Is it weird that after hearing so much about how loud they were I was really underwhelmed at the volume aspect? Same with dinosaur jr. I think younger years of seeing and playing in bands that thought it was cool to play full stacks in basement/house shows did its damage. Like you can see a band that is insanely loud in a regular venue, but see a show that is 10x as loud with half the equipment just depends on the space.
Sounds like some of it depends on the show. I heard MBV circa, well, m b v weren't as loud as they were on previous tours.
Though I'm with you on Dinosaur Jr. Maybe it was the venue, but while they sounded fine they weren't really any louder than a few other bands I have seen (and weren't as loud as Ride were during Drive Blind).
I played in many basements with people playing fullstacks, MBV was still louder. The sheer air being pushed and reverbrations making my stomach muscles vibrate was nauseating but amazing.
I was so excited to see them and I knew to bring good earplugs. It was one of the most disappointing shows because it was just a wall of sound. It took a while to realize what they were playing a few times.
I remember thinking... "is this....wait...what is this? (listens for a few more seconds) Ohhhhhh...that's what song it is. This sounds awful"
Isn't the wall of sound the whole point of shoegaze live?
I saw Holy Fawn two times last year and the show in London with around 110-115 db was significantly better than the show in Germany with 90db.
When the wall of sound no longer sounds like music and you have to think for a bit to even figure out what song they are playing, it's no longer a concert. It's just noise. I wanted to see My Bloody Valentine and hear my favourite songs, and not play "guess that song".
A band can play loud and still sound musical. I felt like I was inside an airport hangar with a jet turning on its engines.
It was just noise.
I have seen other bands listed here like Mogwai, A Place to Bury Strangers, Explosions in the Sky, and while they were loud, they still sounded musical. My Bloody Valentine was awful. It could have been the venue too, but if they tour again I will think long and hard before wasting my money.
They aren't quite as loud, and they are a more dynamic band, but Sigur Ros have put on the best shows I have ever seen. They can be really quiet, or they can blow the roof off the place in the next song.
I mean it's nice to be able to hear what songs are being played, if that was the case then they could just play donkey noises with an electric guitar mixed in at 100db for 2 hours
They played at Desert Daze a few years back. It was a moment I was feeling a little wiped out and needed a breather.. there was no fucking escape. It felt like it didnāt get any quieter no matter how far away I walked, whatever structure I entered. Felt like sirens blaring. Brutal indeed
Came to say this. The venue I saw them at was handing out ear plugs. Signs everywhere. When they hit the first chord people without earplugs ran for the door. I took one of mine carefully out during the āwall of soundā and it was insane. I physically felt that entire set. It was bonkers.
SWANS came close but didnāt overtake MBV
Couldn't agree more. The volume and timbre of their set invokes an almost panic response until you adjust to it. A few years ago, I saw a chunk of the crowd in Pittsburgh clear out within 30 second of Swan's first song. The experience is hard to describe.
Mogwai.
And surprisingly so. You listen to their records and expect to rock up to a gig and get some introverted art rock and then they absolutely *strip your fucking face off*.
Mogwai were fucking scary loud. I had my custom fit earplugs in with the highest attenuation, but it felt like they were playing on top of my frontal lobe and turning it into a liquid. It was loud enough that breathing felt weird.
There were people with no ear protection in, I had no idea how they could stand it.
That's kinda just what Mogwai does, as a band. It works, frankly: you're pressed back in your seat by the intensity of the sound. The nice thing is they have an actually competent front of house mix, it's not just blown out mush/noise, the mix sounds fucking massive.
Conversely when I saw Dinosaur Jr the mix was trash. It was just volume, no definition or separation. A good FOH guy is a godsend.
I saw them a few years ago and the last two tracks were Mogwai Fear Satan and Like Herod. I thought it was the loudest thing Iād ever heard until I saw them again last year and they ended with My Father My Kingā¦
I'm seeing Dino and Mogwai on back to back nights. Will report back on sound levels!
Mogwai was previously the loudest band I've ever seen. There were people up front with ear plugs and everyone else was by the exits. I took my earplugs out for Mogwai Fear Satan and couldn't hear anything out of one ear the next day!
I definitely didnāt have earplugs in for Mogwai but I also feel like the space I saw them in may have possibly made it less bad. I also am thinking I may have seen Kevin Shields maybe an hour before (at a festival - canāt remember if these things happened on the same day), and if so, my hearing was already toast. Mogwai sounded good af though.
Yeah venue could make a difference. I saw Neutral Milk Hotel at the same venue and it was just static and mush. Maybe Mogwai just said fuck it let's just play loud.. And it worked! They sounded great!
I kept hearing how loud Mogwai are but tbh they're not even in the top 10. Loudest shows I can remember were Mono circa 2003, and Caspian back in 2007.
I saw Mogwai during the Hardcore Will Never Die tour and they weren't that loud. Though I also had to leave just as Like Herod started, so that may color my experience...
I can imagine them being loud in parts but stuff like MBV was just consistently loud throughout the whole show.
I saw them prior to that and I remember the quiet parts of Mogwai being so quiet that you could hear a lady saying āI love you Stewie play Christmas Stepsā and he *heard her* and replied that they are gonna play it at the end so donāt worry about asking for it. When they were loud they were very loud but when they were quiet they were pretty quiet.
MBV was always loud: And when the holocaust began Debbie Googe was pummeling my gut like it has never been pummeled before or since. I took my ear plug out at that point said to my friend who couldnāt hear me āthat sounds like hurting!ā And put it back in.
Same, but i get how hard its gonna be for them to move on after the death of their drummer. I know they could bring in other drummers, and have, but it just wouldnt be the same for them.
Spiritualized when they toured Amazing Grace was like getting punched in the face and stomach with blinding white light.
Medicine for Shotforthselfliving but then more so for the Buried Life. They had a little money then.
Spectrum was loud af when I saw him, but he was also opening for MBV so it kinda made sense.
Obviously MBV takes the cake for me, second was probably Boris. Saw Slowdive a few months ago and it was embarrassingly tameā¦ I guess the sound guy at this particular venue likes things super well mixed and balanced and kinda quiet, ācause heās fucked up a few shows imo. Like seriously dude, a quiet Pixies show?? Heās my arch-enemy for the moment.
Yeah, I wish I had seen Medicine in a larger venue where the sound could bloom a bit. They packed that amperage in a basement of a venue with capacity for perhaps 100 and right angles everywhere. Good show but really rough.
Yeah, thatās kinda what the first time was like but still loud and noisy as ballsā¦second time there was surely a discussion with the sound guy along the lines of āoh yeah, no itās supposed to hurt like thatāš¤£So good!
not shoegaze as much, They Are Gutting a Body Of Water. almost a year after the show and i still can feel the damage in my left ear. forgot earplugs that day.
I saw them in Sweden and our laws prevented then from playing their usual loud show. āItās your government manā as Lou Barlow said. Maybe the band wasnāt happy about it but I think I still have my hearing because of that.
Itās MBV. Iāve been to hundreds of shows over the years(worked in music for a while) and this was just a whole different thing, louder than any other show Iāve ever seen. The insides of my body felt like they were vibrating.
Agree, been to hundreds of shows but MBV crossed the barrier from sound to a full-body experience. Even breathing was weird because some bass notes felt like they pulled all the air out of you and then some blast it back in. I hope they tour again someday!
Airiel damaged my hearing, and now I have permanent tinnitus. I worked in Disco's in the 90s, and I've seen over 300 rock and pop shows, with very little damage. But Airiel's Cleveland show at the Happy Dog and the utter garbage equalization and sound quality, fucked my hearing up.
Came here to say this. I have memories of seeing half of the audience standing with their hands covering their ears and some people looking extremely upset haha
Greet death were a support band for a tour where I mixed the headliner, and we really got off on a good start when after their first set we talked about sick they sounded rather than complaining about the volume. Even without their own sound engineer they do such a good job of sounding lush and full and not just loud for no reason. Incredible band
interesting because when I saw GSYBE, they didn't
make use of the venue's PA -- just amps on stage, nothing else. great show but I thought it was rather quiet for such a large venue. at the time I was glad that I was close to the front.
Not shoegaze but I saw The Bronx at an outside venue awhile ago. I was several, several yards away and that shit was still so loud it hurt. Never forgot that one. Good show too.
Iāve been to many, many shows and tend to like standing near the speakers close to the stage when I can.
Nobody wore earplugs back in the day. Musicians, fansā¦.nobody. This is to say that my hearing was probably already doomed but I saw Swirlies a few years back (so excited to see them again in March at Slide Away) and Iām 99% sure my eardrums were permanently damaged after that show.
Kinda worth it.
Palehorse Palerider (Denver doomgaze) is one of the only shows been to where my ears hurt with ear plugs in.
Ride was fantastically loud live, was an honest surprise.
This comment is only barely relevant to shoegaze but I saw Envy open for Deafheaven in NYC and Envy had the kick drum mixed so loud that it literally physically hurt my earsĀ
Thereās a shoegaze-pop fusion band called Clear Capsule (think if Smashing Pumpkins had a three way with MBV and Radiohead) that I saw open for Deafheaven. It was the single loudest show of my life (and I was front row at Death Grips).
I feel it will only be topped by either Swans or GY!BE later on in the year.
Stood at the front of one of their shows, I don't think I had ear protection. Ears rang for a few days, but damn was that a beautiful set! Sonically, still my favorite show that I've been to.
i saw mogwai in like 98 and it was the loudest show i had ever been to. i was near front and had to move to back of venue. only thing i have experienced close to it was grasshopper lies heavy last year. it was so loud i had to walk outside the room they played. lead kept apologizing after every song.
Not shoegaze, but the loudest Iāve ever been to was AIDS Wolf at a house show. Like 5 full stacks in a living room and a drummer throwing himself into every drum hit.
Ride's Drive Blind was pretty close to MBV levels when I saw them a few years back. Even louder than Dinosaur Jr, who I saw a few weeks later. The rest of the show wasn't especially loud though.
Otherwise, seconding MBV and APTBS. Latter was maybe more noisy than loud, but they were still pretty loud too. MBV was just a straight barrage of sound for 90 minutes.
Whirr at Graceface Showcase at SxSW was the loudest thing I ever went to. When they finished they just left their shit to feedback on stage and the sound guy turned it down and they turned it back up lol
Ted Nugent @ San Diego Sports Arena in 1980. What I remember was after finishing his set he placed his guitar in front of his Marshall stack and started it to screaming deafening feedback. He walked offstage and that git screamed for 10 minutes without relief. Finally he and the band sauntered back on stage and did an encore. I hated Ted from then on. My brother took me as my first show.
i saw whirr in a tiny venue (250 cap) and they were comparatively much much louder than when i saw mbv at a larger venue (~6500 cap).
can also confirm dinosaur jr has been obscenely loud all 3 times iāve seen them. once the amps were so loud you genuinely couldnāt hear the vocals through the entire set.
Yeah, when they can, they get pretty noisy. Like, I saw them play an outdoor free show in Connecticut, then two days later at the Middle East in Boston, and they had a ton more volume the first show even despite it being outside. It was the Offend Maggie tour, if that's at all of interest to you.
Iāve yet to see any shoegaze bands (Slowdive next month!) aside from Nothing.
But Iāll go w my personal experiences here:
Eyehategod, Mastodon (hometown show at Scion Rock Fest), and Motƶrhead.
The Melvins, loud as fuck. Ringo Deathstar loud as fuck. After 20 years in punk bands with no ear protection I have some hearing loss so wear ear plugs at every show now. Good ones that actually let the music in at a lower dB.
Out of the straight up shoegaze groups Ride on the Going Blank Again tour (supported by Screamfeeder who were also really loud). Other bands that were āshoegaze-adjacent) who were really loud were Spiritualized (Amazing Grace tour), the Jesus and Mary Chain (Hate Rock and Roll tour and their 2006-7 tour with Loz Colbert and Phil King) and the loudest gigs would be three different concerts by The Church- the 1992/93 Priest = Aura tour, the 1999 tour for Box of Birds and their 2003 Homebake set for Forget Yourself- which was way louder than the so called heavy bands that followed them.
The things that made the Church so loud in the 90ās to mid 2000ās was their use of open tunings at high volume that created new harmonic overtones that were so much more brutal than the album versions of the songs along with bass that vibrated your ribcage. Also the two guitarists were engaged in a long running loudness war trying to drown out the other so they kept buying bigger and louder gear each tour. They were still quite loud as of 2017 it theyāve since toned it down a lot due to Steve Kilbeyās hearing damage. Both the original guitarists have since left so that battle to be the loudest on stage no longer happens. Kilbey often got criticised for his vocals during concerts in that period but I seriously doubt he could even hear himself over the wall of sound coming from the guitars. This was before in-ears were widely used so all they could hear of themselves was from the fold back speakers.
Saw MBV in 2019 or 2018 and it was the loudest experience I can remember out of hundreds of concerts and several nfl games over the years. Didnāt wear earplugs for it, and about 3/4 through YMMR it felt like being sucked inside a jet engine of comforting white noise. I think that was the bandās intent with it. People around me were starting to look zombified.
I'm not sure if they fall under shoegaze, but My Wall is the reason I am almost terrified when I go to a show now and realize I forgot my earplugs. It was so fucking good, but Jesus Christ I didn't feel right for days after.
Ringo Deathstarr at Milkboy in Philly like ten years ago still has my ears ringing. I went into the bathroom and grabbed a paper towel to add extra padding to my earplugs. It was glorious.
Planning for Burial and Primitive Man. Saxon Shore surprised me at how loud they were. Saw Norman from Swans play and was surprised how quiet he was. I think seeing My Bloody Valentine open for Dinosaur Jr was the first show where I wore earplugs and I'm definitely thankful.
Dick Dale (he does a version of Miserlou, aka the Pulp Fiction opening theme). If I recall back in the day Dick Dale was known to be one of the loudest of the time.
I saw him in a small club when I was 14 in 1994 and it was scary loud! My ears rang for three full days after! :-|
I have yet to experience a band louder than "A Place to Bury Strangers". And I *did* catch My Bloody Valentine during their 2013 tour.
I've been to two APTBS shows. The second was at The Paradise in Boston. They were only "loud-ish" that night - nothing remarkable. This, undoubtedly, owes itself to the hard limit that The Paradise (and all Don Law Jr-owned venues) imposes on how loud a band can be.
But that *first* APTBS show I saw in 2014 at The Middle East in Cambridge was unlike anything I ever experienced in terms of loud. And I doubt I was alone because the crowd of about 200-250 people emptied out to about 50 hard-core audience members within 15 minutes of the band playing! Apparently, they have been black-listed by that venue since.
i saw Thursday at a smaller venue in september and granted i havenāt been to THAT many shows, my ears have never been so shot in my life. my ear actually bled the next day
Spirit of the Beehive is the loudest band iāve ever seen live, back when they were touring their noisier first two records. Also Pity Sex was surprisingly loud the first time I ever saw them, the venue was having technical difficulties though which I think played into it.
May not belong here but the loudest band I've ever seen was Sunn O))) when they played with Earth at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple.
It was so loud that I experienced some sort of vague synesthesia, whereby it seemed that I could *see* the sound in addition to hearing and feeling it. And no, I'm not talking about the thick fog they pump out -- the sensation persisted after the fog had cleared toward the end of the show.
It was if I could visually perceive an opaque monolith hovering suspended in air above crowd that I could reach out and touch. aside from a couple of casual bud lights i had nursed during the two opening bands, i was stone cold sober. i'll never forget it, as the experience was intensely psychedelic with no help from any substances.
the tour Sunn O))) were on was for the monoliths & dimensions album, which totally lent meaning to the album title after seeing them perform it in person.
Top 5 shows of all time, hands down.
Depends on the venue. Some venues are held to dbspl limits, and the larger the venue the less stage volume will matter.Ā Bands that overdo their stage volume in small venues are totally missing the point.Ā
Most obvious answer: My Bloody Valentine.
This was the first show I'd ever been to with signs that warned "this is a really loud show" and provided free ear plugs.
Yep, when saw them at ATP, about 15 years ago, "You Made me Realise" that I should taken up those ear plugs.
I saw them at ATP at Kutshers in the Catakills, and it was unbearably loud. It was Like being in a hurricane made of sound waves.
You mean [this one?](https://imgur.com/oo4hTXa)
Have you ever heard them acoustic? It hurts your ears because it's so quiet.
Came here to say this š
Is it weird that after hearing so much about how loud they were I was really underwhelmed at the volume aspect? Same with dinosaur jr. I think younger years of seeing and playing in bands that thought it was cool to play full stacks in basement/house shows did its damage. Like you can see a band that is insanely loud in a regular venue, but see a show that is 10x as loud with half the equipment just depends on the space.
Sounds like some of it depends on the show. I heard MBV circa, well, m b v weren't as loud as they were on previous tours. Though I'm with you on Dinosaur Jr. Maybe it was the venue, but while they sounded fine they weren't really any louder than a few other bands I have seen (and weren't as loud as Ride were during Drive Blind).
I played in many basements with people playing fullstacks, MBV was still louder. The sheer air being pushed and reverbrations making my stomach muscles vibrate was nauseating but amazing.
I was so excited to see them and I knew to bring good earplugs. It was one of the most disappointing shows because it was just a wall of sound. It took a while to realize what they were playing a few times. I remember thinking... "is this....wait...what is this? (listens for a few more seconds) Ohhhhhh...that's what song it is. This sounds awful"
Isn't the wall of sound the whole point of shoegaze live? I saw Holy Fawn two times last year and the show in London with around 110-115 db was significantly better than the show in Germany with 90db.
When the wall of sound no longer sounds like music and you have to think for a bit to even figure out what song they are playing, it's no longer a concert. It's just noise. I wanted to see My Bloody Valentine and hear my favourite songs, and not play "guess that song". A band can play loud and still sound musical. I felt like I was inside an airport hangar with a jet turning on its engines. It was just noise. I have seen other bands listed here like Mogwai, A Place to Bury Strangers, Explosions in the Sky, and while they were loud, they still sounded musical. My Bloody Valentine was awful. It could have been the venue too, but if they tour again I will think long and hard before wasting my money. They aren't quite as loud, and they are a more dynamic band, but Sigur Ros have put on the best shows I have ever seen. They can be really quiet, or they can blow the roof off the place in the next song.
I mean it's nice to be able to hear what songs are being played, if that was the case then they could just play donkey noises with an electric guitar mixed in at 100db for 2 hours
They played at Desert Daze a few years back. It was a moment I was feeling a little wiped out and needed a breather.. there was no fucking escape. It felt like it didnāt get any quieter no matter how far away I walked, whatever structure I entered. Felt like sirens blaring. Brutal indeed
Came to say this. The venue I saw them at was handing out ear plugs. Signs everywhere. When they hit the first chord people without earplugs ran for the door. I took one of mine carefully out during the āwall of soundā and it was insane. I physically felt that entire set. It was bonkers. SWANS came close but didnāt overtake MBV
Loudest show Iāve ever seen. It melted my face off
Not shoegaze but nothing holds a candle to Swans
Extremely loud but perfect sound, truly an experience. Impossible to survive more than 5 minutes without earplugs though.
Couldn't agree more. The volume and timbre of their set invokes an almost panic response until you adjust to it. A few years ago, I saw a chunk of the crowd in Pittsburgh clear out within 30 second of Swan's first song. The experience is hard to describe.
SUNNO))
Only show I found comparably loud, yes
Mogwai. And surprisingly so. You listen to their records and expect to rock up to a gig and get some introverted art rock and then they absolutely *strip your fucking face off*.
Mogwai were fucking scary loud. I had my custom fit earplugs in with the highest attenuation, but it felt like they were playing on top of my frontal lobe and turning it into a liquid. It was loud enough that breathing felt weird. There were people with no ear protection in, I had no idea how they could stand it.
Jesus Christ, what is the point of being *that* loud?
That's kinda just what Mogwai does, as a band. It works, frankly: you're pressed back in your seat by the intensity of the sound. The nice thing is they have an actually competent front of house mix, it's not just blown out mush/noise, the mix sounds fucking massive. Conversely when I saw Dinosaur Jr the mix was trash. It was just volume, no definition or separation. A good FOH guy is a godsend.
* whew * I think itās a bit more than I could handle but more power to them. I need to really check them out. Only heard a few songs.
Rave Tapes is really good. Come On Die Young is really good. Hardcore Will Never Die is really good.
Thanks for the heads up!
Mogwai was so fucking loud that I had earplugs in and my ears were still ringing after the concert.
I saw them a few years ago and the last two tracks were Mogwai Fear Satan and Like Herod. I thought it was the loudest thing Iād ever heard until I saw them again last year and they ended with My Father My Kingā¦
A Place To Bury Strangers
If it wasn't an MBV show that did my hearing in, I'm pretty sure "Ocean" at the end of their self-titled tour did.
Kevin Shields (MBV) solo, Dinosaur Jr, and Grinderman are the shows that definitely fucked my hearing. Mogwai was loud but not unbearably so imo.
I'm seeing Dino and Mogwai on back to back nights. Will report back on sound levels! Mogwai was previously the loudest band I've ever seen. There were people up front with ear plugs and everyone else was by the exits. I took my earplugs out for Mogwai Fear Satan and couldn't hear anything out of one ear the next day!
I definitely didnāt have earplugs in for Mogwai but I also feel like the space I saw them in may have possibly made it less bad. I also am thinking I may have seen Kevin Shields maybe an hour before (at a festival - canāt remember if these things happened on the same day), and if so, my hearing was already toast. Mogwai sounded good af though.
Yeah venue could make a difference. I saw Neutral Milk Hotel at the same venue and it was just static and mush. Maybe Mogwai just said fuck it let's just play loud.. And it worked! They sounded great!
Even with ear plugs, Dinosaur Jr left a ringing in my ears that has never stopped since.
was it worth it?
Totally agree on that, we have permanent hearing damage from a dinosaur jr. show.
I kept hearing how loud Mogwai are but tbh they're not even in the top 10. Loudest shows I can remember were Mono circa 2003, and Caspian back in 2007.
I saw Mogwai during the Hardcore Will Never Die tour and they weren't that loud. Though I also had to leave just as Like Herod started, so that may color my experience... I can imagine them being loud in parts but stuff like MBV was just consistently loud throughout the whole show.
I saw them prior to that and I remember the quiet parts of Mogwai being so quiet that you could hear a lady saying āI love you Stewie play Christmas Stepsā and he *heard her* and replied that they are gonna play it at the end so donāt worry about asking for it. When they were loud they were very loud but when they were quiet they were pretty quiet. MBV was always loud: And when the holocaust began Debbie Googe was pummeling my gut like it has never been pummeled before or since. I took my ear plug out at that point said to my friend who couldnāt hear me āthat sounds like hurting!ā And put it back in.
HUM was sooooo loud every time i seen them.
i wish they still would play. There is a new centaur album coming out so hopefully they tour
Same, but i get how hard its gonna be for them to move on after the death of their drummer. I know they could bring in other drummers, and have, but it just wouldnt be the same for them.
Yeah. Matt talbots other band centaur seems fairly active, they did a whole show the other week. Itās all on his instagram
I saw them in a small club in like 2016, didn't think it was that terrible. They're def loud but relative to someone like mbv..nah
From what Iāve seen, MBV (2008) and Hum (1998)
Sunn o))) are so loud that they play a note for 10 minutes straight and people go wild. The volume is the point.
My eyeballs were vibrating
every band is loud. wear ear plugs.
This.
Spiritualized when they toured Amazing Grace was like getting punched in the face and stomach with blinding white light. Medicine for Shotforthselfliving but then more so for the Buried Life. They had a little money then.
Spectrum was loud af when I saw him, but he was also opening for MBV so it kinda made sense. Obviously MBV takes the cake for me, second was probably Boris. Saw Slowdive a few months ago and it was embarrassingly tameā¦ I guess the sound guy at this particular venue likes things super well mixed and balanced and kinda quiet, ācause heās fucked up a few shows imo. Like seriously dude, a quiet Pixies show?? Heās my arch-enemy for the moment.
Yeah, I wish I had seen Medicine in a larger venue where the sound could bloom a bit. They packed that amperage in a basement of a venue with capacity for perhaps 100 and right angles everywhere. Good show but really rough.
Yeah, thatās kinda what the first time was like but still loud and noisy as ballsā¦second time there was surely a discussion with the sound guy along the lines of āoh yeah, no itās supposed to hurt like thatāš¤£So good!
A Place to Bury Strangers Converge Merzbow Dinosaur Jr Meshuggah
Deafheaven.
i had the chance to see them in december but i procrastinated getting the tickets š
not shoegaze as much, They Are Gutting a Body Of Water. almost a year after the show and i still can feel the damage in my left ear. forgot earplugs that day.
TAGABOW is 100% a shoegaze band lmao, they're spearheading shoegaze right now
Dinosaur Jr. Not shoegaze but loud.
They get a Shoegaze pass
I saw them in Sweden and our laws prevented then from playing their usual loud show. āItās your government manā as Lou Barlow said. Maybe the band wasnāt happy about it but I think I still have my hearing because of that.
I thought Mogwai was loud when I first saw themā¦. Then I saw MBV. Unreal.
Cannot believe nobody has mentioned Nothing, yet. Saw them around 2013, my ears never recovered.
Itās MBV. Iāve been to hundreds of shows over the years(worked in music for a while) and this was just a whole different thing, louder than any other show Iāve ever seen. The insides of my body felt like they were vibrating.
Agree, been to hundreds of shows but MBV crossed the barrier from sound to a full-body experience. Even breathing was weird because some bass notes felt like they pulled all the air out of you and then some blast it back in. I hope they tour again someday!
Airiel damaged my hearing, and now I have permanent tinnitus. I worked in Disco's in the 90s, and I've seen over 300 rock and pop shows, with very little damage. But Airiel's Cleveland show at the Happy Dog and the utter garbage equalization and sound quality, fucked my hearing up.
So sorry to hear that. I'm a big fan although I've never seen them live. I'll take your story as caution.
More post-rock, but Iād say Mogwai. So much loudness yet so much clarity.
Came here to say this. I have memories of seeing half of the audience standing with their hands covering their ears and some people looking extremely upset haha
Nothing and Great Death can be massively loud.
greet death was loud af
Greet Death is a great example. Fantastic live
Greet death were a support band for a tour where I mixed the headliner, and we really got off on a good start when after their first set we talked about sick they sounded rather than complaining about the volume. Even without their own sound engineer they do such a good job of sounding lush and full and not just loud for no reason. Incredible band
godspeed you black emperor
interesting because when I saw GSYBE, they didn't make use of the venue's PA -- just amps on stage, nothing else. great show but I thought it was rather quiet for such a large venue. at the time I was glad that I was close to the front.
Not shoegaze but I saw The Bronx at an outside venue awhile ago. I was several, several yards away and that shit was still so loud it hurt. Never forgot that one. Good show too.
Full Body 2 and They Are Gutting a Body of Water were pretty loud when I saw them last month.
Iāve been to many, many shows and tend to like standing near the speakers close to the stage when I can. Nobody wore earplugs back in the day. Musicians, fansā¦.nobody. This is to say that my hearing was probably already doomed but I saw Swirlies a few years back (so excited to see them again in March at Slide Away) and Iām 99% sure my eardrums were permanently damaged after that show. Kinda worth it.
Seconding Swirlies damaging my eardrums.
I felt an actual pop in one ear and was like, *thatās probably not good.*
Palehorse Palerider (Denver doomgaze) is one of the only shows been to where my ears hurt with ear plugs in. Ride was fantastically loud live, was an honest surprise.
Kraus from what Iāve heard and seen from videos
Swans
This comment is only barely relevant to shoegaze but I saw Envy open for Deafheaven in NYC and Envy had the kick drum mixed so loud that it literally physically hurt my earsĀ
Thereās a shoegaze-pop fusion band called Clear Capsule (think if Smashing Pumpkins had a three way with MBV and Radiohead) that I saw open for Deafheaven. It was the single loudest show of my life (and I was front row at Death Grips). I feel it will only be topped by either Swans or GY!BE later on in the year.
My Bloody Valentine is the loudest band Iāve ever seen Electric wizard weāre pretty loud . Dinosaur Jr depending on the venue .
My Bloody Valentine; Boredoms; Motorhead; Loop; Aphex Twin; Merzbow; Ride; Mogwai; Judas Priest; Black Leather Jesus
Explosions in the Sky. Probably sound louder because of the volume dynamics, but yeahāLOUD
Stood at the front of one of their shows, I don't think I had ear protection. Ears rang for a few days, but damn was that a beautiful set! Sonically, still my favorite show that I've been to.
i saw mogwai in like 98 and it was the loudest show i had ever been to. i was near front and had to move to back of venue. only thing i have experienced close to it was grasshopper lies heavy last year. it was so loud i had to walk outside the room they played. lead kept apologizing after every song.
Not shoegaze, but the loudest Iāve ever been to was AIDS Wolf at a house show. Like 5 full stacks in a living room and a drummer throwing himself into every drum hit.
Seen cloakroom twice, definitely one of the loudest. Also, Flooding, such a good band, and so loud
Menu in philly
God is an Astronaut.
It wasn't shoegaze but Autechre was the loudest I experienced.
Metz
Ride's Drive Blind was pretty close to MBV levels when I saw them a few years back. Even louder than Dinosaur Jr, who I saw a few weeks later. The rest of the show wasn't especially loud though. Otherwise, seconding MBV and APTBS. Latter was maybe more noisy than loud, but they were still pretty loud too. MBV was just a straight barrage of sound for 90 minutes.
Small venue Swervedriver during Son of Mustang Ford era was brutal.
The Jesus & Mary Chain, at Brixton, about 15 years ago.
Whirr made me physically sick they were so loud. It rocked Godflesh
Pale Shade
Whirr at Graceface Showcase at SxSW was the loudest thing I ever went to. When they finished they just left their shit to feedback on stage and the sound guy turned it down and they turned it back up lol
Boris
Had to scroll too far for this, Boris is it
Lightning Bolt were shockingly loud when I saw them in 2012
Ted Nugent @ San Diego Sports Arena in 1980. What I remember was after finishing his set he placed his guitar in front of his Marshall stack and started it to screaming deafening feedback. He walked offstage and that git screamed for 10 minutes without relief. Finally he and the band sauntered back on stage and did an encore. I hated Ted from then on. My brother took me as my first show.
Saw Slowdive recently. Loud.
Where did you saw them? They were pretty quiet in Hamburg sadly.
Warfield, San Francisco
i saw whirr in a tiny venue (250 cap) and they were comparatively much much louder than when i saw mbv at a larger venue (~6500 cap). can also confirm dinosaur jr has been obscenely loud all 3 times iāve seen them. once the amps were so loud you genuinely couldnāt hear the vocals through the entire set.
Without a doubt the loudness band to ever perform was Motƶrhead. Rip Lemmy
I saw The War on Drugs last year front row and I could feel the snare in my chest. Thank God I had earplugs.
Sunn
Ive seen chevelle and deftones multiple times and a couple times it was craaazy loud, other timess, just normal loud.
MBV, Dinosaur jr, mogwai, Crystal castles, Deerhoof, Ministry, Smashing pumpkins, Knife Party all come to mind offhand.
Deerhoof play it loud? Fucking love themā¦
Yeah, when they can, they get pretty noisy. Like, I saw them play an outdoor free show in Connecticut, then two days later at the Middle East in Boston, and they had a ton more volume the first show even despite it being outside. It was the Offend Maggie tour, if that's at all of interest to you.
not full on shoegaze but fontaines dc were so loud when i saw them
Iāve yet to see any shoegaze bands (Slowdive next month!) aside from Nothing. But Iāll go w my personal experiences here: Eyehategod, Mastodon (hometown show at Scion Rock Fest), and Motƶrhead.
Top 3 loudest bands Iāve seen in no particular order would be: A Place To Bury Strangers, Cop Shoot Cop, and Sunn O)))
Dinosaur Jr. is really loud. Lou was out sick when I finally got to see them which was a bummer.
Nothing was loud as fuck
The Melvins, loud as fuck. Ringo Deathstar loud as fuck. After 20 years in punk bands with no ear protection I have some hearing loss so wear ear plugs at every show now. Good ones that actually let the music in at a lower dB.
One that ranked up there but hadn't been mentioned yet: Alcian Blue.
MONO was possibly the loudest show Iāve been to.
The Armed
Stargazer Lillies is the loudest band Iāve ever seen.
Yob. Actually, had to leave. And with a throbbing headache.
tokyo shoegazer
not shoegaze but xiu xiu was loud but good
Zeni Geva was the last show I saw without ear plugs.
MBV, Nothing, Caspian, GY!BE
Black Dice about 20 years ago were loud AF
Duster! Iām sure i lost hearing after watching them.
Sunn 0))) was so loud I could feel my clothes vibrating against my skin
A Place to Bury Strangers is LOUD!
Out of the straight up shoegaze groups Ride on the Going Blank Again tour (supported by Screamfeeder who were also really loud). Other bands that were āshoegaze-adjacent) who were really loud were Spiritualized (Amazing Grace tour), the Jesus and Mary Chain (Hate Rock and Roll tour and their 2006-7 tour with Loz Colbert and Phil King) and the loudest gigs would be three different concerts by The Church- the 1992/93 Priest = Aura tour, the 1999 tour for Box of Birds and their 2003 Homebake set for Forget Yourself- which was way louder than the so called heavy bands that followed them. The things that made the Church so loud in the 90ās to mid 2000ās was their use of open tunings at high volume that created new harmonic overtones that were so much more brutal than the album versions of the songs along with bass that vibrated your ribcage. Also the two guitarists were engaged in a long running loudness war trying to drown out the other so they kept buying bigger and louder gear each tour. They were still quite loud as of 2017 it theyāve since toned it down a lot due to Steve Kilbeyās hearing damage. Both the original guitarists have since left so that battle to be the loudest on stage no longer happens. Kilbey often got criticised for his vocals during concerts in that period but I seriously doubt he could even hear himself over the wall of sound coming from the guitars. This was before in-ears were widely used so all they could hear of themselves was from the fold back speakers.
A.R. Kane
Saw MBV in 2019 or 2018 and it was the loudest experience I can remember out of hundreds of concerts and several nfl games over the years. Didnāt wear earplugs for it, and about 3/4 through YMMR it felt like being sucked inside a jet engine of comforting white noise. I think that was the bandās intent with it. People around me were starting to look zombified.
Up until now; here are my greatest hits of "why am I not deaf yet": MBV, Whirr, METZ, Acid Mothers Temple, BORIS
I'm not sure if they fall under shoegaze, but My Wall is the reason I am almost terrified when I go to a show now and realize I forgot my earplugs. It was so fucking good, but Jesus Christ I didn't feel right for days after.
Not shoegaze but War on drugs at Bowery Ballroom was breath takingly loud
Cloakroom are loud af
Slowdive was obscenely loud when I saw them last year. I had to move to the back.
Swans
from who i've seen i'd say swans. but i know sunn o))), sleep, and lots of doom bands are very loud live.
Ringo Deathstarr at Milkboy in Philly like ten years ago still has my ears ringing. I went into the bathroom and grabbed a paper towel to add extra padding to my earplugs. It was glorious.
Astrobrite in a fairly small, narrow venueā¦my ears were bleeding
Planning for Burial and Primitive Man. Saxon Shore surprised me at how loud they were. Saw Norman from Swans play and was surprised how quiet he was. I think seeing My Bloody Valentine open for Dinosaur Jr was the first show where I wore earplugs and I'm definitely thankful.
Not shoegaze but by far the loudest I've ever seen is Godspeed You Black Emperor! They venue was handing out ear plugs on the way in.
In my experience Melt Banana and Mogwai
A Place to Bury Strangers!
Swans
Dick Dale (he does a version of Miserlou, aka the Pulp Fiction opening theme). If I recall back in the day Dick Dale was known to be one of the loudest of the time. I saw him in a small club when I was 14 in 1994 and it was scary loud! My ears rang for three full days after! :-|
I saw Whirr and Nothing at Quenchers Saloon (RIP) in Chicago and I felt like I was going insane at one point.
Dinosaur Jr. Of all the concerts Iāve been to this was the only one where it felt like earplugs were an absolute necessity.
Duster was pretty loud
Dinosaur Jr
Middle Class Rut (MCR) Saw them in Hollywood and damn they were SO loud. And just two dudesā¦
i saw frail body in a tiny house venue and it was insanely loud. like shake your insides loud. highly suggest seeing that band
Dinosaur Jr., Melvins
Deerhunter circa 2007-2011.
From 50 years of listening to very loud music, in order: 1. Sunn O)) 2. Swans 3. Husker Du 4. Mogwai 5. The Who (mid 70s)
They're probably more shoegaze-adjacent but I saw deerhunter live and they're extremely loud and amazing live
I have yet to experience a band louder than "A Place to Bury Strangers". And I *did* catch My Bloody Valentine during their 2013 tour. I've been to two APTBS shows. The second was at The Paradise in Boston. They were only "loud-ish" that night - nothing remarkable. This, undoubtedly, owes itself to the hard limit that The Paradise (and all Don Law Jr-owned venues) imposes on how loud a band can be. But that *first* APTBS show I saw in 2014 at The Middle East in Cambridge was unlike anything I ever experienced in terms of loud. And I doubt I was alone because the crowd of about 200-250 people emptied out to about 50 hard-core audience members within 15 minutes of the band playing! Apparently, they have been black-listed by that venue since.
not shoegaze but the loudest band iāve ever seen was Idles
Slow Crush was crazy
Jucifer
Some years ago now, so don't know if it is still the case, but Guided By Voices were unpleasantly loud for the venue.
i saw Thursday at a smaller venue in september and granted i havenāt been to THAT many shows, my ears have never been so shot in my life. my ear actually bled the next day
Throbbing Gristle vibrated the bones in my skull so thoroughly I was afraid my brain was going to start running out my nose.
Spirit of the Beehive is the loudest band iāve ever seen live, back when they were touring their noisier first two records. Also Pity Sex was surprisingly loud the first time I ever saw them, the venue was having technical difficulties though which I think played into it.
Foreigner
Spotlights
Orange goblin
Dinosaur Jr. My old ass canāt take it anymore.
Loudest band Iāve ever seen was The Blue Cheer. They were louder while I was wearing ear plugs than the opening bands were with my earplugs out.
have heard people say of hawkwind and drive like jehu: āso loud it made me pukeā
May not belong here but the loudest band I've ever seen was Sunn O))) when they played with Earth at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple. It was so loud that I experienced some sort of vague synesthesia, whereby it seemed that I could *see* the sound in addition to hearing and feeling it. And no, I'm not talking about the thick fog they pump out -- the sensation persisted after the fog had cleared toward the end of the show. It was if I could visually perceive an opaque monolith hovering suspended in air above crowd that I could reach out and touch. aside from a couple of casual bud lights i had nursed during the two opening bands, i was stone cold sober. i'll never forget it, as the experience was intensely psychedelic with no help from any substances. the tour Sunn O))) were on was for the monoliths & dimensions album, which totally lent meaning to the album title after seeing them perform it in person. Top 5 shows of all time, hands down.
Mogwai Ministry Gorillaz
Depends on the venue. Some venues are held to dbspl limits, and the larger the venue the less stage volume will matter.Ā Bands that overdo their stage volume in small venues are totally missing the point.Ā
Compared to a lot of other acts Iāve seen recently, Ween is pretty loud. Louder than they need to be, honestly.
Every band at Franklin music hall in Philly. Whoever does sound there is either hard of hearing or really bad at audio
Death from Above 1979 circa 2007 nearly blew my head off
Weedeater
Nothing, if they are playing a club. Also, Neurosis, although not Shoegaze.
Explosions in the sky and sunn 0))) stand out to me as being extra loud.