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Post by Mr Maltese on May 23, 2006 15:43:08 GMT -5
The Top Ten Loudest Bands ( according to Mr Maltese) I know that volume is in the ear of the beholder and there are many bands who claim to be the loudest and no doubt many are but then there are the ones who are louder than the average and I draw my conclusions based on bands I’ve seen in the past and bands who were reputed as such from different recordings ,articles and others whom have seen and heard these bands perform…these are my top ten and please I would love others to put their top ten list on here - I’d like to see what others come up with Mr. Maltese 1. Blue Cheer I think we can all mutually agree on this board who the ultimate kings are for world’s loudest rock band ever especially judging from those live boots from ’68 especially the newly discovered Denver Dog ’68 you can hear from the recording that these guys were unmatched for power and volume They were the Motorhead of the late sixties No one remotely comes close to these guys they were the first and last The Alpha and Omega
2. AC/DC No question about it these guys are consistently the loudest indoor arena rock band from the Bon Scott years all the way through the Brian Johnson era Angus and Malcolm Young are the loudest guitar combo running through their marshall stacks both sides of the stage running them clean & overdriven getting that pure marshall sound – you can’t top that I saw AC/DC with Bon Scott open for Ted Nugent at Madison Square Garden in 1979 and they totally stole Ted’s thunder (although Ted was very loud too)….. AC/DC on their 1983 Flick of the Switch tour toured with a sound system that was more than powerful enough to supply an outdoor stadium…..that system was easily 75,000 watts or better it was humongous!
3. Motorhead Definately the loudest and most consistant in indoor 2000-3000 seaters and clubs I first saw Motorhead in 1982 at the Palladium in NYC I was fortunate to see Fast Eddie’s very last performance with Motorhead and I remember it just kept getting louder and louder as each song went by My ears rang for several days after that show….Motorhead were consistently loud throughout all their lineup changes since the late 70’s/early 80’s to present Lemmy is the loudest bass player next to Dickie Peterson
4. Manowar I saw these guys only once in 1988 they opened for Motorhead at the Ritz in N.Y.C. and they were bragging how they made the guiness book of world records for the loudest band ( to me is was in total disrespect to Lemmy I thought),….sorry , but Motorhead was louder and kicked their ass! Because of one performance they made reached over 130 decibals in guiness - Motorhead were doing it all of the time long before these guys came out……yes, these guys are very loud but bottom line is their music is much to be desired and they have a stupid image
5. Ted Nugent (1975-1980 era) Terrible Ted always bragged that he was the greatest guitarist and the loudest - yes, Ted was very loud in the late seventies when I saw him He used five fender twin reverbs with five two fifteen fender cabs below and he got unbelievable feedback from them….Ted was a great intense performer during that time no doubt….it’s too bad he’s alienated his fans with his politics and offstage bs…..Ted doesn’t play as loud as he used to even though he still likes to brag he’s the loudest
6. Saxon (1981,1982 period) Saw the guys in a small club in Passaic in 1982 they headlined a show in which Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush opened …. They had a huge PA system in that small club which was powerful enough to supply the Palladium or Beacon. When Frank was on he totally kicked ass through that system and he was cranked but had a great sound …. Frank is way too good to open for anybody and was a tough act to follow so when Saxon came on they turned up their sound to its maximum level they were at Motorhead /AC/DC volume in that small club … my ears rang for several days after that show….since then they’ve toned it down quite a bit 7. MC-5 According to what I’ve read and judging from some live recordings these guys were extremely loud…it must have been incredible to see these guys on a bill with Blue Cheer….these guys knew how to rock and kick total ass 8. Hawkwind Judging from seeing and hearing Lemmy with Motorhead I’m sure Hawkwind was equally as heavy in their own way back in their day but much, much more acid induced According to what Lemmy has said in interviews that Hawkwind were as heavy as Motorhead
9. The Who (Keith Moon era) I never saw The Who live but spoke to many who have seen them during their peak periods w/Keith Moon and they apparently were very loud….their studio records are deceiving because back then they were entirely a different band live than in the studio…..you can hear especially on the Live at Leeds record that they were really cranking They made the guiness book of world records in 1976
10. Cheap Trick (1977-1979 era) I saw Cheap Trick back in 1978 at the Capitol Theater, Passaic,N,J. and at the Palladium N.Y.C. in 1979 and during this time these guys were very loud….they were reminiscent of probably how The Who sounded in their hayday…..they toned it down since
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Post by Joe Peschi on May 24, 2006 11:16:38 GMT -5
I saw all these bands! I have pictures of me with all these bands! Motorhead's last show with Fast Eddie was not 1982. It was 1987. Ac/dc opened for Nugent in 1987. The who was at their loudest in 1987. Manowar was louder than Saxon in 1987. I am the biggest Blue Cheer fan ever.
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Post by FeedbackLourde on May 24, 2006 11:27:01 GMT -5
I've seen a bunch of shows throughout the years. Back in 1981-82 I saw the Stones and the Who and thought they were pretty loud. Black Sabbath in 1983 was loud of hell too. BOC did a club gig in Palasades Park that was obnoxiously loud for the closet of a venue that they played (like having a sawed off shotgun to your head). None of these bands play anywhere this loud anymore. But I gotta say, the loudest gig I ever saw was Deep Purple in 1984. Each side of the stage had skyscrapers of speakers going all the way to the top of the pavillion and strectching just as wide (crystal clear sound too). I remember thinking at the time that this is what a BC stage would've looked like back in the day. I couldn't hear for 3 days after that show not could I sleep as the ringing in my ears kept me awake!
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Post by Gentleman John on May 28, 2006 15:25:25 GMT -5
Hey everybody , I don't know how many of you saw the long distance debate in Arthur between Leigh Stephens and Wayne Kramer (Via the writer) on whose band was the loudest in the world , The Mc5 or Blue Cheer. It's kind of amusing.....I would have to agree , as I'm sure most of you would , that Motorhead is the loudest band of OUR time. The Ramones , however , played just about as loud. Wayne Kramer and Link Wray are/were louder than Krakatoa , too. I heard about a Blue Cheer gig in Chicago at the Aragon Ballroom (With Silver Apples!) that was so loud , the best seat in the house was across the street! Dickie reportedly made a chunk of plaster fall from the ceiling with a single bass note , while tuning up. Best , John
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Post by Byron Swanby on Jun 12, 2006 22:17:19 GMT -5
i dunno guys......i saw the german group called accept open for another group in the 80s and they were so loud that it was nearly impossible to sit through the entire 45 minute opening slot they had. i'm all for loud rock and roll but that was ridiculous!
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Post by frankenpint on Jun 12, 2006 22:54:49 GMT -5
Didn't one of the lead guitarists from Accept end up joining Blue Cheer for the Dining With The Sharks album? Or was that Uli Roth? Whoever it was, fucking kicked ass!
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Post by Byron Swanby on Jun 13, 2006 6:35:15 GMT -5
hey frankenpint......i believe you're correct....i do think that one of the guitarists from the group accept played with blue cheer on the album dining with the sharks.........it wasn't uli roth as he was long gone from the group the scorpions.....
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Post by featheredfish on Jun 18, 2006 3:56:51 GMT -5
It was the guy who played with Monsters!!!
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Post by John Daly on Jun 23, 2006 13:02:32 GMT -5
The loudest band I've ever seen was Manowar. Hands down. Their music sucked, but they were so loud I had to leave the venue, and I was wearing earplugs from a shooting range that night.
And I have seen Motorhead, AC/DC, and a bunch of other famous "loud" bands- none of them came close to Manowar. Only band that did was SUNN- two guys in robes letting their guitars feed back for an hour.
I think a lot of bands that were loud back in the day have turned it down a few notches, which is fine by me. As long as I can feel it a little.
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Post by Will Matson on Jun 23, 2006 16:46:59 GMT -5
Wow, you must have seen those bands in between your Golf tours, right? Anyway, Blue Cheer is good, but nearly as good as Quiet Riot. I mean, Kevin's hairweave/wig/whateverthefuckitis is worth the price of a QR ticket alone. Now, if y'all will excuse me, I must log off, go comb my Mullet and finally get the Camaro offa the blocks in the front yard and put some damn retreads on 'em. I gotta go looking fer $1 Hair Metal LP's tomorrow at the local flea market, so my ride has got to be ready, as my girlfriend has to work tomorrow at the local Waffle House and I ain't go no other way to get there. Rawk on Heshers!!!!!!!
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Post by mr maltese on Dec 3, 2006 15:21:53 GMT -5
Here¡¯s an article that I received from Feedback Lourde over a year ago- this is an article that was written regarding who the loudest rock bands were of all time,¡.Blue Cheer is rated #1,..the order starts from 1-10 meaning the last band on this list ranking as the loudest band in which BC is ranked #1 loudest band of all time,¡I didn¡¯t like Lemmy¡¯s remarks but he acknowledged them (BC) as really loud especially coming from a guy who plays very loud himself,¡..in my opinion the #2 band to me is AC/DC ¨C volume wise - for some reason they¡¯re not on this particular list but are mentioned in the article for unseating Motorhead in 1983 for loudness,¡.pretty interesting article BC freak, I think you¡¯ll enjoy reading this
The Grateful Deaf Speaking of Kevin Shields, I was going through some old email forwards and ran across this. Didn¡¯t find a copy elsewhere online, so I¡¯m putting in here¡ The Grateful Deaf MOJO¡¯s guide to the Loudest Rock Bands of All Time [from December 2000, MOJO] ¡°Marshalls changed rock¡¯n ¡®roll as much as any band.¡± - Lemmy. Truer words have never been spoken. In 1962, when Kensington drum teacher Jim Marshall began selling 4¡Á12 speaker cabinets from his retail music shop, the history of noise was changed for ever. By 1964 The Who were extremely vocal converts to the Marshall religion and, following the arrival of the 100 Watt amp and the Marshall stack (two 4¡Á12 speakers on top of each other), other artists such as Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience began to define performance as much in terms of loudness as anything else. Suddenly, the size of a band¡¯s rig was as much an issue as its ensemble playing. But which rock band was the loudest of all time? The poorest stoner rock bands of 2000 are as loud in decibels as most late ¡¯60s acid rockers. MC Hammer caused more local noise ordinances to be passed than MC5 ever did. Also, the perception of volume is necessarily subjective - dependent on each listener¡¯s unique ¡®earprint¡¯, noise-encounter history and state of inebriation. Still, while volume is definitely in the ear of the beholder, in every rock era there have been certain bands - from rebellious savant-morons to sonic thrill-seekers - who earned reputations by being significantly louder than their peers. Those bands (excluding AC/DC, who feature elsewhere in the magazine) have been chosen by MOJO, in reverse order, as the Loudest Bands Of All Time. 10. Manowar The Conanist American metal band claimed the title of World¡¯s Loudest Band when a 1994 show in Hanover hit 129.5 decibels. -Equipment Ten tons of amplifiers at the Hanover concert. -Why So Darn Loud? Joey DeMaio (bassist): ¡°Some assholes tried to break our record. Frankly, it can¡¯t be done. The power will kill you. The Guinness Book Of Records wouldn¡¯t list it because they thought it would be dangerous, encouraging people to break it. We are the Kings Of Heavy! That means we make thunder inside a room.¡± -How Loud? DeMaio: ¡°One girl said to me, ¡®The reason there¡¯s so many girls at a Manowar concert, more than any other heavy metal band in the world, is because the vibration of the bass travels through the floor, up their toes, up their ankles, up their legs, and hits their fucking clit and they¡¯re just cumming through the whole concert!¡¯¡± Helena Solodor (audiologist): As you¡¯re approaching 140 decibels, that¡¯s the threshold of pain. With noise levels in excess of 140, 150 decibels, things can rupture. Your ear drums can burst. You could hove all kinds of bodily functions go¡ It would not be pleasurable!¡± -Pardon? Eric Adams (vocals): ¡°l don¡¯t wear earplugs in both ears, ¡®cos if I did I couldn¡¯t hear any high-end, which I need as a vocalist.¡± Hearing of the band is reportedly still OK. -MOJO Loudometer Rating: 6.5 (penalized 3.5 points for pandering) 9. Vanilla Fudge The Fudge¡¯s over-the-top and through-the-valley psychedelic whiteboy soul didn¡¯t know when to stop - either at a sign that said ¡®This Way: Prog Rock¡¯ or at normal concert volume levels. Armed with Mark Stein¡¯s Hammond B-3, a clutch of ridiculously arranged songs and a host of amps, the Fudge gained a late-¡¯60s reputation as one of America¡¯s most histrionic - and loudest - bands. -Equipment Tim Bogert (Vanilla Fudge bassist): ¡°The Hammond had two Leslies and a couple of amps that went through several cabinets. It just kept growing.¡± -Why So Darn Loud? Bogert: ¡°We were all deaf and having a wonderful time! It was a period where people were very heavily into LSD so the volume was a tool of the show - if we did something really dramatic the crowd went, ¡®Whooooooa¡¯, and we kept it in the show.¡± -How Loud? Wayne Kramer (MC5): ¡°That Hammond B-3 that they had a special rig for? Pretty loud.¡± Bogert: ¡°We¡¯d do whisper-soft passages that would crescendo and the audience would literally move to the volume! You could see 20,000 people puff up, move down, swirl¡¡± -Pardon? Bogert: ¡°Tinnitus, big time. That¡¯s the price you pay for having a darn good time. Nothing¡¯s free!¡± -MOJO Loudometer Rating: 7 8. Hawkwind The early ¡¯70s live line-up of space bikers on acid, led by guitarist-singer Dave Brock, accessed rarely-traversed parts of the brain. The band¡¯s legendary Chuck-Berry-on-metal riffing and live frequency oscillations were deep-frozen in wax on 1973¡¯s Space Ritual. -Equipment The sound oscillators, sound generators and directional electro voice speakers of the evil Dik Mik. -Why So Darn Loud? Dave Brock (leader/guitarist): ¡°We used to get quite spaced out, you know, and having these speakers blaring out behind you¡ well, it was all jolly exciting!¡± -How Loud? Brock: ¡°We used to use oscillators to distort the air. You could actually feel it in your body. At one point we were threatened with being sued ¡®cos a lot of people were getting ill¡¡± Lemmy (Hawkwind bassist): ¡°We used to give people epileptic fits.¡± -Pardon? Brock: ¡°I can¡¯t hear crickets, or certain tones, and when there¡¯s an awful lot of people talking at the same time it¡¯s hard to actually hear what anybody¡¯s saying.¡± -MOJO Loudometer Rating: 7.5 7. Ted Nugent / Amboy Dukes In late ¡¯60s Detroit, Ted Nugent was a young long-hair playing obnoxious guitar in a troglodyte-rock band for stoned, sunbaked hippies. The Nuge turned his Fender louder- to the point that, as legend has it, his speakers disintegrated a poor pigeon at an outdoor concert. -Equipment Piles of Fender stacks and one of the most obnoxious ¡®characters¡¯ alive. -Why So Darn Loud? Ted Nugent (Amboy Dukes guitarist): ¡°It was all for me. I look at my musical adventure like a hunt, a sonic exploration. Fender stacks had such a fuckin¡¯ brittle attack - it wasn¡¯t like that dirty Marshall sound. It was bright and annoying! I got this Gibson Birdland to feed back - outrageous rhino-mating sounds, avalanches.¡± -How Loud? Nugent: ¡°REAL fuckin¡¯ loud. I would challenge anybody to come up with the total hair removal decibels outrage I was capable of! The pigeon story? It never happened. I just knew that if a pigeon flew by [my speakers] I could squawk him if he came by at the right moment! Most of the interviewers were stoned hippies - it was easy to pull their chain. I¡¯d say how when we played Kansas, the dairy farmers would herd their cattle downwind of my amps because butter fat content went up 28 per cent when I performed. I¡¯d say fat girls would come to our show to try to lose weight by getting in front of my dBs!¡± John Sinclair (MC5): ¡°Ted Nugent? He wasn¡¯t loud.¡± Wayne Kramer (MC5): ¡°We kicked their asses, hundreds of times. They would come up pale.¡± -Pardon? Nugent: ¡°My left ear is pretty much whacked. But I can still hear really good in my right ear. Early on, I would stick shell casings, which I always had handy, in my right ear because that was the one that facing the amp the most. I¡¯m not an idiot! I¡¯d never missed a hunting season in my life, and I was concerned about when October came, would I be able to hear the fuckin¡¯ deer?¡± -MOJO Loudometer Rating: 7.5 6. The Who The Who¡¯s Maximum R&B performance on May 31, 1976 before 50,000 fans at the ground of south London¡¯s Charlton Athletic Football Club earned them an entry in the Guinness Book Of Records as the World¡¯s Loudest Pop Group - the previous title holder was Deep Purple. -Equipment 100 amplifiers, 76,000 Watts, 120 decibels. -Why So Darn Loud? Pete Townshend: ¡°The Who were very zesty, athletic. It stems from the very early days when we had to sell ourselves to the public, otherwise nobody would have taken a blind bit of notice of us.¡± -How Loud? Lemmy: ¡°The Who were the first ones with Marshalls. Nobody¡¯d seen an amplifier bigger than a suitcase before that. And there¡¯s Townshend with this massive fuckin¡¯ thing with 10-inch horns in it.¡± Roger Daltrey: ¡°There was Pete, all the way up, only hearing himself and John [Entwistle] playing four times as loud as he needs to, to hear himself with the singer in the middle. A complete nightmare.¡± -Pardon? According to Who scholar Andy Neill, Entwistle is pretty deaf and tends to rely on lip-reading. He doesn¡¯t have tinnitus but still plays bass at his usual ¡®everything on 11¡ä volume. Townshend has tinnitus, resulting from the band¡¯s live gigs and the deafening volume at which he and Entwistle used to listen to playbacks over the studio ¡®cans¡¯. -MOJO Loudometer Rating: 8.5 5. MC5 The revolution, brothers and sisters, will be very loud. Or at least, that¡¯s what stunned audiences figured in the wake of late-¡¯60s agit-rock¡¯n'roll performances by the Motor City¡¯s finest star-spangled be-Afro¡¯d White Panther Party proto-punks. -Equipment Four stacks of 100 Watt Marshalls. Attitude. -Why So Darn Loud? Wayne Kramer (guitarist): ¡°It was just, I need more. The teenage fascination with power. This was a chance to make sure everybody had to listen to ME, ME and MY guitar.¡± John Sinclair (MC5 manager/theorist): ¡°The idea was to involve the entire body, immerse yourself in the sound. It wouldn¡¯t hurt. If you gave yourself up to the music, the loudness would go right through you. If you tried to listen with your ears, it would hurt. The social milieu, everything was so numb so you wanted to feel something, enter a new world - and drop some acid if possible.¡± -How Loud? Ted Nugent (Amboy Dukes): ¡°As far as street fuck-you-ness goes, they definitely had us. There was an energy to the ¡®5 that was nothing short of mesmerizing. It was their sheer unadulterated middle-finger quality.¡± Tim Bogert (Vanilla Fudge): ¡°I felt them more than saw them.¡± Kramer: ¡°There was a point where it was TOO much. If people really wanted to listen to the band they had to go outdoors!¡± -Pardon? Sinclair: ¡°I lost some top end standing there in front of the MC5 for a couple of years every night.¡± Kramer: ¡°My hearing¡¯s damaged. I don¡¯t play that loud today.¡± -MOJO Loudometer Rating: 9 4. Swans A typical mid-¡¯80s club concert by New York industrial-rock pioneers Swans featured massively monolithic rhythms, volume cranked up to bowel-loosening levels, and the gruesome spectacle of a near-naked vocalist/leader Michael Gira in orgasmic agony singing ¡°Raping A Slave.¡± They were soon being touted by show promoters - and the British press - as ¡®the world¡¯s loudest band¡¯. Swans¡¯ most infamous performance was a 1985 show in London, at which Gira literally locked the audience inside the venue. -Equipment When the PA didn¡¯t blow, Swans were rated at 125-140 decibels. -Why So Darn Loud? Michael Gira (vocalist): ¡°It wasn¡¯t about being loud - that¡¯s moronic. It didn¡¯t have any aggressive intent. It was more about the transportive quality of volume. I wanted it to destroy my body.¡± -How Loud? Gira: ¡°There was one European show in a barn that only held 400 people. The stage wasn¡¯t wide enough to put the entire PA in front, so we put half of it in the front and half of it at the back, so the audience was smashed between! The walls, ceiling, everything was shaking, raining down years of collected dust. That was good.¡± Jarboe (roadie, later keyboards/vocalist): ¡°It was like a war, volume as a three-dimensional substance. Sometimes we¡¯d blow the entire circuitry of the club, just on the electricity we were drawing. We would leave town with people running after us, enemies everywhere we went!¡± Helena Solodor (audiologist): ¡°If you work an eight-hour day [in the presence of constant noise], over 85 decibels is hazardous. You cut it in half for every five decibels you go up. So with 90 decibels, anything over four hours is detrimental. Two hours, anything over 95. One hour, anything over 100. And if you look at a concert that¡¯s 120 decibels, just an hour is potentially damaging.¡± -Pardon? Gira: ¡°l think my hearing¡¯s good.¡± Jarboe: ¡°I finally started wearing earplugs¡and I wish I had started a lot earlier.¡± -MOJO Loudometer Rating: 10 3. Motorhead Led by the notorious Lemmy Kilmister, the thrash-punk-metal pioneers have arguably been the world¡¯s most consistently loud live band, laying waste to audiences via piercing air raid sirens and an overwhelming wall of guitar noise, as captured on 1981¡¯s No Sleep ¡®Til Hammersmith. A 1981 performance at an all-day Port Vale Football Ground metal festival landed Motorhead in the Guinness Book Of Records as the world¡¯s loudest band; they were later unseated by AC/DC. -Equipment 117,000 Watts of on-stage power at Port Vale. -Why So Darn Loud? Lemmy (vocalist/bassist): ¡°It¡¯s not like we were trying to specifically be the ¡®loudest band in the world.¡¯ We just like it loud. The thing is with being loud, you¡¯ve got to be fairly good or else it¡¯ll just be a mess, although one man¡¯s impenetrable mess another man¡¯s pure music.¡± -How Loud? Wayne Kramer (MC5): ¡°Obnoxiously loud. I never heard a note - all you get is this roar.¡± Ian MacKaye (Fugazi, Minor Threat): ¡°I was a stagehand for a gig at the Ontario Theater, Washington DC in the mid-¡¯80s and Motorhead were absolutely the loudest band I hod ever heard. I felt like I was levitating on the vibrations of the low end. I watched people writhing in front of the stage. Was it ¡®We want more¡¯, or ¡®Please, no more!¡¯? I had to leave the building because my internal organs felt like they¡¯d been readjusted.¡± Lemmy: ¡°At Port Vale, we built the entire stage out of PAs. A guy called up from four miles away while we were soundchecking and said he couldn¡¯t hear his TV.¡± -Pardon? Lemmy: ¡°I think my hearing¡¯s OK. The human body adopts remarkably well to a lot of abuse. I¡¯ve never used earplugs, Earplugs are for Ted Nugent. How could you expect the audience to stand something that you will not?¡± -MOJO Loudometer Rating: 10 2. My Bloody Valentine In December 1991, My Bloody Valentine began a series of European and US shows so loud that they were accused by the press of being criminally negligent. Most notorious was ¡®the holocaust¡¯- a noise section during ¡°You Made Me Realise¡± that maintained the same air-quaking chord for 10 minutes on end. -Equipment Evil effects pedals designed by Roger Mayer. -Why So Darn Loud? Kevin Shields (guitarist/singer): ¡°People perceive loud music as being confrontational and aggressive, but what you¡¯re really doing is being sensual. When it¡¯s loud, you con see ripples among the people as they all get hit by certain frequencies.¡± -How Loud? Mark Kemp (US journalist): ¡°After three minutes [of the holocaust] people began to take deep breaths, cover their ears and eyes. Anger took over. After four minutes a calm took over. The noise continued. After five minutes a feeling of utter peace took over¡¡± -Pardon? Bilinda Butcher (bassist/singer): ¡°I had a punctured ear drum, which they were able to put right but it was very depressing. We all wore hearing protection and encouraged anyone who saw us regularly to do the same.¡± Shields: ¡°I did the damage to my ears listening to mixes in headphones at very loud levels without giving my ears time to recover.¡± -MOJO Loudometer Rating: 10.5 1. Blue Cheer Late-¡¯60s San Francisco superpower trio who played so loud that their ex-Hell¡¯s Angel manager Gut claimed they could ¡°turn the air into cottage cheese¡±. TV host Steve Allen introduced the band to his 1968 national audience thus: ¡°Here¡¯s Blue Cheer. Run for your lives!¡± -Equipment Six stacks of 100 Watt Marshalls. -Why So Darn Loud? Bruce ¡®Leigh¡¯ Stephens (guitarist): ¡°We just wanted to feel that sound. It evolved to almost cartoon proportions, it blew your hair around.¡± -How Loud? Stephens: ¡°After the first note [audience members] looked like astronauts subjected to +g-force.¡± Kadyn Williams (audiologist): ¡°You con feel dizzy or nauseated from loud sound, because everything is anatomically so close; the inner ear and the balance organ intertwine together going to the brain.¡± Lemmy: ¡°l saw them at the Roundhouse in London. 1967 or ¡®68. They were terrible, but they were really loud, fuckin¡¯ loud.¡± Wayne Kramer (MC5): ¡°It was a 747 in your face.¡± -Pardon? Bassist/vocalist Dickie Petersen has some hearing damage. Stephens says, ¡°My hearing is intact, nowadays I only use one Fender Hot Rod DeVille.¡± The story of a dog exploding during a set is apocryphal. -MOJO Loudometer Rating: 11 Thanks: Helena Solodor, MS, Lic-A, Kadyn Williams, MEd, Lic-A of Audio Consultants of America, Andy Neill, Jon Quittner, Brad Laner, Ian Svenonius, Richard Pleuger, Jim Evans, David Cavanagh. Posted by Chris Barrus on Wed 11 Jan 2006 | Permalink Category: Music
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Post by bcfreak on Dec 3, 2006 21:36:18 GMT -5
Interesting article Mr. Maltese, I didn't know that MC5 used 4 Marshall 100 watt amplifier stacks, I thought they used more than that. I guess with the 6 amplifiers the BC used, they out basted the MC5 on that wild night in Detroit, back in 1968.
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Post by babylon on Dec 4, 2006 1:26:30 GMT -5
Let's see.... what did you say ... huh?
1. Blue Cheer (big surprise, right) 2. Metallica(I went to work the next day and had to go home because I couldn't hear anybody over the ringing!) 3. Motorhead 4. AC/DC 5. Iggy pop (in a small club 1979) 6. Johnny Winter (in a small club 1986) 7. MC5 (and it was outside in a park!!) 8. Nash the Slash (for one guy with a synth, he blew your ear drums out) 9. Cactus (add Tim Bogart to the loudest bass player list, Jeff Beck once called him a 'nutter' because the bass was drowning out everything, including his guitar when they played together in BBA) 10.Rolling Stones
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Post by bcfreak on Dec 4, 2006 8:28:24 GMT -5
I guess that Lemmy was more into the MC5 than Blue Cheer. He said in the DKT/MC5's Sonic Revolution DVD, "Without MC5 there would have never been a Motorhead, and so on. These guys (MC5) started it all" But in my mind Blue Cheer started it all. ;D
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Post by mikethedrummer on Dec 4, 2006 8:45:07 GMT -5
I agree with EIO, who cares? It doesn't take any particular skill to play loud, just the $$$ to buy more amps or a more powerful p.a (and the willingness to lug that stuff around and set it all up). There's no sense comparing the loudness of bands from the 60's with bands from the 70's, 80's etc. because the technology's different.
That said, I have to admit that I get a great rush from playing at stupidly high volumes too. And the physiological effects referred to are pretty accurate. I had an experience playing with the Cynics some years ago where one of my earplugs fell out in the middle of a song, and the guitar was so loud I almost threw up.
If the music doesn't deliver, the volume doesn't matter.
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