LOUDEST Concert and Tinnitus

back in the days when i was frequent at knittingfactory NYC, Larval put out BIG dB in relatively small venue! Bill Laswell was there and this dude loves his bass LOUD!

Squeeze/James at Radio City, with (dis)honorable mention to Springsteen at the United Center.  My ENT has tinnitus from being backstage at a Springsteen show.  If he cares so much about his audience, including kids and young adults, then why is it so f@&$ing loud.  Another (dis)honorable mention to every wedding and bar mitzvah I've gone to in the last 20 years!  Since I tried my best to use hearing protection, my tinnitus was very mild until I had a recent sudden hearing loss, unrelated to concert attendance.

Without question it was Bassnectar at Red Rocks. I was half way up the amphitheater and my decibel meter in my phone measured 115. It was nuts and forced Red Rocks to change the rules and ban Bassnectar for ever. 
 

as far as tinnitus, I’ve had since a teen due to ear infections. Nothing has seemed to help. I always protect my ears at concerts. 

Some of the ones that had my ears ringing for days were in no particular order, 

Grand Funk

The Cars (Panorama tour - everything cranked to 11!)

Ministry

The Killers (everything super-loud and super-distorted)

The Verve (everything super-loud and super-distorted)

In the older days, the PA gear just wasn't as good and would distort, making the volume just that much worse. These days, it's more down to the sound crew, I think, as I've heard some of these bands at other times, even in the same venue, and the sound was great.

I've had tinnitus for many years; it's a hissing sound that is sometimes louder and sometimes softer, but it's relatively easy to ignore. 

Hot Tuna (electric obviously) in the mid - late 70's.  Louder than all of the others - Stones, Who, etc