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

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.

Dinosaur Jr. had technical difficulties at the SECC and i also think they came on slighly late and i'm pretty sure they played for a lot less than 45 mins.

i was at that show too and if i remember correctly their first two songs were "only shallow" and "when you sleep" (don't remember in which order). was watching from the balcony b/c mates didn't want to be on the floor, but we went down later and it was as loud as anything i've heard before or since

having seen shellac a number of times, i can't say that i remember them being particularly loud

i imagine the effect of dinosaur jr's volume being somewhat different than mbv, and not entirely comparable -- esp b/c of the godawful pentatonic scale worst-vibrato-in-the-world wack guitar crap 'soloing' that mascis insists on perpetrating even when he should know better

*cough* Lost in Translation soundtrack to thread, plus innumerable remixes?

Yes, this is true. I saw one Sugar show, and in the middle of the set they played a short acoustic set. My ears were ringing so much from the electric songs that I could barely hear the acoustic guitars.

I thought Body Count were incredibly loud at Lollapalooza 1991, maybe the loudest band I'd heard to that point (note: I hadn't heard too many bands to that point), but it was an outdoor stadium show. I'd have to think that the 2005 version of me, who has been to loads of noisy gigs in tiny clubs since then, wouldn't find them all that loud. Maybe it's a good thing that I didn't see MBV in 1992. I probably would have melted.

I have to say however the most intense live listening experience i have ever had was Zbigniew Karkowski, polish noise-meister. it really felt as if the sound had entered my cranium and started to burrow it's way out. i could not even form a thought. it is actually stated that he blew up a toilet somewhere once... the thing with him that is scary however is that is not so much the decibels but, the frequencies. he has cleared out whole venues and he almost inspired a panic attack in me. i suppose that is the effects of training with xenakis. he even said in an interview once "my work won't hurt as long as you allow it to enter you and you don't become upset." or something to that effect. insane.

the only other serious competition is the cannons during AC/DC's "For Those About To Rock."

The Dream Syndicate (1983 at the Anti-Club)
Curve ("Cuckoo" tour in 1995 or so)
Husker Du (1985 at some hotel in downtown LA)
Yes ("90215" tour at the LA Forum 1984?)... I'm not kidding about this by the way, for an arena show this was amazingly skull-poundingly loud. Old prog-heads were holding their ears all the way through.

Sugar at Cambridge in 94 were so loud and the acoustics of the venue so shite that you struggled to make out one song from another at times.

Surprise nomination: Wedding Present at Birmingham Institute circa 'Seamonsters'.

Winner (surprise surprise): Swans on 'Children of God' tour. Ow.

The Mego laptop orchestra (Merzbow, Hecker, PIta, Farmer's Manual, Russell Haswell etc.) at Sonar Festival years ago was pretty goddamn ear-destroying. I reckon loud high end feels far more punishing than loud low end, amirite?

I played a show with Pleasurehorse at Fort Thunder years ago and that dude had his own tall ass stack of amps on a roll up dolly and he was shit-yer-pants loud.

Black Sabbath reunion show at San Jose Arena = surprisingly not all that loud.

Slayer was also pretty fucking loud, too.

I saw the Blur/MBV/Dinosaur Jr Rollercoaster at the Manchester Apollo, and that was not nearly as exciting.

Ha ha, yup. Saw em at Instal. The venue staff were actively forcing ear plugs on people. I'm glad I'd got slightly better ones from Boots. Could only take so much, but it was a lot of fun.

Borbetomagus were also hellaciously loud and a bit lame cos of it. When I stepped into the street I could actually hear all the free jazz undertones that had been buried under the white noise. It was such a small venue and I was unprotected so it made me feel a bit queasy and indeed drained. I needed a bag of chips and a stiff drink afterwards.

I saw Dinosaur a dozen times or so in the mid to late '80s and never remember them being *that* loud, by the way. I mean, not like Husker Du or Black Flag or MBV or Motorhead loud. Husker Du used to play so loud you basically couldn't hear anything, they just created this huge vacuum, it was really weird.

The only person I've seen that people have mentioned here is Zbigniew Karkowski - I remember it was kind of loud, but I'm glad it wasn't as loud a performance as ehbenoit heard (I say this assuming it was a different one). The sounds were also not constant or even long, and I could tell when they would come from his movements. I remember Oval being quite unpleasant to hear perform because of the extreme loudness as well as the changing frequencies causing shifting sympathetic vibrations in my body. I didn't leave (I was working during the performance) but was at least able to protect my ears. I don't know if he wanted to harm the audience or not, but I wasn't happy about being there.

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.