Loudest live guitar you have experienced?

Mahogony Rush. This guy thought he was Hendrix. A Poor punishing performance. Opened for a new Band who quite made up for it. Queen.

 

Motorhead, Newcastle Mayfair late 80's. The PA was up to the ceiling. I've seen smaller PA's at festivals.
After 3 songs all my mates retreated upstairs to the balcony.
I stayed downstairs, at the front, a few feet from the left hand PA stack.
I saw it as a challenge. I was totally deaf for 3 days. Everyone sounded like a fuzzbox.
My tinnitus is so bad these days, I can't sleep. God bless Lemmy & co.

 

My band in the 80's, Left For Dead, were once told we were the loudest bar band someone had ever heard, and the guy went to bar gigs every week.
We played one bar where the manager put on yellow industrial ear protectors.
And at a larger venue, 800 capacity, the PA guy said we were far too loud on stage. He asked us to turn down...we declined.

 

I've seen a LOT of loud concerts. Most from the P.A. systems.

But I saw BIG SUGAR at a local bar. He had 3 Marshall 4x12's just cranked. I have no idea how he sang over them? We had to leave shortly after it started. (to save what little hearing we had left). Just ridiculous.

 

An old Canadian group called GODDO. I've seen them 3 times... once around 1981, again around 2000, then again a few years ago. Loud doesn't even begin to describe it.

Gino Scarpelli is the guitar player... the first two times I saw him he had a pair of Ampeg V4 stacks behind him then the last time he was on a backline rig of a couple Marshall stacks... (FWIW... the V4's were amazing)

The tone was glorious in all three instances... but I was hurting by the end of each night.
To close their shows he and the bass player (Greg Godovitz) would leave their guitars up full and lean them into their stacks when they left the stage...

What is it with the Canadians? Gordie certainly plays loud, but in the soft seat venues I've seen Big Sugar he's had a variety of amps/tones and the PA handled the volume duty... nothing was spilling from the stage.

Brian "Too Loud" Macleod was another with the Headpins and Chilliwack. A handful of Musicman HD130's cranked to the fullest.... incredible tone, but holy crap was he loud!

... and yet another Canadian, Frank Marino... I'm seeing a trend!

 

In the late 70's I saw Leslie West's band in a theater converted to a bar in Watertown NY playing thru three full stacks at the God-awfullest volume. We retreated to the upper level and were still pummeled. Finally, my friends and I left. It was making us physically ill. I felt like I was going to puke.

In the 1990's I saw Ronnie Montrose blasting in a small bar in Lubbock, TX. It sounded like white noise killing a bag of cats. I had to leave that show too. There was no place inside that was bearable. I could hear his band a block away.

 

Jorma Kaukonen, with Hot Tuna at the Capitol Theater in Passaic New Jersey.
It was intense.
And I've seen the Who, and done monitors for Foghat, so ...Jorma was loud.

 

Up against the 'stage', in a small club/pub venue in London (I don't recall which one, I would have been in an 'altered' state...), 8 feet from Mick Green's Tele Custom & full-bore Marshall stack in the late '70s.

There are many shows from that era that have contributed to my tinnitus, and rehearsing in small spaces with a full band a lot didn't help either, but that was the loudest I've ever heard a guitar sound.

For overall loudness, Them Crooked Vultures a few years back were probably the loudest band I've ever experienced, in a concrete box of a venue. Great show, by the way

 

Self inflicted - Summer 1969 - medium small venue, for some reason I unleashed my Twin Reverb with my SG Gibson with PAF quality Humbuckers. Eventually I had to roll it back or face a lynching or worse; no money for gig. I can not go to indoor concerts anymore without ear plugs. I have done a lot of damage to my hearing, not just from music. Sorry I can't remember "The Event" that was loudest from a brand name artist.

 

Same here. Kevin Shields has tinnitus these days, as a member of his audience on a number of occasions, I can attest why.

 

Grand Funk Railroad - December ‘69, in the Field House (basketball gym) at a local university.

Entire band was so loud you couldn’t distinguish the tune - or the instruments...left, walked a few blocks to the car..in the car, with the windows up, we could finally tell what they were playing.

Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac was the opening act...hall was nearly empty ten minutes into the GFR set

 

Stevie Ray Vaughn, Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, Providence RI, early 80s. I left long before the show was over. I typically like loud, but this was just a barrage.
Steve Howe - Yes, Providence Civic Center, 1975. He hit a high note during the Starship Trooper encore that turned my eyes to X's. Damn...that hurt.

 

I’ve done monitors for Hot Tuna and have to agree, Jorma electric was painful. He had two of those old 2x12 vertical cabs, 1 12” open the other closed. They were pointed away from me and it still hurt.

 

The Smashing Pumpkins at the Cow Palace in 1996. The sound was so loud there I couldn't really tell what they were playing most of the show. Driving back home from the venue, I remember barely hearing anything my friend said to me. The next couple of days my ears were ringing badly

 

FWIW....

When the Rolling Stones played here in Winnipeg back around '99 my wife and I sat on the deck and listened to the concert... clear as a bell.
The stadium they played is 8 miles to the south.... (yes, the stage faced our general direction)

 

SRV in Atlanta. Could not enjoy it, so loud.

My ears still ring from a John Scofield show 20 years ago. He wasn't that loud but I ended up in front of the PA and was too dumb to move. Between that and working with a nail gun w/o hearing protection ONCE, I hear ringing 24/7. Before the nail gun day and after I always wore good hearing protection. But I paid for the time I didn't.

 

#1 Govt Mule at Tink's in Scranton, PA around 1999. I stood on the upper catwalk at the absolute back, and it was painful to listen to.

#2 J Mascis at some club in Nashville, TN around 2001. Standing about 10-15 feet from the stage in front of J...it was so loud that my vision was blurry. Seriously, not due to the beer. I literally could not form a crisp in-focus image because of the vibrations in the room.

 

Iron Butterfly 1969 Jacksonville, Florida. When the bass kicked-in (after the organ intro) on "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" my chest caved in and my ears fluttered as the sonic shock wave(s) hit me! I was in around the 12th row center stage position on the mezzanine. As I recall some of the folks up front headed for the back while some seemed to be enjoying the loudness of the music and for a good reason; due to forum rules I cannot specifically state the reason but if you know and understand flower power (at that time) you will know the answer.

 

Munford & Sons, Canadian Tire Center, Ottawa, Canada, measured SPL 125db.

I was wearing drumming earplugs, cut 20db, still 105db, health & safety, rated 5 minutes, only, workplace exposure.

My partner, got free foam earplugs from security because it was too loud with and without hearing protection.

YMMV

 

Slightly off-topic, but the loudest bass guitar i ever FELT was watching Black Uhuru play at Glastonbury. When Robbie Shakespeare hit the low E I thought my guts were going to leave my body via the rear exit...