Loudest live guitar you have experienced?

Joe Satriani - Surfing with the alient tour @very small venue 5th row center stage incredible musicians ears rang for weeks.

I realized at that point I was only a mortal guitarist and not a demi-god

 

AC/DC, Birmingham NEC. I was in the stands and had to wear ear plugs. I do have super sensitive ears though.

 

Steve Vai at the House of Blues in Orlando about 5 years ago. I've seen some loud shows before, but this was a piercing, painful volume. Music was phenomenal, but the volume was insane and unnecessary.

 

insert the name of any Wichita, KS local band playing a 100 watt full stack at Kirby's Beer Store

as for a single act ... probably Hum

 

Two times in the early 1980's come to mind:

SRV in a small club in Fort Worth called Spencer's Corner, back when it was across from the TCU campus. Maybe the club held 100 people standing and he brought 3 amps-a Super Reverb, a Vibroverb and a Marshall Club and Country 2x12 combo. It felt like someone was putting an ice pick through my ear into my brain. My bass player and I walked...that was just too much work to have fun.

The second memory was Pantera at Joe's Garage, a joint on the far West side of Fort Worth. I had gone in to play foosball (table soccer) with some buddies. I remember when they started their set the ball wouldn't hold still on the table. You literally couldn't pass the ball from one row of men to another due to the table vibrating from the music.

 

!. The Who at the Cotton Bowl '79. '80.

2. Led Zep "Presence" tour (77?). 3rd row. Not for long.....

 

Ive been to some LOUD shows including KISS (third row in a small arena in the 90s) and Van Halen in 1984. But the worst by far was Ted Nugent at a small club a few years ago. Between his horrible tone and the concussive volume, it was like he was trying to repel the audience.

 

ZZ Top at the Syria Mosque in Pittsburgh. Early 70's. They were touring behind their first album. I had a front row seat in front of Billy Gibbons. YIKES! Three full Marshall stacks and his Les Paul. Incredibly LOUD......and so cool. Honorable mention goes to Deep Purple for the Machine Head tour at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena. Maybe 5-6 rows back in front of Blackmore and a couple of years later for the Burn album tour. That time I was smarter...got tickets about 20 rows back. It was still UNGODLY loud! Ahhh....to be young again...

 

Steve Morse with Deep Purple, 2005. I was at the first row,literally pressed against the protection grid, I couldnt be closer to the stage. I felt like I was onstage with the band, really. In front of me was Steve Morse with maybe 4 or 5 cabs on the ground. As I was lower than stage level, the cabs were almost level with my head. I could only hear the sound from the stage, not the PA sound. It was 90% guitar, 5% voice, 5% the rest of the band. Ian Gillan was certainly phoning it in, and even Paice's drums couldn't compete with Morse's guitar. Roger Glover was the most enthusiastic of the bunch, but he was certainly thinking about some dinner or another post-concert activity.

 

Hendrix at the Virginia Beach Dome in 1968. That old hemispheric metal building - with a concrete floor - was an acoustic parabola aimed at your midbrain.

 

I saw Cream back in the day.

 

Early 90's, Paul Westerberg was touring with his post-Replacements outfit and saw them at a small club in KC. not sure if he was drunk, or pissed off, or both, but they played at Arena level volume it seemed. freaking excruciating, i stuffed my ears with bar napkins. of course, i stayed cuz i loved the Replacements and him as a songwriter. i definitely sustained hearing damage in my left ear that night

 

Grand Funk Railroad 1973. Indoor show where I sat on the third row. First row seats were close enough to the stage to allow the ones sitting in them could rest their elbows on the stage. My seat was in front of the speakers stage right. SPL on stage was 125 db that night.

 

My Bloody Valentine (Loveless tour circa '91-'92) was quite literally more than I could handle. Even with judicious use of earplugs, it was painfully, nauseatingly loud. The clever quip about MBV concerts is that your earplugs need earplugs; but that really doesn't do justice to the sonic violence perpetrated on your eardrums. As much as I still love MBV I would never see them live again.

 

John Petrucci, G3 tour last year. First time it actually hurt. I was right in front of his kit. Last time I go to any concert without my plugs.

 

Standing in front of Hillel Slovak's Marshall half stack at Rick's American Cafe in East Lansing, MI. Around 1987. My ears were ringing for three days after. Yes, it was worth it.

 

Although I have to say. About that same time there was a guy in Seattle playing clubs with a Super Reverb that had 4 jbl 110's in it. He played a strat... plug and play. In a big club damn that thing would make your ears bleed!

 

Wade Hayes ("Old Enough to Know Better, Still Too Young to Care", "Tore Up from the Floor Up") opened for Merle at the Oil Palace in Tyler, TX some years ago. I had good seats, and ended up wishing I hadn't. He was/is I guess a heck of a guitarist, with a great band, but enough is too much.

Merle and The Strangers' volume was probably 40-60% of Wade Hayes'. By then, I was too deaf to enjoy it.

 

Talas; Buffalo, NY. Ears rand 2-3 days. First at my high school, and then later in town. featured Dave Constantino (gtr) and Billy Sheehan (!) on........bass. No idea who the drummer was. 3 piece outfit. Their near-hit?
"See-saw".....it ain't bad.

 

Skid Row, opening act for Bon Jovi.
Birmingham, Alabama.
Late 1980's.

Sebastian Bach was an obnoxious a$$hole, and the band was way too loud.

Bon Jovi later in the evening was fine.