So, all you regular concert-goers (especially the metal heads), what are y'all using for ear protection?

I have yet to find a pair of ear plugs that lower the sound WITHOUT turning the the whole sound mix into mud. So I end up taking them out for the headline act which 1. defeats the purpose of me bringing ear plugs and 2. means I might have an unfavorable opinion about one of the opening acts 'cuz I had ear plugs in and I couldn't really hear them.

Yesterday I tried "Vibe" plugs, apparently they were pitched on Shark Tank, but once again I totally lost the guitar sounds and any drums pitched higher than the toms. It was just a muddled bassy mess. And it was a shame because I thought the opening act was pretty good and I might want to add them to my repertoire of local bands to see on occasion.

Etymotic https://www.etymotic.com/product/ety...lity-earplugs/
You can also get them on amazon. Cheap, quality, and don't muddle the music at all. The music sounds better in my opinion. I've had them for 15 or so years now. Punk, metal, industrial, electronic, classic rock, everything works well. You can slightly pull them out if the volume isn't super loud, but still louder than you'd like without plugs at all.

Thanks, I'll probably grab a pair of those next time I need to bump up to free shipping on Amazon. One of the problems with me is that I like a lot of bright and treble in my music mix, but those are also the ear-damaging frequencies that a lot of ear protection is designed to attenuate. I like that punch of the snare drum and that tin-tin-tin sound of the ride cymbal, and those are just plain gone with most ear plugs.

I was there too. As an Amy Winehouse fan, I instantly fell in love with Twin Temple.

Satanic Doo Wop?? It is a genre I didn't know I needed in my life.

Checked out Gang Of Four tonight. They were very good.

I bought those tickets for Mike Campbell's Dirty Knobs project over two years ago. With each re-schedule it seemed less and less tenable so I gave back one set of tickets as I was unsure the show would ever happen but it finally did last night. Sadly with the reschedule I ended up with GA tickets for a packed Sunday night show. It was an awesome show, he played songs off of both DK albums and about 4-5 Tom Petty songs that he had co-written with Tom was a great show ran until 11:30 PM or so and my freaking back hurts from standing.

Clearly, the pandemic is over as only a dozen people out of 400 were wearing masks it seems. In deference to my wife, I wore one last night but honestly would have been OK not to wear one even in a crowd at the moment. Was great to see Mike in a small venue and it's been a long wait as the original tix were bought pre-pandemic and the show was rescheduled at least twice. Sadly aside from a second date for this band next Friday I have no other tix for live shows coming up.

Ministry, in Raleigh, last Friday, with Corrosion of Conformity and the Melvins as openers. I have seen both CoC and Melvins before, didn't like them in the past, but I was more into them this time.
I missed the arena tour a couple years ago when they were with Slayer and Primus. So it has been about 30 years since I've seen them.
This venue has a capacity of 1400, versus ~19,000 at the previous tour. I much prefer the smaller venues like this.

It was great. Most of the main set was songs from Land of Rape and Honey (this was originally intended to be an album anniversary tour) with a couple side project songs. The encore was some tracks from the new album (which I actually like). Between the main set and the encore there was a video roll that first showed Ministry discography, then In Memoriam for band members and fellow musicians that have passed.

Masks - most of the staff wore masks, MAYBE 1% of attendees wore masks. I don't know if it was full capacity, but I heard it sold out, and the floor was pretty full.
I was a little nervous and tried to distance myself, but that only lasted till about halfway through CoC. I've got a batch of at-home tests, I'll probably take one today or tomorrow.

Anyway - I did go to a show last fall - Alice Cooper at an outdoor amphitheatre - but this is the first, small to midsize, indoor, general admission show I have been to since the pandemic began. Being in the crowd, talking with people about their shirts (I got multiple comments on my KMFDM shirt) and the band/other bands, and just experiencing great, loud, familiar music, especially for a band I've been into since high school - it was awesome.

BUT - doors at 6, show at 7 - two openers and the breakdown/setup of sets - it went till about almost midnight and my legs were sore at the end I took a shower that night before bed (my sweat and other people's beers on me), and the next day I soaked in a hot tub. I'm glad it was a Friday night show - while I'll still go to shows like that, I may need to take the next day, or at least the next morning, after a show like this. Which may be Testament, Death Angel, and Exodus, on a Wed night in April at the same venue.
Then again, these artists are older than me, and they're doing it each night, I can deal with it for one night.

First concert since the pandemic:

The Culture Tour @ Crypto.com Arena.
New Edition, Charlie Wilson and Jodeci.

Must show proof of vax, masks recommended.

Jodeci opened. Surprised they did not sing the Kci & Jojo hit "All My Life".
Charlie Wilson sang a medley of Gap Band hits and covers of Zapp and Guy. Amazing voice for a man that's 69 years old.
New Edition. Wow. I mean, it was great to see all of them and that they finally are putting a tour together after they split from touring back in 1997. A fair mix of all of their NE work including the solo and side group projects. 3 BBD songs, 3 Johnny Gill songs, 4 Bobby Brown songs and Ralph Tresvant's 1 hit. Bobby and Johnny were interchangeable depending on which era of the band's song was being performed. 23 songs on the set list. Missing was Girlfriend, Don't Be Cruel and On Our Own, but that would have made it heavily in favor of Bobby. No "I'm Still In Love with You".

Not sure if it was the sound guy's fault, but I thought it was a little blown out as you could hardly understand anything when they were talking. Not that I had good seats, but the sound tech could have done a better job.

Gary Numan
03/21/22
Park West
Chicago IL



Numan has adopted a very guitar forward sound these days, and the band was killing it. His voice sounded great....

Dragonforce, Visions of Atlantis and Seven Spires

How was Vision of Atlantis live (I know their music)? I've seen the other 2 (and going to this show in April), just curious.

I don't know a lot about Gary Numan, but I think he's always been a stickler for having real musicians, even in his synth-heavy days. I remember his clip in Urgh: A Music War, where he's riding around in that car thingy with all the lights and smoke going on, but when the smoke clears you can see a real drummer, real bassist, etc.

I did see him back in The Pleasure Principle/Telekon period - complete with that little weird car - around 80 or 81. Can't recall exactly the live band structure from back then, but this current band has a drummer, guitarist, and bassist, along with the expected keyboardist. Numan didn't dabble too much on his keyboard for this latest show, and he only picked up a guitar for one song.

200 Stab Wounds/Gruesome/Obituary in Chapel Hill, NC. Great (and pretty wild) show. I’ve seen Obituary 3 times before and this was the best one easily. I think they were really surprised at the turnout and energy for a Sunday show.

They were pretty good. Expect several songs from their new album to be released. It looked like three bands enjoyed being there.

Shit. Turns out I had a pair of Etymotics a couple of years ago (thank you, Amazon history). Same thing. Muddy sound, lost all the highs. I think I lost them when I was emptying my pockets at the security check at a Descendents concert and figured it was no big loss anyway.

Just got back from seeing Slipknot for the first time. Awesome show.

Bummer. They're the best I've come across, which has included all manner of off the shelf varieties, as well as a very pricey custom set from an ear specialist. If none of those are good enough for you, you might have to hit up musicians or sound engineers.

Yup, I got the custom ones from an audiologist too, but I think the "custom" part is more for the fit (had to have molds of my ear canal taken) and less about the audio attenuation. Those sounded terrible too.

I'll keep trying different options, but for some people I just think that ear plugs filter out the parts of the music they like. I can't think of any other way to describe it. Dave Grohl has said he won't wear in-ear monitors and I can totally understand why.

This is where I wish I was still at my job at Nokia. I was on the audio team, and we had an anechoic chamber with an artificial head that had a microphone in the ear so that we could measure frequency response and volumes of the phones' sound. I could try all the various earplugs and run a white noise signal from a speaker and see just how much it cuts down on certain sounds within the spectrum.

I got these before my last show from Amazon and they did a good job of allowing the majority of the music in. I already have tinnitus so I don't want it to get worse. My wife has normal hearing and she thought the show sounded great too so another "plug" for Etymotic



Also I'm happy to report I have picked up tickets to a few shows in June so I have more live music to look forward to!

Regulars here might remember that The Cow mentioned how great a recent Billy Joel concert was and it prompted me to buy tickets for an upcoming MSG show, where he plays monthly. I went to the show yesterday and man it was great. Probably close to my tenth time seeing him overall but first time in six or seven years and first time in New York. Still puts on an amazing show, even if I know all his between song patter by now. And my best seats ever. Also the first time I've ever heard him perform Just The Way You Are live. He never played it because of the animosity he has for his first wife, who he wrote the song for. He's finally added it back into his set list.

Nothing in forever for obvious reasons, but going to Deftones in several weeks. Had tickets since 2020 for this.

Saw EXTC tonight, it's a band featuring original XTC drummer Terry Chambers, and they play XTC songs. Since Andy Partridge stopped performing live in 1982, this is as close as you'll get to ever seeing them, and he has worked with the members of the band to play the songs correctly. The singer is good, but he just sings in a lower register than Partridge.Guitar work is outstanding though, they hit all those weird chords and inversions

During the San Antonio Rodeo this year, my wife and I went to two concerts: Brad Paisley and then Styx.

Brad was good.

Styx was amazing... they've just had their 50th anniversary as a band and two of the guys are still from the original group (Chuck Panozzo, 73, and J.Y., 72) were partying it up on stage! It was great.

Richard Marx tonight. Solo acoustic show. Man, his voice is still smooth and strong. Absolutely a wonderful show.