LOUDEST Concert and Tinnitus

I also want to repeat, to answer the OP's second question: tinnitus does not have to get progressively worse, though you do need to protect from further loud shocks going forward... 

High quality hearing aids these days can and do diminish, and in some cases eliminate, tinnitus.  Some even have tinnitus reduction programs built in to retrain the brain; however, even just the recovery of at least some high frequency hearing gives your brain something to focus on besides the tinnitus which thereby reduces (or eliminates) your perception of the tinnitus.  

Interesting thread. 
 

Probably the loudest concert and the closest to a truly religious experience to me was The Who in ~1969… Chicago. The last time they played Tommy for a long time (they said that was the last time ever… but it was not). 
 

Fortunately, I went to concerts ignorant of the possibility of hearing damage and do not have tinnitus. I started to realize coverts were too much in the 80’s and started stuffing paper in my ears, then just stopped going to concerts. 
 

I have been going to acoustic jazz and symphony concerts over the last 30 years. I have poked my head into many rock concerts… usually with napkin in my ears and just don’t go any more.

Fortunately at 70 I still have my hearing and can appreciate my audio system. Mostly luck more than great sense. 

I’ve been to many great & loud concerts since 1972 but I saw & sort of heard the New Riders of the Purple Sage w/ Jerry Garcia joining in at the Academy of Music in NYC in 1975. We weren’t even sitting close & in the mezzanine pretty far back but it was crazy loud to the point where I could barely tell who I was listening to!

strange thing is back then there was no “array”  systems w/ DSP & class D amps so popular today, just big stacks of Marshall’s & Fenders but dam was it loud!  

I pity those who were close to the stage. Strangely, I saw Jerry & the Dead back then several times & it was loud but very clear & enjoyable. 

The loudest concert for me was Cheap Trick in the early 80's while I was in college.  I was sitting at the seventh row from stage in a relatively small theater.  My ears were ringing for almost a week afterward.

My tinnitus started almost 20 years ago after a company Christmas party.   There was a hired band and a dance floor.   They were playing so loud that I thought my ears were going to bleed.  I got quite depressed for a while after the onset of tinnitus.

And then a few years later,  I went to a HiFi store called Harvey Electronics in NYC looking for some new speakers.  If you live in NYC area, you've probably heard of them.  They're no longer in business.  Anyway, the sales person was showing me a pair of Sonus Faber.  He put on some Dire Straits and cranked up the amp to an insanely loud level.   Stupid me for not reacting to it and just sat there listening.   My tinnitus got way worse afterward.   Ever since that incident,  I always carry earplugs with me, and be very conscious about protecting my hearing.

These days, my tinnitus flares up once in a while, but I've learned to live with it and no longer let it bother me.

@jonwolfpell 

"Strangely, I saw Jerry & the Dead back then several times & it was loud but very clear & enjoyable. "

McIntosh powered instead of Marshall powered.