Loudest of the loud: Dinosaur Jr. 2005 or My Bloody Valentine 1992?

One thing is true: I would much rather have fucked up my hearing seeing MBV than seeing either Dino Jr or the Secret Machines.

I think the Scorpions have the world record now? beat out the longstanding Who record?

Yes, at Glasgow SECC. Every band was loud but MBV were astonishingly so. People looked totally shell shocked by the end of You made me realise.

Manowar look like vikings and play really whack Euro-metal, and were listed in the 1995 Guinness Book of World Records for being the world's loudest band. According to the Guinness entry, "two sound specialists officiated, measuring and documenting with painstaking care as Manowar shook the city [of Hanover, Germany], playing live at a staggering 129.5 decibels through 10 tons of amplifiers and speakers measuring 40 feet in length and 21 feet in height."

its close. seeing mbv in 92 i didnt wear earplugs and lived! and when i saw dino last week they were huge loud, but i did have plugs in but there were amp-related problems involved so i would have to say mbv92.

Anyone seen both EHG and MBV to compare?

Dinosaur Jr., I must say, always BORED THE CRAP OUT OF ME!

YAY! LOGIC AT LAST!!!!

i saw dino jr. in the 90's, and yeah, they made me wish i had brought a bed with me. unbelievably boring

Bahaha. OTM.

The loudest show I ever went to was July 3, 1993 at Lounge AX. Whitehouse sonically proved to me that hearing is indeed related to balance.

for your cross-referencing pleasure.

I do not remember Dinosaur being excessively loud when I saw them in '89.

I second Jordan's contention that playing unbearably loud is lame.

It was Mary Chain, Spiritualized, Curve, and in Los Angeles also Medicine. Spiritualized recorded their Fucked Up Inside album at this show in L.A.

I saw MBV on two nights out of three in Los Angeles without earplugs, what was I thinking? Saw Dinosaur Jr. in 1994 and it wasn’t even close to as loud but that wasn’t the question.

I saw Motorhead at the Stone Pony in the early 90s. That was quite loud.

Also saw MBV on the Isn't Anything tour. They were loud, but it sounds like they were much louder on the Loveless tour.

When I saw them earlier this year they sounded pretty weak, volume-wise--Kylesa, who played first, were way more punishing.

MBV wins by a sonic boom, easily.

Next loudest shows: Nomeansno in 1991, Unwound in 1998, Kinski w/ members of Acid Mothers Temple in 2003, and Broadcast in 2003.

And, yeah, duh, The Melvins... especially most recently, w/ Jello Biafra.

Buzzkunst were phenomenally loud at the ICA in 2002 but that was probably just my thirtysomething non-gig-going ears convulsing into shock at something 100x louder than my stereo.

Do many people think to measure the noise level at any of these shows? Like, say, the soundman?!

Are bar tenders and sound men not subject to any work safety standards such as they have for trades like heavy industry?

Dinosaur Jr were fucking loud at the Forum this year, and I was upstairs! Never saw MBV, sadly.

I saw two out of the three nights of the Loveless tour. You made me realize was amped up. They were so much louder in 2018. It was so loud that I was plugging my ears, that was when somebody gave me earplugs. They turned it up after every song, it was nuts. I also saw Dinosaur Jr. In November of 1994 and that was also ear crushing loud.

I think my loudest show was Built to Spill at Slims in San Francisco - 1997?

Raves were louder and I spent one and a half chasing them in and around LA
warehouses. My hearing is shot bur probably should be worse as I never wore plugs.

Xp Matt, small world/nation! Yeah that day was a stinker!!! I’d just graduated high school, booked my ticket, flew down, met someone from the internet at the front gate and then begged a security guard to let me in because I was still 17 haha. The purple official mbv shirt and black bootleg mbv shirt I bought on the day still get a lot of wear. You’ve made me realise I might have undersold the volume. 15 minutes of You Made Me Realise to finish it all out was definitely testing my tolerance after a long day hah

Deerhoof is my recent painful live experience. God I couldn’t stand any more of it by the end, very much come to the acceptance that I rarely need “that” sort of music. + My eyes nearly rolled out of my skull every time the drummer stopped the set to do the worst standup routine of all time

I’ve seen really loud shows and Mogwai like 3 times but I’ve never really experienced that sublime religious violent loudness that I read about here.. Sonic Youth in the late 00s was probably the loudest but it was a lot of high pitched feedback. Great show but the loudness didn’t alter my consciousness or anything.

My dad saw Neil Young and Crazy Horse in the early 90s and said it was so loud that it scared him, that’s the kind of shit I want lol.

Sunn O))) was the most powerful body-vibrating noise I’ve experienced

Not sure if I mentioned this anywhere upthread but I saw MBV and Dino Jr on February 19, 1992 in Orlando, Florida. MBV seemed like the louder band, but then they did play first and they used feedback and noise more than Dino Jr did. The volume didn’t bother me that night, I was young and just enjoying everything.

seen sunn o))), mbv and dinosaur jr
sunn o))) was the most loud

but I guess also the smallest venue

loudest/best: Unwound, Kawabata Makoto solo @ Terrastock 2008
loudest/worst: Nice Strong Arm circa 1987, Gary Numan circa 2013

(Unwound show was in a tiny basement, right before Fake Train but after Sara had joined)

Hüsker Dü 1985 were pretty loud

Buzzcocks FOC were ridiculously loud at Dingwalls. Painful.

In the early aughts they used to say Black Dice were the loudest band ever but I saw them once and didn’t feel they were uncomfortably loud.

Sunno))) is a very specific kind of loud, well mixed, not a lot of sharp painful treble. Definitely need plugs, but a very unique sort of discomfort. As opposed to a couple of early High on Fire shows I saw, or I want to say Mogwai. Though honestly, a couple of the louder shows I saw were arena shows by Nine Inch Nails and Metallica.

Loudest of the loud for me would be Manowar 1984 vs Motörhead any time, indie kids can't compete with that sorry

picture i took of swans at limelight. i was standing directly in front of the huge speakers on the left side of the stage. kinda god-like. i did not care about ears back then apparently. it was massive. ted parsons was massive.

https://scontent-bos5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.18172-8/10014149_10152989872817137_1844411752821021782_o.jpg?_nc_cat=104&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=a74216&_nc_ohc=c_rHlK5uM0MQ7kNvgFi-fWK&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-bos5-1.xx&_nc_gid=AT4Q1VZjkU2GRV1NJy9bvSG&oh=00_AYDia43YN_WGZZu9LARj7A1bkjfJ_ilcV90CnAJ_he2gCA&oe=67609641

wider angle...

https://scontent-bos5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.18172-8/1399732_10152989869072137_4991361121037997380_o.jpg?_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=a74216&_nc_ohc=xIouZ1P5BDIQ7kNvgHTchQO&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-bos5-1.xx&_nc_gid=AMR7mUk-FdWAUPiFQ46_Sbm&oh=00_AYDftc-BdCe3MdWlGTjkHp-t92AYLEaSo9qUswTMFQus7A&oe=67609E74

action shot with my ten dollar camera:

https://scontent-bos5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.18172-8/1979090_10152989874767137_4682779992592093522_o.jpg?_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=a74216&_nc_ohc=91-JKD3bVU4Q7kNvgGfg_2z&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-bos5-1.xx&_nc_gid=Ah57cXTiHRV8DiIZSRzjK_r&oh=00_AYCiDAv789jPCvzjkZdKMlfIOudvD4xfeZLVWcgBfALiRg&oe=6760A4CA

lol

I saw the Stateside Rollercoaster incarnation which was....if I recall correctly...the Jesus & Mary Chain, Blur and Curve...no? That's a damn long time ago.

It was Mary Chain, Spiritualized, Curve, and in Los Angeles also Medicine. Spiritualized recorded their Fucked Up Inside album at this show in L.A.

I saw MBV on two nights out of three in Los Angeles without earplugs, what was I thinking? Saw Dinosaur Jr. in 1994 and it wasn’t even close to as loud but that wasn’t the question.

---

I think the loudest show I have ever seen was the Flaming Lips during their Clouds Taste Metallic tour. It was at Slims in San Francisco on May of 1996 and my hearing was shot for days. I went to a bunch of Raves in my younger days and they always seem to do more damage than any rock band has ever done, seen hundreds of shows. That is why seeing MBV during those days was just another typical damaging my hearing again this week kind of thing
― BeeOK (boo radley), Wednesday, December 14, 2005 11:17 PM (eighteen years ago)

These are some of my first posts on ULM. Posted - 25 times all in 2005 as boo radley.

the physically loudest gig I've ever been to was MBV in 2008, by a considerable margin. I have seen Motorhead, Slayer, Swans, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Melvins, Mogwai - all of those were v loud, but not even close.

the most damage to my eardrums was done by the Jesus & Mary Chain in 1998 and Lebenden Toten in 2017. those gigs were in small venues so I think the dB were definitely lower than the bigger bands but that was the most physical pain and prolonged deafness I endured. I couldn't even hear my own voice after the JAMC gig, I could just hear the vibrations in the roof of my mouth

honourable mention to Broadcast who v unexpectedly were so fucking loud supporting YLT about 25 years ago I thought the bass drum was going to cave my chest in

All tomorrow's parties melbourne 2013. Gy!be to Swans to MBV to finish the day, but none of them were as ear curdingly loud as Thee Oh Sees playing the early afternoon spot.

LOL I was at this as well, what a BIZARRE venue choice this festival was (an indoor sports centre out in the way outer suburbs). Terrible acoustics. I lay on the floor up the back while Godspeed were playing. MBV were good, but the sound was pretty fudgy. And yeah christ it was hot.

The *better* show was the one they did a few days later at the Metro/Palace up on Bourke st. I stood at the mixing desk for the sweet spot, crammed plugs AND fingers in my ears and just rode the violence of the noise.

Oh but the gig that did for me hearing-wise was Mogwai at the Prince of Wales in St Kilda in ...I wanna say, 2002? 2003? I did not wear eaplugs, I didn't know how loud they'd be. "My Father my King" was fucking brutal. I went out onto the balcony after the show to chat to people and realised I couldn't hear myself talking.

that not being able to hear yourself is the weirdest thing and the only time that's happened to me was after the JAMC gig in 1998. it was Jim who randomly ran off stage ending the gig that night. William shrugged and apologised. I assume they flipped a coin back then to decide who'd fuck it up

I saw JAMC exactly seven days ago, the last day of their US tour. They are just a well oiled machine with Jim handing all the vocals.

yeah Trayce I saw them at the Metro in Sydney on that tour, MFMK was like a Space Shuttle launch, although I was oddly disappointed that their performance was so similar to the recorded versions. Somewhere on YouTube there is a hilarious video of them playing "Christmas Steps" and when the bass comes in Stuart jumps, startled by how insanely loud it is.
Bee OK's post gave me a sec to find it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNVua-kot5A

I hope JAMC were better than when I saw them a year ago, one of the shittest gigs I've been to by a band I like xp

Xp Trayce
Yeah that venue was whack! "The Westgate Entertainment Centre". Everything on the building was written in comic sans font, which is like as funny as anything can be to a hyper-ironic 17yo (self-derogatory). A chatty security guard outside hit us up after it was all over to personally exclaim how loud it was. He asked what sort of band they were like? Accadacca? Barnsey? Meatloaf Nirvana? I said "yeah i guess kinda like nirvana, but hazy, more psychedlic". He liked that.

I did say to Elvis Telecom at the show that is was the worst JAMC show I have seen but the last time I saw them, in May of 2017, it was their best, even better than Rollercoaster.

Unfortunately it was probably Teenage Fanclub who were my worst.

Xpost

I've seen JAMC a lot and the standout of all of them is the first reunion tour when Loz from Ride was drumming for them. You can't really be sloppy when Keith Moon is at the controls.

I've written elsewhere on ILX about this - Black Flag was loud but the Ramones in 1984 was like standing in front of a fighter jet. I had no idea LAPD was raiding the Palladium after Black Flag played because they literally could not penetrate the sound of the Ramones. MBV/Spectrum second LA show at the Santa Monica Civic was an experimental infrasound test. Dozens of shoegazers scattered on the staircases - completely passed out and in various levels of pain from sonic attack. Poor kids didn't take the warnings seriously. MBV's Coachella warm-up gig at the El Rey in 2009 is probably my Mt. Everest of Sound Power. Word got out that someone had a seizure during the soundcheck and had to be taken away in an ambulance, which just validated the expectations of the thrill ride crowd.

Yes' 90215 show at the LA Forum unexpectedly super loud - especially for the 80s arena rock era.

As someone at that Santa Monica show — yup.