I'm just about to turn 40 and can't believe my hearing is still totally normal. I've abused the hell out of them over the years at concerts and through car/home stereo use. Certainly nothing like Bob Mould or Pete Townshend standing in front of big monitors night after night, but I'm still kind of surprised after all the mornings I woke up with ringing ears. I got wise to putting cotton in my ears near the end of my club days. Still, I've got on headsets right now at a comfy volume. Maybe it will still catch up to me!

WHAT????????

All joking aside, I've been to many shows over the years and my hearing hasn't deteriorated yet. I usually bring ear plugs with me just in case a band is too loud, but I only wind up putting them in about half of the time.

Yeah, after the first few concerts I wised up and got ear plugs, what a difference that makes! Depsite the number of concerts I've been to over the years, I don't feel like my hearing has been damaged since I choose to wear ear protection. I think ear plugs can actually make the music sound better in a lot of indoor venues as it helps filter out a lot of the high end echo that usually causes a lot of the ringing.

a few years back I was wearing ear plugs on a regular basis. Recently though I have been going to shows at the Black Cat and 9:30 and standing relatively close to the stage so that the sound kind of goes up and around my head (I know this really doesn't happen but it does somewhat work). This theory was completely shot at the last Chemical Bros. show I saw at Nation, that show was so insanely loud, it almost literally felt like my ears were bleeding.

Yup, from a zillion shows and playing in bands when I was younger. Got the good ole' tinnitus ring 24/7/365. Had a hearing test a few years back, the top portion of my high range is gone completely.

Sex, drugs and rock and roll!

It's not the concerts I've been to that may have damaged my ears, it's cranking up music in my car so loud that probably has.

After a few years, I learned to roll up a napkin and put it in my ear at concerts. It just blocks out the high end and does not muffle the sound like full-on earplugs would.

This was basically going to be my response too.

I have some tinnitus (ie, constant ringing in my ears) that kind of varies from day to day. Some days I barely notice it, others it almost drives me batshit nuts.

My hearing is kind of funny... I have very sharp ears. I can hear faint noises around me that others can't, and I also seem to have good range in my hearing because I can hear pitches that many can't. (Such as those ultrasonic devices intended to scare off animals... Christ, I can hear those fucking things two blocks away.)

But being in crowds can be pretty miserable. I have trouble picking out voices when in a noisy crowd like a party, club, or crowded store. It's like I can hear every fucking voice in the building, and it just sort of merges into a dull roar of white noise.

I -always- wear foam earplugs at shows. I like them because 1. the protect hearing 2. they filter out crowd noise and I can actually hear the band better 3. they also filter out treble noise.

Hearing loss sneaks up on you so I've been trying to do what I can to keep it from happening. However, I think my habbit of blasting my car cd player will probably kick my ass more than concerts.

You do know that ear plugs come in different Noise Reduction Ratings? That rating listing is required by the EPA. Instead of risking hearing loss with napkins, why not try out different earplugs until you find one that cuts noise but still allows what you want to hear?

How about these? http://store.yahoo.com/earplugstore/profmusearpl1.html

Some toher earplug links

http://www.hearnet.com/index.shtml
http://www.greenleopardlondon.co.uk/

Yeah I think it's wrong to call them "plugs" when it actually just filters out the abrasive and extraneous noise/static/echo and makes the music sound cleaner and you can actually hear what the singer is singing/saying, at least for bands where the music is usually overpowering like metal. Also when talking to people at the concert you can hear them better. Best of all, no ringing in the ears or headaches the next morning! Well, unless you've been drinking heavily.... hehehe.

I have the same problem and it drives me nuts. It also effects me if people are talking around me while I try to use the phone.

I have my hearing tested every year. The nurse is usually amazed by how good my hearing is.

Earplugs are great!

My hearing and eyesight are both going away after just 21 years.

To much loud music and video games as a child.

The loudest concert that I ever had seen was Metallica back in March 1989 in Binghamton NY. For two weeks after the concert, my hearing sounded like I was cupping my hands over my ears, along with the loud ringing of tinnitus. Luckily I was working at IBM in a calibration lab that had racks of electronics with fans blowing, so it didn't affect my work. I had read that James Hetfield lost somewhere around 80% of his hearing during that tour since he was too cool to wear earplugs at the time.

After being seeing the Ramones in the front of a club in 1991, I couldn't hear well for 3 days after. That's when I decided to start using ear plugs. It's made a big difference but I think some damage was already done by then.

Two other things you have to careful of too. One is using headphones (they can do a number on you). The other is cranking up the radio on the car.

That's pretty much how I have it.
At age a bit above 40, I can still track bats by hearing if in a quite place at night, and often react to high pitched sounds people around my just can't hear, but when it comes to pick sounds from background noise (as with a conversation in a crowded place) I have real trouble, and have to concentrate very hard.

Yep. Hearing ruined. Headphones too loud, too many concerts, too big of a stereo in my car. A little bit of a ringing sound. Have to ask people to repeat themselves.

The sad thing? I can't do anything about it until my parents die. For real. If I do something about it now, I won't hear the end of how they "told me so" until they die. I would rather have shitty hearing for forty more years than to hear that endless shit.

I have very low-level tinnitus in my right ear, but it's health-related and not because of noise exposure. I've gone to 100+ shows over the years, but always wear/wore ear plugs. While my show-going friends are already complaining about hearing loss (at age 27!), I've never had a problem.

Please take care of your ears, folks. You only have one pair.

My ears are still ringing from the canons firing during For Those About to Rock at the AC/DC show i saw in 1986.

I saw them on that tour as well and I was pretty deaf for a couple of days. That was definitely one of the loudest I'd been too. It was ear plugs from then on.

Man I used to blast those headphones when I was catching the bus to school/work for years. I know I have some damage. No ringing yet, but sometimes I have people repeat themselves.

My hearing will only get worse I'm sure.

I've got tinnitus too. Sucks ass. I've learned to live w/ it, though.

I wear plugs at shows so...no problems here.

BTW, loudest show I've ever seen: My Bloody Valentine in 1991, gave me a fucking headache.