Deafness or daftness?

Many people wear earplugs at gigs to help block out crowd noise and other audio nastiness. I've been known to use them in the past, but with the ever increasing quality of the sound equipment at the gigs I generally go to I'm finding them less and less necessary. I suffer from overly sensitive auditory nerves between my eardrums and my brain. My ears themselves are in fine working order, as proven by a series of tests at the ENT a few years ago. Unfortunately, excessive volume, certain treble frequencies or even tiredness can render my hearing all but useless. Everything becomes white noise and is highly irritating. Especially when somebody is trying to talk to me and, although I can hear a sound, I can't make out any words in it.

I haven't had a problem at a gig for about 2 years, and the last time it was due to a terrible mix at a venue I'd never been to before. Putting my iPod's earphones in my ears blocked out the volume and treble and allowed me to enjoy the gig.

The event that prompted this post was a trip to the Leadmill in Sheffield on the weekend. A couple of our friends are big fans of Frightened Rabbit, and asked if we wanted to go. After hearing a couple of tracks online, and always being up for something a bit different, we agreed and off we went.

Aside from the utter incompetence of the agents, the evening started pretty well. The support act, Yonderboy, were pretty good once they finally took to the stage (a full 90 minutes after advertised door times). Some of the crowd were particularly rude, though, and talked all the way through the set. One woman in particular was clearly audible in spite of positioning herself right up front by the speakers. Chalk one point for earplugs; at least they would have blocked that particular irritation.

The sound quality was actually very good during Yonderboy's set. The venue is tiny, but the levels were just right for the size of the room. It boded well for Frightened Rabbit who came on another hour later (yes, two bands in four hours. We saw 4 bands in that time at the Dead Like Harry gig a couple of weeks ago.)

Unfortunately the sound techs decided that what they really should do was make it LOUDER! Even my friends who don't have problems said it was too loud, although they could hear it perfectly. Sadly for me, the extra bit of volume rendered the whole gig as a wall of static punctuated by the occassional thud of a bass drum. Putting my fingers in my ears (I did not have my earphones) meant that I could actually hear properly, but it made drinking impossible and I looked a bit of a prat stood there, towering above the crowd with my elbows sticking out.

In the end I gave up. Four songs in and all I'd heard was noise. I went with 23inertia (whose was aching from standing for 3 hours waiting for them to actually get started) and sat in the back room on the big comfy sofas. In there, the sound was actually much better, muffled as it was by 2 walls. Even then, though, some of the songs were so loud I winced. I remarked to 23inertia that, had I not already given up, I'd have probably walked out at that point. If it's too loud when heard two rooms away, it's a sign that something is very wrong.

So I still haven't heard Frightened Rabbit. I could have listened while sitting in the quiet room, but frankly by that point the frustration and headache had proven too much and I'd lost interest. I do have some MP3s to listen to, though, so I'll catch up in my own time, at my own preferred volume.

Update: Apparently the timing issues were due to the agent, not the Leadmill. Future gigs may well be perfectly alright (as long as I remember my earplugs)