I would have to say that mine is The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion at Metro back in 1995 or 1996 (I can't remember).

I could feel my eardrums vibrating and was experiencing natural distortion due to that hypervibration. Yes, it was painful. Very painful. Maybe it was just that I forgot my earplugs, but I do not thing that I have ever experienced anything like that.

And then he broke out the Theremin, and I was on my knees. Literally!
I had to leave the room a few times because it hurt so damn bad.

Not a good thing.
It could have, otherwise, been a helluva show.

1. Melvins/Jucifier (Grand Rapids Michigan 2001-2002ish)
2. Pantera/Prong (Kzoo, Michigan 1995)

nirvana - roseland (94?)

i tried really hard to get into JSBE but just couldnt do it (now i got worry)......

The concert itself probably wasn't that loud but I was shoved up against a speaker at Gomez. My ears hurt and I could feel my clothes vibrating.

however PT, i am going to revisit that disc....maybe my tastes have changed. i havent listened to it since it came out.

Tied for first place:

J Mascis & The Fog (Mike Watt opened) - Metro, 2000-ish. I stood at the back bar with friends and had to give up our conversation because we couldn't hear each other no matter how hard we tried. No earplugs that night. I heard ringing for a week after that show.

Mogwai - Metro, 2006. I laughed. I didn't know what else to do. Even through professional quality earplugs, I felt like my ears were being brutally raped. It was awesome.

I've heard 'xrt djs say that a Jam show was famously the loudest in Chicago history. Not sure of the venue, unfortunately.

TV On the Radio at Amoeba this year.

Mogwai at the Ottobar...sometime after CODY was released. Venue that tends to hold sound very well. Off to the left side of the stage. At the end of the show they start playing "My Father, My King" and that is when the mayhem happened. Not only does each member start creating feedback with their respective instruments (drummer was pounding away so loud), but then Stuart starts singing "Amazing Grace" and starts ripping his strings off of the guitar and wrapping them around the mic creating the most horrid squeal. At some point the speakers started to crackle make a strange whooping sound. Until the show was over and I was outside, I wasn't sure if it was the speakers or my ears that were ringing. I soon discovered, it was both.

Jucifer - Lunch Paper, Athens, GA, 1998

Easily.

Seriously thought I should go to the doctor the next day due to my hearing being muffled.

Jesus Lizard, spring of 1994. I lost my hearing for three days.

Wire at the Abbey in 2003.

My ears were killing me after this one. My friends made me stand really close for a while, I kept having to inch to towards the back of the room because of how loud it was.

Teri Hemmert - The Jam at the Aragon

the defining image of this show has been and will always be the multiple people clasping their hands over their ears during "my father, my king."

also notable: i saw friends forever in a warehouse a few years ago and it was brutally loud, even with earplugs.

Helmet/Melvins; State College, PA; 1997

Hard to say, and usually the smalle rvenues, even if not absolutely louder kill the ears more. A fwe weeeks back, the Supersuckers were pretty loud as were the New York Dolls in a smallish bar. Probably my ears are worse than in days gone by, but they were still ringing until around 9:00 the next night. Was kinda worried I'd really f 'em up since I was seeing the Black Keys the next night, but the Black Keys show wasn't nearly as loud...or as good.

Arcade (Stephen Pearcy of RATT's other band) at Sparks, Deer Park, LI, NY

Staggering Statistics (Afghan Whigs Side Project), CBGB's, NYC

I'm also going to go with Mogwai...Variety Playhouse in Atlanta in 01(I think). A 20 minute version of Like Herod without earplugs killed my hearing for a few days...I was so physically sick that I had to skip out on Bardo Pond's guest list invitation (they were out of weed) to the 40 watt show the next night.

I had not heard volume like this until 2 shows this year:

Boris-I will use my previous statement from another post "It was like standing in front of a jet engine"

The Raconteurs...seriously...fucking loud...not in a good way either. Even louder crowd.

oh, good call! but they weren't even the loudest band of the night when i saw them. sunn0))) headlined. there were people listening in the stairwell at the back of the building. and i could hear them from over a block away. i remember when the lights came down, everyone was pulling out earplugs immediately.

One of these, probably:

Wolf Eyes
Lightning Bolt
Shellac
Man... or Astro-man? (the first time I saw them)

I was wearing earplugs for all of those except MoAm, but I would take them out intermittently to get a feel for how loud it really was. For each of those top three bands, the sound nearly knocked me over. Also, for each one, I really wanted to keep the earplugs out because the wash of noise was kind of euphoric. I just knew I'd be paying for it days later if I did that.

That's exactly what happened with that MoAm show. My ears were ringing pretty seriously for almost a week, and it was after that that I started making a point of wearing earplugs to loud shows.

do you get the sense that it took one seriously loud show for people who wear earplugs to start wearing them? i never wore earplugs and then my friend gave me a pair of the foam ones at some basement show. i thought it was really loud, but that the sound was terrible. a few weeks later, i got the etymotics and wear them at every show now.

#1 kinski - thankfully i had earplugs but it was like mbv-style white noise. . . like standing in front of a jet engine

#2 hum - small club, fan-fucking-tastic

Mogwai - 2001 @ 40 Watt (I was on mushrooms, and it goes down as one of the worst shows I've been too. It was obscenely loud and "like standing in front of a jet engine"). I guess this was the night after Dave Shoegaze saw them @ the Variety.

J. Mascis & The Fog - 2000 @ 40 Watt (It was still nearly unbearable even with earplugs in).

Lightning Bolt - 2005 @ Angle of View - I purposely took out earplugs at points to get the full onslaught. Still one of the best shows I've ever seen.

EDIT: had to add this one - Ken Jacobs' Nervous Magic Lantern collaboration with BLACK DICE - 2004 @ Anthology Film Archives (also the only time I've ever seen Animal Collective live... they blew me away, but not with their volume). Black Dice emitted a constant barrage of noise from their electronic equipment and amps. It was so painful that I became nauseous and had to leave.




As far as earplugs go for moderately loud shows, I wear these:
EarPlanes
They have a dB rating of 26 or so. They cut down the volume without making all of the instruments go into an indistinguishable blur.

Well probably. I doubt that most people do it just because they believe they should. They usually have to have that experience first.

I need to get some etymotics, myself. Cheap earplugs make things sound kinda shitty.

Motorhead.

Towards the middle of the venue it was insanely loud, even with earplugs on. I made the mistake of taking one of the plugs out for a second, & I could literally FEEL the sound wooosh past my ear like a stiff breeze. And the breeze was coupled by this kinda jet engine, SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!! noise.