I went to this gig the other weekend: Punchbowl’s EP release at Happy, with supporting acts Dyke? Dyke? Dyke? and Neon Bastard. I learnt several lessons from this: one, I don’t and probably never will get hardcore, and I should probably stop going to these gigs. Two, never leave home without earplugs ever again.
Neon Bastard were LOUD. Too loud. I don’t know what their music was like, apart from LOUD, because when they started I immediately put my fingers in my ears to protect my delicate music-appreciating apparatuses from damage, it was so LOUD. Personally, I don’t get loud. A reasonable amount of volume is fun, but deafening? Surely the long term benefit of actually being able to hear music (and other stuff like speech and approaching speeding vehicles) outweighs the temporary thrill of actually feeling your lungs jiggle in time with the bass? Am I the only one who doesn’t want to have that horrible ringing in my ears after every Saturday evening’s revelry?
I’ve got a theory that the reason why so many bands play SO GODDAMN LOUD is that over the past 20 years or so, audiences have lost their ability to shut up and concentrate on the music they’ve come to see. Due to the increased merging of the concepts of ‘party’ and ‘concert’, we now spend much of our time at gigs socialising and drinking. So bands need to play loud enough to make talking difficult, or else no one will pay attention to them. Sound plausible?
The other possible cause of this is that people like to have their eardrums shattered to pieces. If this is the case, can someone elaborate on why? And provide a convincing case as to why this practice should be observed at every single gig, regardless of the band and audience involved? No really, I’m interested. Send in your answers and we might print one or two if they’re not too abysmally written.