Maddy Prior thinks she sang in a loud band. She was closer to the drummer than the audience. And she has been singing for 50 years now, so the exposure is cumulative. But it is all subjective. Metallica endorse a brand of earplugs.
Thomann sell professional gear at a range of prices. The fit is important.
I know that I’m losing the higher frequencies. I don’t enjoy my ears ringing or tinnitus in the following days. Enjoy Nightwish.
Ifi make earplugs too. Specifically for gigs and glow in the dark too so you can find them in dark venues.
I bought some for Mrs.FZ. She tried them a few times and said they work well. Though, she said if I dropped 30Kgs and stopped snoring it would be a better solution.
Kool festival ones are marketed now, which can only be a good thing.
I tend to agree. My wife refused to go back in for the second half of the last Steeleye concert we attended as it was uncomfortably loud for her. I think the problem, though, was mainly the rather small venue and the quality of the sound system.
We’re off to hear the Unthanks new band soon. I’m hoping the sound level is acceptable.
Roger
I play in a covers charity band. Drummer has some quiet sticks, but now always uses his normal loud ones. He doesn’t have those plastic screens around him, so we all suffer
The lead guitarist has his guitar too loud, and drowns out the other guitars, and sometimes the singer. There are many times that I cant hear my guitar - now that may be a good thing.
The singer likes it loud to feel to “Boom” from us all.
So out of 6 of us, 3 want loud, 3 want quieter.
The loud ones excuses are that when you play in a room, you loose a lot of the volume when it gets absorbed by the people in the room. Doesn’t answer why we play that volume in a small practice room.
The problem is that we all think we are right, but in reality I think we are actually all wrong. We all sit in different places and have different views of the bands sound, and all have different hearing abilities.
I think the closest answer is that everyone should have their own ear pieces that are tuned for what they want to hear, then everything is controlled by the mixer on the PA. That at least ensures the balance is correct, and each band member is happy with what they hear. It wont solve the Sound engineer making the overall sound too loud.
Unfortunately that is too much expense for an occasional band like ourselves.
My son is the drummer in an indie band. They have, pretty much from the outset, worn simple ‘musicians’ earplugs when playing, but now use iem foldback with no traditional ‘wedge’ monitors. You don’t need the ‘pro’ level kit, and it’s probably cheaper (and certainly easier to transport) than decent wedge monitors. It’s a lot quieter on stage, and the audience can have it as loud as they want. Which was always louder than I wanted back when I was driving the mixer…
That’s why I have always steered clear of flower shows…
If it were just the cost of the IEM, that would probably be OK, but we would also need a better mixer and PA, as our PA only has a single monitor channel. Also suspect it will be very hard for the lead to give up his amp. Something to aspire to though
Aye - lead guitarists… 
We compromised on only one channel much of the time - they were a three piece then - but they have used the fx bus as an extra aux output. Obviously no mixer fx though.
And IEMs let you use whole-band click track if you want…
I always thought my 5W Blackstar (mic’d and fed to foh) sounded better than the guitarist’s 70W Traynor anyway…
I have recently suffered some hearing loss due to the natural ageing process (67) & now wear aids which enable me to continue enjoy music.
Tell your budding Eric Clapton to turn his amp down for the good of the band, himself & the other poor soles he is trying to deafen.
The best concert sounds I have heard were from Elton John & band, Eagles, Genesis & EC himself. These were all in 12,000 or so indoor arenas &, whilst loud, was not deafening & each performer (even the lead guitarist) could be clearly heard in the mix.
Spending time, energy & perhaps some money on the mix & overall volume levels, should produce a more cohesive sound that can be enjoyed by band & audience alike. It won’t reduce the lead guitarists status in anyway & may even attract a few more fans with great sound at bearable, & less harmful, levels.
I hear you ( no pun intended) believe me I have tried. But it gets to the point of thinking whether it’s worth the hassle or not. I will keep trying though, and recording a session often shows the issues, although they can then say it’s because we are not load enough. Will try a sound pressure meter next week at the practice
At that level, they can have whatever they want. Everybody else sometimes has to make best use of what’s available…
the worst is some of the record shops. they play a record so loud you cannot here what
the staff are saying to you when you buy a record.
Point taken.
However turning it down a bit often improves the SQ of our Hi-Fi’s. Turn any Naim system up as far as it will go & I suspect even Statement will be distorted & way, way too loud. Back it off to 12.00/1.00 o’clock & it will still sound very loud but will probably be excellent to listen to, given a large enough listening room.
A lot of bands should pay a lot more attention to the volume & I can’t imagining reducing it will cost anything. The band members & audiences shouldn’t go deaf so easily & may find the whole experience more rewarding.
In respect to the pain of many live concerts, I agree with most of this thread’s comments, but not this one if I understand you correctly. Yes, classical music can get very loud for short periods, but they don’t stay loud. My understanding is that it’s the sustained high decibels that ruin hearing.
Also, one comment says that professional musician earplugs are expensive, but online I’m finding them to be very reasonable. $35.00 to $80.00 US. But perhaps this price range is not sufficient.
Oops, I read it wrong. You agree with me about classical, choral, etc. However, a lot of jazz concerts are okay. Not all, but many. I paid a pretty buck to see John Scofield a few years back in an acoustically-fine venue but left after twenty minutes due to the volume, and there were several others that did so as well. It was such a disappointment–no, more than that, it made me angry that he couldn’t be respectful: He must have seen the bodies disappearing.
with classical music the volume must be loud. otherwise in the slow movements
you will not here anything
Would you kindly explain the relationship between pace and volume? I cannot see the link.
My wife and I saw Robocobra Quartet in the tiny room of the Castle Hotel in Manchester.
As soon as I saw the enormous speakers stacks hanging above our heads in the tiny room I mentioned to my wife that I was concerned about the volume levels.
The music was brilliant but predictably the mixing desk turned the system up way too loud.
The chap standing in front of us had ear plugs.
We hardly ever go out and had made a lot of effort to get a baby sitter and travel to the gig, so I didn’t want to spoil the evening by walking out.
So I pressed my left ear closed for the second half of the concert.
My hearing has not fully recovered in my left ear, which has made me wary of going to any gigs at all in future, which is sad as I love live music.
I just went to House of the Blues in Dallas to see Steve Vai. I knew going in what to expect. I took some fancy ($40) ear plugs that also allow conversation. They worked fine, without them I could not have made it through the entire concert. The way I look at it I have 2 choices (1) stay home, or (2) wear earplugs. I choose 2.