Re: [Harp-L] LOWER VOLUME FOR LIVE MUSIC

[Mark Russillo <jruss433@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

You make good points, Ken.  I know many of us have witnessed this in on-stage performance and as victims in the audience.  The irony of it all is that the musicians who play loud are the only people who can save the listening public from the loud music, yet they have to play loud either because the can no longer hear themselves at reasonable volumes or because their sound man turns them up from the PA because he can't hear anymore either.  For them it may no longer be a matter of preference.
   
  The prevailing myth is that people and things absorb the sound (as if that makes it easier on your ears or somehow protects the diminishment of one's hearing).  I'm sure some people believe that the more bodies you pack into a room, the safer it is for your ears.  Those people probably have their cellphones turned way up all the time.
   
  Ear plugs are a good investment.  I also listen to more Jazz, acoustic music, and have indentured myself to the American Songbook.
   
  Mark Russillo
  a.k.a. The Rhode Island Kid

Ken Deifik <kenneth.d@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
  
>I believe that people have gotten used to abnormally loud music pushed at 
>them to make them feel it rather than allowing them to feel it.

I worked in a band years ago that was way too loud for my tastes, but the 
club owner wanted loud loud loud.

Every night a guy came in and stood right up against the PA system and 
stuck his head into one of the big horns that were blasting it out. He'd 
keep his head in the horn from the beginning to the end of the set, grab a 
beer and be back when we started up. I played the gig maybe 10 times and 
he was there without fail.

Though I doubt the guy's hearing lasted out the year, his head seemed to 
damp the volume appreciably, so I was reluctant to say anything.

That was at a rock and roll club. At the same time I was doing gigs at 
tonks and VFW halls, for a country audience. We never had to blow too loud 
for that crew, though I was working with different players. The style of 
dance reqired that you actually have full body contact with your partner, 
which I've heard can be fun, while nobody touched nobody on the dance floor 
in rock clubs, except fortuitously. I wonder if that had anything to do 
with the desire for greater volume.

Hmm - maybe I'm onto something here. A few years later someone took me to 
Studio 54 just toward the end of its heyday. I thought the music was 
pretty close to too loud, but people were dancing up a full-contact 
storm. A few days later I went to see the Plasmatics at a downtown club, 
mainly because their drummer was my old drummer, not because my taste 
failed me. The only reason people were touching there was that the 
dancefloor was packed with people dancing alone. The music was so much 
louder than at Studio 54 that I considered becoming a disco fan, especially 
as there were areas of Studio 54 where people were doing alot more than 
full contact dancing. Unfortunately the place closed down a few weeks 
later, as the owners had appointment to do an official government time-out.

I knew a bartender who went stone deaf in his left ear, which was the one 
that faced the stage in a loud music club. Took less than a year. The 
fact that he was born in the era of earplugs, and that he didn't use them, 
testifies as to how if you're really dumb you can save big money by not 
buying earplugs.

Unfortunately we have to work where the jobs are, but the Iceman has it 
right in the basket when he suggests we try to back off from 11 on the 
volume control.

Ken the D

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