LOUDEST Concert and Tinnitus

Woodstock was very loud. So were two Jimi Hendrix concerts; a number of Jefferson Airplane concerts; Jeff Back. But the loudest, the one that hurt me in the moment and continues to, was Junior Brown at the Turning Point, a tiny cellar club in Piermont, NY. I sat ~11 feet from him. He only used one Fender Reverb Twin, but cranked it like crazy. By then I used earplugs, but forgot to bring them (oh, well). My ears started ringing that night and never stopped.

Not complaining. It’s actually OK. I still can listen to music (sometimes moderately loud for short periods) and hear it/enjoy it.

Black Sabbath 1972 maybe or some local Blues Clubs that are way too loud. Always carry earplugs to any kind of show. Start young.

I have had Tinnitus for 8 Years. It only gets worse and never goes away. It is pretty loud but somehow the brain tunes it out most of the time. It doesn't seen to interfere with listening unless I think about it, 

As noted, it is hard to say since we didn’t have SPL meters with us, but I’d say The Replacements at a small warehouse bar show. They had brought in some speaker stacks and enough power for a large arena and played LOUD. I ended up going outside to be able to better hear the band. LOL.

A few years ago, I went to an Umphrey’s McGee show in Greensboro at a very poorly thought-out venue. It was atrociously loud and echoey. I had some not so good ear protection ear plugs that didn’t do much of anything. Not long after that I developed 8000Hz tinnitus.

The tinnitus is always there. Sometimes it is louder, other times softer, but it never goes away. I simply resign myself to try to ignore it since there are no legitimate treatments at this time - none. Don’t fall for any snake oil crap on YouTube either.

As an aside, I hate that some medical professionals advertise or even call themselves things like, "Carolina Hearing and Tinnitus" when they can't offer any real treatments for it.  Seems like false advertising and just a hook to get you to come in so they can sell you hearing aids that you might not need. 

In fact, it isn’t even well understood by medical science yet. They aren’t even sure how it is related to hearing or even if it is, or if it is some underlying brain/nervous system interaction perhaps set off by loud sounds. One theory is that the brain has been switched or forced to hearing the sounds of your own nervous system’s "sampling rate", hence the often 8000Hz that people hear. That’s just a guess.

I’d hope more money might be spent on figuring out its causes, its nature, and developing a treatment. With 15% to 20% of people affected by it, you’d think there’d be some financial payoff in finding a cure.

For most shows now I go to a small venue in Winston-Salem called The Ramkat and they are smart about it. They turn the music up enough to make it impactful but not stupid loud.

@moonwatcher 

With 15% to 20% of people affected by it, you’d think there’d be some financial payoff in finding a cure.

I would never have guessed that the percentage was as high as that, but after reading the posts above I can now believe it.

Unfortunately, tinnitus still appears to be yet another area where the science is still in its infancy awaiting a major breakthrough.

I worked for 33 years at Delta Airlines on the ramp , also went to 96 Grateful Dead concerts. But the loudest has to of been hawkwind my ears hurt for 2 weeks . But I did not develop tinnitus in my left ear till after I retired from Delta . I have had tinnitus for the last 17 years but still enjoy my stereo . I am 70 now and very grateful I still enjoy music but not many live shows anymore. When working at Delta I also had season tickets for the Chicago symphony for 6 years what a wonderful experience that was . I probably saw another 100 concerts in addition to the above.

Marc