I agree. There is loud and there is too loud. Too loud takes the fun out of it.It starts to sound distorted. I have seen many concerts that were loud and sounded good. I saw John Haitt once at the TN and it was too loud. You could not hear his vocals. Kind of ruined it for me.

Yeah, too loud. This was my first time to see the Tedeschi Trucks Band. I was definitely pleased with the band. I would have been more pleased if I could have heard a little more of her vocals. I'll have to listen to an album/cd/dvd/mp3/whatever to hear what her voice sounds like. The sound was quite distorted. Maybe it is supposed to be, don't know. Could rarely hear the B3 organ, except during a solo.

For some reason I didn't realize this concert would be so loud. If I had known, I would have brought my ear plugs.

Song choices were great. Will have to check on other venues for this band. Wonder how it sounded when they played the White House not long ago. Someone said it was available on NPR. I'll check it out.

THEY COULD DO WHAT THE PILOT LIGHT DOES OCCASIONALLY: OFFER EAR PLUGS. AND CHARGE $3 FOR THEM, AS REGAL DOES FOR 3D GLASSES ...

Yeah, at one point I was wishing I had ear plugs. But if you have to wear ear plugs to listen to music, isn't there something fundamentally wrong with that picture?

I have this theory that we should require a sound guy to have his hearing tested before he's allowed to touch the board.

I know what you mean. Most people think I'm crazy when I say that I don't generally go to concerts because all I hear is a roar. Yes, and also the dizziness and nausea.

Yes, it was probably the loudest I've ever heard in the Tennessee. We were glad to be towards the back. There was some kind of digital equipment they were using that was distorting everything also and making some parts an indistinguishable wall of sound. Little Feat last year had just as many musicians on the stage and was nowhere near that loud.

Maybe this is the only way management can manage to deal with the people who talk, whistle, yell, and otherwise disrupt concerts in this fair town.

On the other hand, the sizeable crowd at the Bijou last night for Pink Martini heard a great show appropriately miked with absolutely no audience yapping.

Elvis Costello at the Tennessee was the same way, and I forgot my earplugs. It was all clipping and distortion at the show, and ringing and deafness after.

It's not a geezer thing. The guy at the sound board really needs to take it down a few notches. There's nothing wrong with having it loud enough to sort of absorb you in the sound, but when it's so loud you can't make out the vocals or notes that the musicians are playing, there's really no point to being there, other than the fact that you can say you saw the event.

Of course, even when it's just tolerably loud, you might still be advised to have earplugs, because the yahoo/loved one next to you is going to feel compelled to yell something in your ear during the show, which is why oftentimes after a loud show one ear is ringing considerably more than the other.

Back to the main point, I heard that the Who was loud enough to kill fish in the river by the venue once, so what else is there to achieve in the loud band category? Nothing. So reel it in, eh?

Loudest show I've ever seen at the Tennessee was Jeff Beck some years back. But nothing can outdo Sunn))) at the Bijou. You could hear them from blocks away. The entire building was humming like a transformer about to blow.

Earplugs are de rigour for me when I go to shows anymore. And if you're ever in a pinch, cigarette filters (unsmoked, stripped of the paper) can really help.
~m.

I hate to hear this (pun intended), and I've shared this with our management team at the Theatre. Sadly, with virtually every major touring artist, we are somewhat at the mercy of the artists' touring sound man. We try to control dB levels at a reasonable point, but the artists' similarly demand control over the presentation of their show. And, as you might suspect, some sound men are better than others and more able to adapt to the nuances of a room...and some are deafer than others as well. But, for the record, at the Tennessee, we seldom are using our own in house sound man for rock shows.

On the other hand, if you have issues with volume, you might want to bring your earplugs for these:

(link...)
OR
(link...)

:o) But thanks for the heads up...It's important to know about this.

Ashley

I walked into Barley's several years ago to see a friend behind the soundboard. Blue Mother Tupelo was playing, God love 'em, but Ricky has been deaf for years and is one of the worst local guys for wanting "a little more me in the monitor."

Jesus, loud enough?
-That's just the monitors. (the speakers on stage pointed at the musicians so they can hear themselves)

What?
-He kept wanting more monitor until I just turned off the house speakers completely. He hasn't noticed.

Another soundguy friend, this one,
when he's not sleeping, is usually pretty awesome about having it plenty loud without it hurting, although my ears did ring the day after the V-Roys New Year's Eve show. You can listen to that here, BTW.

The textbook case study of live touring sound engineering perfection is Tim Holt's work on James McMurtry and the Heartless Bastards Live in Aught-Three.

There's a difference between "full" and "loud" and "painfull". I went through the "turn it up to stun" phase as well. It was after my rock band days that I actually learned somewhat how to play and volume has ceased to have much attraction as a technique. Once a room is full of sound, more is not more.

AC, thanks for trying.

For the record Richard Battaglia, the usual sound guy for Bela and the Flecktones, is the best I have heard. He makes every room sound good and ears will not be bleeding. The guy is genius.

d

Good point, d. I was expecting the original BF & the FTs to be real loud when they played at the Tenn Theatre within the last year (6 mos.?), maybe just because they'd be featuring such a badass bass. I didn't even need my earplugs, though. Victor Wooten was featured heavily, though, it seemed more than Bela.

SKB, was TTB louder than Neil Young?! While absent of any band at all, just Neil and his toys, that was the loudest concert I've ever heard bar none. And the bass notes were 20-30 decibels louder than the average volume. That's 100 to 1000 times more powerful. (I watched the meters on the board.)

I've also noticed that bands nowadays like the kick drum (we used to call it the bass drum) to be the loudest thing, and ear plugs don't do much to abate the resulting chest concussions. One more reason I'm glad I mostly like artists who don't use drummers.

Yep, I.ve been to some very loud shows to the point it was just noise. I agree about Pink Martini, they were wonderful.

I was at the same Ryman show as Andy Axel (or at least the crowds behaved the same each night if we were there on different nights).

It happens at Knoxville shows, too, but happily not as frequently as it used to. Nevertheless, I was disappointed by all the younglings who wanted to talk during Nick Lowe's set. They didn't realize what they were missing.

As for volume at shows, Elvis Costello's most recent Tennessee Theater show had to be one of the loudest I've ever heard in that venue...and there have been more than a few sonic distorting shows there. If I can no longer understand the words or identify actual musical notes, I don't know why I'm supposed to be at the show.

In the meantime, there's some damn kids on my lawn. I have to go...

As for the sound quality at the Tennessee, I think it varies greatly with seat location. The sound board location should be pretty good and I think under the balcony is pretty good too. There are side spots that depend on some auxiliary speakers as I understand, though, and those can be spotty. I think it was the Merle Haggard concert when I thought they weren't even using the main line arrays at all. Turned out we were just in the wrong spot. I think it can sound pretty darn good in there, though, in the right spots and with a good sound crew. AKUS concerts are a prime example. If the WeKno republicans aren't constantly going to and fro the bar. (Heh.)

The best acoustics in town were at the U.T. Music Hall (I had the privilege of seeing both Jimmy Buffet and Tom Waits perform there), but it has been torn down as the U.T. administration determined that there were more important priorities for a major university than a music hall with outstanding acoustics. I think they put in a parking lot.

Back in the '70s I thought the acoustics at the old Music Hall were at least decent, but the last concert I attended there sounded pretty bad. Two local venues that have fairly excellent acoustics IMO are the UT Cox Auditorium (formerly Alumni Gym) and the new Clayton Center at Maryville College.

Best sound in town and maybe the South is the Bijou. Hands down.

It is the same Alumni Gym building, fisch, but have you been there since it was transformed as Cox Aud? Totally different place. The old barn was more like the Coliseum except in wood/brick rather than concrete/steel. They don't have many concerts there, and the ones they do have are poorly publicized, but there are concerts very much worth attending. I heard Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile there 2 or 3 years back, and also the Mark O'Connor Hot Swing Trio a few years ago. Also the UT Jazz Orchestra with Eddie Gomez, etc. The new room even has an awesome pipe organ I've still not heard.

I sure agree that places like the Bijou and small places like the Laurel Theatre are very fine rooms.

It's hard to find a photo of the room, but just search google images for Cox auditorium.

Pipe organ pic:
(link...)

This concert might be good:
(link...)