Earplugs at concerts C/D

Also, what is proper earplug etiquette (did I spell that right?). I had a friend that I used to go to some shows with. One time he brought me a pair of earplugs. I used them, but then didn't know whether I should return them or just keep them. Would he have been turned off if I offered to return them, like I just blew into a tissue and then tried to give it to him or was he throwing glances at the plugs hoping I would give them back.

Btw, one of the few good things about having one ear is that Earplugs are 2 for the price of 1!

It's classic to wear earplugs if the band is loud ... no one wants to go deaf.

It's a colossal dud to wear 'em when the band is playing at low volume. Like, some cute little indie-pop band is up onstage going politely going through their songs and there's always the one guy with earplugs in. Then you really do look like a dork.

Earplugs: dud. But my hearing's already gone.
(For the record, MBV: also dud)

It was still noticeable.

(Why is everybody speaking so softly?)

when i see someone with earplugs i think, "cool, they're probably in the next band on," because it seems round here nobody goes in for earplugs much and pretty much everyone i've seen wearing them has been someone in the main band annoyed at the support's ride cymbal action threatening to demolish their ability to hear their own set

and i will be good and not make lame missy jokes at lord custos (why the promotion, or downgrade, or whatever this sudden leap three-quarters of the way up through the alphabet is?)

face it, the real issue here is that these events are always too loud, designed to be loud enough for the people with the densest heads

why pay money at the door to get your head sonically kicked in ? rock music live is way out of control, it's been getting louder and louder as standard, which is a really dumb trend -- this has got to change

But I had no idea what I was in for, or I most certainly would have opted out (or at the least, brought along earplugs). The sound was so deafeningly, piercingly loud there was no way of even telling the songs apart. It was just one big mush. It was so loud it felt as though it were boring into my brain; I was losing my sense of balance my inner ear was so violated.

Afterwards I had persistent ringing for DAYS. I actually fell into a bit of a depression as it dawned it on me that I had done irreparable damage to hearing, and for what?! Some lame band who I didn't even care for. It would have been one thing if this had happened at a Merzbow show or a Fushitsusha show, then I could at least have felt that I gained a small something in the exchange, but this was some horrendous, utterly pointless bar band. The Nomads, or whoever you were, please rot in hell!

Not to get all dad-like on ya, but I would be hearing much better today if I had started wearing earplugs to shows about, oh, 20 years before I did. True, it's sort of like wearing a condom--you can't really FEEl it properly--but I think we've all recognized the long-term benefits there.

It would have also helped if I didn't play music over headphones at concert volumes all through my teenage years, but that's another story.

As for does it change what you hear? That's one of many reasons why I tape almost every show I go to.

Bill Clinton's representing Kiss? Wow.

You might want to reread the date in the byline.

Once my hearing didn't return until the Wednesday following a 1997 Saturday into Sunday after-hours visit to Sven Väth's now defunct Omen (Frankfurt), I swore I'd never enter another club/concert sans earplugs. I've kept my commitment (as my wife and frieds will surely attest) and the best (cost & value) I've found remain the Sonic Ear Valvs:

They ain't pretty, but they are incredibly effective.

Due to the Valvs' use of a diaphragm (which provides about 6dB of attenuation below 1kHz, and then ramp up to about 24dB at 8kHz), music maintains much of its original tonal balance than ordinary (i.e. foam) earplugs can provide. And yet you still get excellent protection from damaging high-frequency sounds - where very little musical information is lost.

If you're in the market and/or concerned, I'd highly recommend tracking them down at your local musical instrument shoppe or contact the Manufacturer to ascertain where they're sold near you.

Thus far the only place I've found them online is in an Amazon Catalog.

Wearing earplugs while listening on cranked up headphones C/D?

It's not hard to take them out for songs I really like. I would never want to go to a dance club without ear plugs. Plus I have to close up my ear anyway to talk to anyone.

Sorry to bump an old thread but I'm wondering how people feel about this. I feel like such a pussy saying this but I have only seen one show in my life where I wasn't overwhelmed by how damn loud it was, and that was Sufjan Stevens. I saw Boris two years ago and they were handing out little foam earplugs at the door. I think like 75% of the people there were wearing them. I took mine out for like 20 seconds and was just like, reeling in pain from the noise. I don't understand why these shows have to be so ridiculously loud. Like everyone I have had a bit of tinnitus at some point but I think over time your brain adjusts to it. I got it when I was 16 but by the time I was 22 or so I just never thought about it anymore. I'm afraid it'll come back.

I've abused my ears for years. I've played in bands, been to so many shows, listened to Black Flag on my cassette walkman with the volume maxed while mowing the lawn...
My hearing is still very sharp, imo. I think I am lucky. I do bring earplugs to shows I know will be loud when I can remember to, but I often don't worry about it.
TBH I've got other nervous system issues that I worry about more. Like I am starting to lose feeling in my mouth, which is really fucking annoying (I have MS).

I do think it differs for each person. I have sensitive hearing...when I'm in some nightclubs, it is just unbearable, but everyone else seems to be having a good time and dancing, so maybe the problem is me. My wife on the other hand has been to a lot of shows and parties with these salsa bands that play for like 2 hours without a break and she says she never gets any bad ringing or anything. One of these days they'll just inject stem cells into our ears and boom

Going to mogwai next month, this will be my first show with earplugs. as i approach my 40's the time has come.

Wore them for Swans a few months ago and was glad I did. In many European venues it's standard practice to hand them out free at the door.

is there a reason they don't just reduce the volume? the thing about the Sufjan show I really liked was that you could hear everything being played, I'm not exactly his biggest fan but I really enjoyed the show. on the other hand when I saw the Moody Blues, everything was overdriven to the point where it really hurt my ears...the guitar solos drowned out everything!! And this is the Moody Blues!!!

In my experience, there are no constants when it comes to stage sound. As Don Van Vliet once said, "sound is a shit."
But there is a definite trend towards LOUDER that has been happening ever since amplification began.

in the case of Swans and probably many others too the volume is what it is b/c that's how the band want it. xp

Had to have them at Swans, couldn't have lasted without them.

A lot of the Swans force is generated from that awkward range in the lower mids/upper bass region that usually isn't very prevalent because it's so ugly sounding, anyone can generate acres of sub bass but that brutal ugly HONK that the bass had at that gig was some crazy foghorn blart.

i've played drums longer than i've been regularly going to concerts so i've been used to wearing earplugs for a long time and tend to have them at the ready. but that also caused a weird distorted perspective where i often wouldn't wear earplugs at concerts because the loudness didn't seem as intense as when i was sitting right in front of the drums hitting them myself. so i didn't really get in the habit of earplugs at shows until i started doing concert coverage and being at shows twice a week for most of the last few years. now that shows are more sporadic for me and they're often in small rooms that don't get too loud, i've been less dilligent again, though. sometimes even at a loud show i'll end to taking out the earplugs to 'feel' the music more and get more into the show -- like if i get a few songs in and i feel weirdly removed from everything i blame the earplugs.

I used to never wear earplugs at shows, went to literally hundreds of concerts a year in my prime. I am convinced that my hearing is a little shot from this.

I started wearing earplugs a few years ago. Saw Motorhead a couple weeks ago and was up front by the barricade. Show was great but towards the end of the show, I went to scratch my head or move hair out of my face and it knocked the earplug in my left ear out. Oh my God, all of a sudden I was in complete agony! I fumbled for the earplug dangling from the cord and finally got it back in after maybe 15 seconds but it really showed me exactly why wearing earplugs at shows is something I should never have held off for so long.

When people would give me shit about it, I would just say "I want to be able to hear the next hundred shows that I go to. Maybe you don't go to enough shows?" Not a completely brutal comeback but it served the purpose.

Wear em proud!!

I have really, really bad hearing (like, a profound hearing loss) and I have gone through 3-4x pairs of EarLoves (which everyone on this board should own a pair of) bcz I kept them on my keychain and that little metal chain is not v strong. I try to wear earplugs at p much every show I go to bcz hey, I <3 my hearing.

I go to a show about 2x every weekend... if it gets bad enough I just stick my fingers in my ears. I've def been developing a minor case of tinnitus since I got my first Walkman, tho (age 9 or so)... I cannot listen to anything but at maximum volume, and oft get annoyed at an album's mixing if I can't go any higher. So concerts have never really bothered me much unless the band's entire intention is to damage you some bit... noise-rock & such.

I wish I'd been able to get past my neurotic hatred of things in my ears and wear earplugs a long time ago. I think the death knell was Mogwai in 2003 or so - I couldnt hear very well for several days after that gig. Since then my tinnitus - already bothersome - has escalated into shitty horribleness.

I am now about 40% deaf in my right ear. Ugh.

I am p much 90% deaf in my left, plus it rings p much all the time :/

like if you are standing next to my left ear talking into it, i can hear you but have no idea what yr saying.

ugh seriously fuck hearing loss so so hard

My deafness may also be because I have psoriasis in my ears which has gunged them up a bit grr :(

But yeah Im at the point now where I'm constantly going "sorry?" at shopkeepers and work colleagues and stuff. Its embarrassing.

Saw Motorhead a couple weeks
Loudest show I've ever seen. Wore earplugs, sat in the balcony.
Lemmy's gotta be struggling.

My ex went to Swans last week and he said - even WITH earplugs - his ears were ringing after the show. Yow.

so went to p much my favourite room in the city tonight, bcz it's closing next week and wanted to see it one more time. have been to eg chamber pop, laptop improv, acoustic twindie and even one hip-hop show here, and never needed earplugs - the place is full of 100-year-old upholstered wooden lounges, it's not a raucous room. unfortch tonight the headline band was a shiiiiiiiitty funk-rock 'combo' who cranked the volume to three times what ppl normally play at there, and my ears are ringing more now than they were after LEFTFIELD two nights ago. fuck you, soundman.

on the bright side, the DJ between bands was ace, cocktails were good, and QGP made me lol at my phone by pwning KBP in a hashtag during the support.

have never worn earplugs at a show, but it's been at a cost. i don't have tinnitus or anything by a long shot, but my hearing is definitely not what it used to be. that with my psoriasis of the ear, and the fact that my mom's hearing is really bad now = I'll probablybe an old grandpa who shouts "WHAT???" a lot.

especially since 99.9% of my concerts are metal

I used to think earplugs at shows were such a drag, until I got those Etyomtic ER20/Earlove things (for those that don't know, they attenuate all frequencies p evenly so nothing is muffled / it is like turning down the volume in your head, it's the most incredible sensation the first time you wear them). They're like $15 and they're basically the same thing as Etymotic Musician's Earplugs that you get molds for and cost +$100.

I mean, I feel like if you are going to more than, like, 3 shows a year, it is foolish not to wear haring protection at all.

etymotics = C if the music is kinda loud my ears fatigue after a hour
those spongie earplug things for music listening = DudDudDud

I don't wear them at every concert, but do always take them with me. Bought before the MBV concert in Paris two years ago. Turned out the venue, Le Zenith, was handing out earplugs at the concert too, but I preferred my own and they don't muffle the sound.

I still have to laugh thinking about the one guy in front of me at MBV who apparently didn't have earplugs or missed the hand-out. He left and shortly after came back again wearing his motor helmet to protect his ears, haha (this was during the You Made Me Realise 'holocaust' bit).

lololo

whoa that is classic as fuck, LBI!

yeah the etymotic ones are serious business, they are great. they evenly attenuate all the frequencies, unlike the foam jobbies which tend to muffle some frequencies a lot more than others.

i hardly ever wear earplugs. seems like i can hear fine but i'm still young (mid 20s) so hey who knows? saw swans a couple weeks ago, no plugs, fine—by no means unbearable. saw MBV twice the last 2-3 years, no plugs, it was loud, sure, but wasn't ringing except for maybe 15 min after the shows.

It'll sneak up on you later. It really will. Be careful!

curious... how high do you guys listen to music w/ headphones?

i've been maxing it out for years, possibly a decade, so i prefer using speakers at home, which hardly hit 30% of potential & i'm still relatively happy with the amount of detail i can catch

Man I always listen to headphones v quietly – if I can't hear other people who are talking, I turn down the sound – and it feels somewhat like parceling out pleasure in a miserly way. OTOH I like hearing things and would like to continue to do so.

I guess I have tough ears. I've been to a lot of loud shows, and thought I was losing my hearing, but it turns out my wife just needed to speak the hell up. (Per the audiologist, who said my hearing was better than his.) Went to see Sunn O)))) live a couple of years ago, started the set with earplugs and hated the muddy sound -- took the plugs out and enjoyed the show with naked earholes. My ears rang for about 20-30 minutes, but they were fine by the time I went to sleep that night.

I read a few years ago that the army were developing special tinnitus-preventing drugs. the main ingredient? antioxidants. apparently sound damages your ears by causing free radicals to be released which eat up your cilia. so after shows I try to down a bottle or two of grape juice.

How can anyone listen to that loud music, it's so hateful.

Thinking of getting these:
http://www.allearplugs.com/ear-plugs/musicians-earplugs/etymotic-er20-high-fidelity-earplugs-baby-blue.aspx

How do I know if I need small/medium or medium/large? I've no idea if my ear canals are 'medium' or 'large'!

why get those instead of the 50 cent versions from the drug store?

those foam versions muffle the sound. they're not designed for musical enjoyment. etymotics are designed well and you can still actually hear the attenuated music with 'em. they're awesome.
xpost: i'd go with medium unless you have particularly large ears, in which case i'd suspect the canals might be large, too?

Chris, how normal earphones fit you would probably give some idea - do they generally feel too small or large for your ears?

Alternatively, if you have any decent local music instrument shops, they should stock similar kinds of ear protection and would be able to help you on choosing the size, rather than buying online.

skip, I totally agree with outdoor_miner that earplugs like the etymotics or docs pro plugs and their similarly affordable ilk are much better than disposable foam plugs, if those are the 50c kind you are referring too. They can also last for years, depending on how often you are using them.

*referring TO, sorry.

looked at some amazon reviews on the blue ones and a couple people say be careful with ordering those ones in standard size as it's smaller than the standard white ones. i can vouch for the whites. jus' sayin'. and yeah, krakow, i've had my current pair for years and used to use 'em multiple times a week for band practice in a VERY loud band practicing in a tiny little space

I use Docs Pro Plugs myself, going to a few gigs a week, and they seem to last a couple of years at least. They really help with the volume without any muffling of the sound and I generally forget that I'm even wearing them.

the opening band for Portishead were so awful I put on my noise cancelling earbuds and listened to Stereolab during their set. perfectly acceptable, IMO.

got one stuck in my ear the other day. I have some tricks to get them out but this time everything I did pushed it further in. got really panicked, thinking I was gonna have to go to the ER, then I remembered I have this little metal hook tool for my vaporizer and after a lot of work got it out. my ear still feels like it was mauled by a bear.

this little metal hook tool for my vaporizer

Man, had you compounded your problem the doctor sure would have gotten themselves a great story.

earplugs are the smart thing to do. and yet I never have. mostly cos a) they don't stay in my ear and b) I'm a stubborn prick.

how far in did it get stuck?

Pretty much all the way up there though I could still feel the tab

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSiuhR9yw-vu_S8cpTyUPj-EJ8XWaVVbpJ7IShoGrQw2w&s

With foam earplugs I like the bell-shaped ones for this reason (I always wear one when sleeping these days).

gah that makes my skin crawl just reading it frogs

I have got some but I rarely wear them. Going to a death metal/noise/hardcore gig on Sunday though which I think I will wear them for

Love my etymotics fwiw

FWIW, I switched to a set of custom molded earplugs after going to an audiologist to remove some impacted wax.

The short version is, one day I thought there was a chance I got water in the other side of my eardrum, which meant I'd need a doctor to essentially puncture it, otherwise there was no way I could hear out of that ear. Turns out it was impacted wax but the doctor basically said it typically happens when you start pushing wax into your ear when you, say, clean it with a cotton swab, but it was possible my orange foam earplugs were contributing as I was pushing them in too much. So to get around that problem, someone gifted me some molded ear monitors which double as earplugs, and basically they're molded to the opening of your ear but stop short of really entering the canal. It's almost like a cap over your ear canal rather than a tap in terms of the way it works. Works great, I usually keep it clean using a tissue and a light bit of rubbing alcohol (no more than 70%).

Correction, the audiologist molded the ear monitors, an ENT doctor removed the wax, but they also sell molded earplugs that you can mold yourself at home.

I got audiologist molded ones maybe 15 yrs ago because the foam ones would just make my ears itchy.

Probably more expensive than it needed.l to be, but worth every penny.

Maybe this home molding would have been good enough tho.

yeah I had my ears syringed a few years ago and they were absolutely full of wax, not from cotton buds because my mum put the fear of them into me when I was a kid so I've never used them, doc said it was probably from wearing in-ear headphones for years

unfortunately getting them cleaned did absolutely nothing for my tinnitus