Gianantonio wrote:
WHAT?!?!?!?

Right Poes wrote:
I can't stand earplugs it feels and sounds weird with them in.

That said as a gigging musician for the past 30+ years I have a couple friends who have been with me for much of the ride who are deaf in one ear. One of them nearly died from a phonic induce injury-no really. Fortunately he survived the operation that included a portion of his brain. He helped me with a recording last week. He had to relearn how to walk due to his equilibrium being destroyed in the life saving operation.

Back in the day we did at times the whole stacks and big subs games. It's a rush to feel a sonic wave off your pant leg during a show. The vibrations make you numb all over before the night is done and can take hours to come down from. Most clubs will not let you get away with this though so all that gear power is a waste.
These days we carry lunch box amps. Dang if they don't sound better anyway.

the irony is that in the 'olden days' the musicians went deaf way before the crowd did, but today, a guitarist can be playing through a 5 watt amp (which can get pretty loud), but that amp, further amplified though the house system), can deafen anyone near the pa system.

and i have heard literally hundreds of guys saying the same thing as you, for years. i just made a conscious decision to not lose my hearing. playing with earplugs does get some getting used to, but once you do, it's actually better--in all ways. it isn't the mid range guitars that are killing your hearing (although they do contribute). it's the drummers bashing on their cymbals that do stage musicians in.

but out in the crowd, it's the long, brutal dbs being pumped into their heads.

how many times as a youth, did you go home with your ears ringing after concerts? after two or three times for me (early on), that was enough. i'm not smart, but i knew then that if i kept that shit up, i would be deaf by 50.

well, i'm 50, and i can hear as well as can be expected for someone of that age, and when tested, can hear better than most people half my age. we all lose some high frequency response as we age, but beyond 18k, it's all hiss anyway.
my kids are in their 20's now. i try to tell them that the bands they listen to all wear some form of hearing protection. one believes me, and is kind of following in my footsteps. the other is the rebel, and will be deaf at 55.

besides, kids these days are going to go deaf from all the music they listen to through micro headphones/ear buds. they have no clue how many dbs they are pumping into their heads, for extended periods of time.

Right Poes wrote:
I can't stand earplugs it feels and sounds weird with them in.

For years, while living in an apartment with neighbors from hell, I used "Super Hearos," very soft foam plugs that block 34dB of noise while being so comfortable I've often forgotten that I had them in my ears.

Earlier forms of foam earplugs used to irritate my ear canals to the point that they'd induce ear infections.

I wish I'd had Super Hearos back in my younger years. My hearing is pretty shot.

Brian Diaz wrote:
Musicians not using ear protection seems to me like photographers who like to stare into the sun.

Interesting analogy, I have all to often taken a strobe in the face during set up including a Fresnel. Sucks and is never intentional, I bet I'm far from alone.

GRMACK wrote:
I was wondering if the entire set is 100% canned and the instruments are somehow not even capable of making a sound (rubber strings, etc.) if that is even possible.  It just seemed to odd it went 100% sound to 100% dead zero sound and not even a peep out of their throats.

Are performances now 100% canned and not even the instruments make any noise?

well, obviously, if the power was cut, anything amplified would be totally incapable of making any sound. if you are saying that you were close enough to acoustic instruments (and voices) and you heard none, then you were probably watching a fake show.

you can never be sure anymore, unless it's a real act, that prides itself on its playing, warts and all.

just tonight, i was flipping through the tv. the nfl pro bowl was on, but i happened to flip to it during halftime. there was a band playing, and i could tell they were faking it. it's so fucking annoying. at one point, the guitarist went to grab his pick from his teeth (why he would go to that length in the scam is beyond me), but in the couple of seconds it took for him to do that, you heard the sound of a strumming chord from his guitar.

it's so cheesy. but, after many complaints, i don't think they advertise these "obnoxiously commercial" sets as 'live' any more. i believe they have switched the verbiage to say something like "performance", but never use the word live.

Lovely Day Media wrote:
I went to see a heavy metal band play once. I was supposed to be taking pictures. About halfway into the show, I realized that everyone in the band was wearing ear protection. I wasn't. When I got home, things had never been more quiet. It took 3-4 days to get back to normal. I'm not doing that again, at least not without protection.

that's a problem in the metal world. most of the bands wear hearing protection, but it's common--in the crowd--to have patrons vilified as being 'pussies' if they wear any ear protection. the bands themselves should tell their idiotic fans that they are wearing hearing protection, but it would fly in the face of the whole "if it's too loud, you're too old" bullshit.

buncha hypocrites, who are potentially exposing their 'fans' to major hearing loss.