Allow me to piggyback on to this post:

If you ride a motorcycle, you should be wearing earplugs. It's not the engine noise, it's the wind noise, even inside a good helmet. Yes, you will still be able to use your helmet intercom/headset. I recommend the silicone ear plugs with the tiny hard plastic insert, both for comfort (because they sit very flush) and headset (I can hear my headset perfectly).

Could not agree more. I love the idea of live music but in practice it’s a miserable experience unless you’ve already suffered significant hearing loss.

Maybe someday people will stop putting up with this and I’ll be able to enjoy it but this idea seems a long way away.

Protect your hearing.

I did not and today, at the age of 54, I cannot hear above 13khz when I used to be able to hear above 20khz. Part of that is age, but most of it is from not using hearing protection at concerts and other activities where I should have been using it.

Any constant noise above 80db will damage your hearing. 80db is a LOT quieter than you think it is.

I'm taking live sound classes at my community college right now and we talked about this yesterday. The biggest issue with a large venue packed with people is the noise floor is very high. For instance if the crowd is 90db, then you've only got 10-20db of headroom to work with. 90db is already enough to cause hearing damage after 8 hours, and it gets exponentially worse with just a few db more, by 100 you can only safely be in that for 2 hours and that is generally the ideal loudness for that kind of venue. Of course since the engineers probably have hearing loss, they tend to raise it even higher to 110 which is loud enough to still cause damage over time even with regular earbuds unfortunately. So unless you can have a quiet crowd there is nothing you can do about needing ear protection, I recommend hanging by the engineer booth because they tend to be just far enough away to comfortably hear everything around 90db because they generally can't use earbuds while actively mixing.

Went to a local rock concert once. Had to go into the middle of the crowd to fetch a friend and alert him of something that had happened. The music was unbearably loud for me. Noticed that virtually everyone was wearing ear plugs.

Found it absurd. Why not lower the volume instead and have people forego the plugs? Less noise pollution in the local area too. After the concert was over I asked some participants about it. Everyone claimed they liked the loudness or that it was necessary somehow. My impression: they liked to keep up with the appearances of being hardcore, it being for tough folks. But they didn't want the actual hearing damage.

I volunteer at a non-profit concert venue.
The reason I fell in love with it in the first place was that you could go to a rock concert there, stand right in front of the stage, and talk to the person next to you.
Now I know why: They enforce a hard 100dB limit, and the entire room is covered in sound-dampening foam.

I literally take earplugs with me wherever i go. They're in all my vehicles and all my bags.

Foam earplugs are cheap—there's no reason not to.

WHAT????

(as said by a 40 year old who spent his teens and 20s next to a giant 30 foot tall speaker every week at a concert club. And I mean RIGHT next to it. During crowded concerts I was literally smooshed against it. )

It's the same at movie theaters. I wear earbuds not plugged in to a source just to reduce the sound level at a movie lately.

It's gotten to the point that I just keep ear plugs on me at all times. Concerts, movie theaters, loud family gatherings, whatever. If shit's too crazy I pop them in. I only wish I started this before suffering permanent hearing loss. I can no longer experience silence.

I wear the acoustic earplugs to concerts now, or at festivals stay far from the speakers. But I'm not sure. Maybe yes if the acoustics allowed for the sound to be more evenly distributed over the crowd.

Those earplugs made for concerts are great, they literally turn down the volume but the music sounds good not muted.

On the alternate I've been to concerts where you just couldn't hear the band playing unless you pressed into everyone at the front. Was a terrible experience and felt like I wasted my money. I'm a big fan of putting in ear plugs, eating an edible and then riding out the vibrations. I agree there must be a good middle ground but I would rather it too loud with ear pro than too quiet.

I understand the point and have definitely thought similar BUT, I like being able to feel the low end which can't happen at low volume.

The counter argument is that you get to decide where you stand, close and damagingly loud, or safe and far away, or anywhere in between. Except for the last one I went to, in a tiny basement (max 15 people) blasting metal inches away from my face

Last concert I brought ear plugs for the first time and still heard the music perfectly fine. They were made for this exact purpose to be fair, but I'm never going without again. There seems to be a history of deafness in my family so might as well protect what's left of my hearing while I can. I felt a little self-conscious, but at least I wasn't the only one, so maybe the idea is becoming less controversial?

But still, I disagree with you (so going to up vote lol). I think I prefer they stay loud but we just encourage people to wear ear plugs. That way, when I sit as far back as I did this last time, it still feels like I'm right there in the middle of it.

Downvoted for popular opinion...

I totally agree... I went to a club once without earplugs and it was painful. Concerts, shows and clubs I bring earplugs and I don't miss a thing.

It's even worse when you are in a closed space... I went this year to a concert unprepared (in closed space) without my earplugs and ouchhh, I thought I had lost some hearing due to the strong temporary ringing (I still have some doubts whether my hearing is ok). Same with clubs, I dont go often but I might start bringing my earplugs there too

Quiet concerts will probably be a thing if a big artist fronts it. Could be a cool concept

Where are you, OP?

I'd say in the UK, venues and festivals seem to be pretty good at choosing an appropriate volume these days

Unfortunately I grew up before that was the case and I can pinpoint a few specific gigs at the Astoria in London and some silly nights out in Liverpool that kickstarted the tinnitus I have today