few of the girls, for some odd reason, did that nuclear war duck and cover thing, like literally hit the deck and put this hands tight over their ears...not that it would've done a lot of good because as i say you could physically feel the bass.  I've seen em do this in two different gigs, one was at either Shepherds Bush or Brixton and the second was at that fuckin'  gay club under Charring Cross Station whose name escapes me right now, where it was even worse cuz it's like this cavernous place that felt like it was gonna fuckin' collapse under the pneumatic buzz of bass.  It was fuckin'  mental.