Going to a Concert in May — What Precautions Should I Take?

[Alexandra Lehman]

I'm going to a concert on May 18 and am sitting kind of close to the front (not floor seats, though). What precautions could I take to protect my ears?

 

[Digital Doc]

Better off staying home as this does risk your tinnitus worsening.

Otherwise, best protection would be foam earplugs, and better quality earmuffs.

 

[Contrast]

You have a history of loud noise exposure that in all likelyhood caused your tinnitus.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...innitus-started-when-i-was-8-years-old.33484/


Why would you take that risk and make your tinnitus worse?

 

[Digital Doc]

"If you're unlucky, all it takes is one loud concert to spark a lifetime of ear problems -- a constellation of symptoms that include not just hearing loss but also ringing in the ears, sound sensitivity, a feeling of aural fullness and even chronic ear pain."

https://www.dailyherald.com/article/20150803/entlife/150809940/

"Concert music levels can reach between 100 and 120 decibels loud. At a level of 110 decibels, hearing loss can occur after only two minutes of exposure."

https://www.everydayhearing.com/hearing-loss/articles/should-i-wear-earplugs-to-concerts/

Given how loud these events can get to, for those having issues with tinnitus/hyperacusis, I would not recommend to risk it. There are other variables such as inside vs outside venue, seating position, and some bands are known to be louder that can play into the potential for damage. It is hard to make a blanket statement, as this could be your child's band concert, and the risk may not be super high with good protection.

 

[another sean]

I'm going to a concert on May 18 and am sitting kind of close to the front

 

[erik]

Hearing is something that you can keep losing and won't ever improve. Hearing loss is cumulative and permanent. If you feel you must go, do not sit up front because that is where the speakers are concentrated. The average concert is 110-120 dB which means hearing loss starts within 90 seconds. Sit further back and use good ear plugs. Even with good plugs, you should still be able to enjoy it.

 

[SashaG]

I would not risk that, I know how recklessness promoters can be with their events, while my DJ booths never had more than 75 dB, the stuff on the floor easily reached 100db.

The loudness war has crippled a lot of people over the years, you also notice that if you listen to music from today and compare it to the 90s. Many producers don't hear well anymore, so it all sounds terrible, overcompressed and loud.

My advice is to not go anywhere loud, I for sure will not risk anything this year, already cancelled my football schedule. But of course, my incident was noise induced, not sure if yours was as well.

 

[Sudbury]

I'm occasionally near percusive drilling and large turbo charged diesel equipment. My goto are 3M taper fit 2 ear plugs. They have to be fully inserted for protection, so practice before you need them.

 

[Sam Bridge]

If you do go don't sit near the front. Try and swap the tickets for somewhere in the middle or closer to the back and wear custom moulded ear plugs or foam ones.

 

[Bill Bauer]

What precautions could I take to protect my ears?

To protect your ears, don't go to the concert.

Note, that many people go to concerts and are fine. However, some people end up regretting going to concerts for the rest of their lives, as they end up with a permanent T spike despite wearing hearing protection.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/joycecohen/noise-kills-when-everyday-sound-becomes-torture

Recognition of the dangers of noise — which are often mischaracterized and more far-reaching than previously assumed — is "dawning a little bit but doesn't go beyond the research community so far," says Jos Eggermont, a professor at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. He was stunned when his research showed that exposure to low-level noise, in amounts not generally considered harmful, caused extensive damage in the auditory cortex.

My not-yet husband emailed me because I was getting better and he was getting worse. He wanted to know my strategy. Time and silence, I told him.

Regarding a person who had committed suicide as a result of T and H:

A concert he couldn't resist. His audiologist told him earplugs were enough. They weren't. "I want to emphasize that this is entirely my own fault," Hectors wrote. "I have never been aware of the dangers."
...
The final, fatal dose of noise came during a friend's bachelor party; he wore earplugs during dinner and fled after a brief stop at the karaoke bar. His ears burned with a white-hot pain.

It can get extremely bad. I went to clubs and concerts for four years after inital onset of mild T and H, and I was fine. I got some increased T before going to bed, but that was all.

Until one day, it wasn't.

Oh go you'll be fine they said. Wear earplugs they said.

So I went to the event with ear plugs. Was there for only a few minutes. Big mistake. Gave me low drone/hum that's worst than the high pitch hiss/eeeee, tea kettle sounds. Never went away. sigh
3 1/2 years ago.

Everyone is different. Every situation is different.
You have to make a decision and live with it.

For more testimonies, check out the posts I quoted in the first post on
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/learn-from-others-mistakes.29437/

Also check out

I didn't read all the above comments, but did peruse a fair amount of it, and ran across many good points on both sides of the argument. What strikes me is there seems to be an underlying assumption (of course I may be wrong on this) that all brains and neurological systems are created equal. The way I see it, that's simply not the case, so everybody's way of dealing with tinnitus and/or hyperacusis is going to have to be highly individualized.

I read a book many years ago called "Adrenal Syndrome". A lot of the book touched on the residual resiliency of people's adrenal glands as they respond to life's stresses. Very low resiliency often resulted in months/years of chronic debilitating exhaustion following a stressful event(s) in their lives. Very high resiliency indicated essentially the opposite. The author broke this down into some rough numbers:

25% of people have low resiliency, meaning normal life stressors will often send them into some degree of a tailspin.
25% of people have high resiliency, meaning that no matter how severe a stressor comes into their lives, they will be able to cope without becoming debilitated to any degree.
50% of people fall somewhere inbetween.

I believe there are some kind of corresponding numbers for a person's brain and neurological resiliency as well, which can greatly affect the ability to cope with tinnitus. (I believe adrenal resiliency also plays a major role in our ability to cope). -- Based on these assumptions, it's pretty easy for me to conclude that what may be overprotection for one person will be underprotection for another, and vice versa.

I think the main point to understand for someone new to tinnitus is that their path forward is going to be a lot of "testing the waters". Generally, IMHO, it's going to take a few weeks or months to get important insights that will help us achieve a healthy balance. In all likelihood, most people are going to learn from experience when their over-protecting or under-protecting.

I've come to believe however, that in those early months, if one is going to err in either direction, it should be toward overprotection. It just seems to me the consequences of underprotection (which could result in permanent injury) in those early times are much more dire than the consequences of overprotection--which as I understand, generally results in temporary setbacks.

Doing a number of things to better support the brain and neurological system and the body's stress response (adrenal glands) is quite high on my list of recommendations I would make to anybody with tinnitus. Doing so might even prevent phonophobia or OCD, etc., as we go through our learning curves -- Just my 2 cents worth.

Relative newbies to tinnitus are likely to find all the information/opinions above quite confusing. So here are a few common-sense rules to follow:

1. The best protection of all is avoidance. Even the best earplugs can't guarantee complete hearing protection so those relatively new to tinnitus are best advised to avoid prolonged loud noise exposure - especially amplified sound at for example live concerts and sports events. This may involve lifestyle changes.

2. When in doubt, use hearing protection. In the many tasks we all do through the week, some will inevitably involve exposure to noise - which may be at higher levels than we at first realise - so using hearing protection for many of these is only sensible.

3. Build quiet into your day. It's not a good idea to be wearing hearing protection all the time - so you need to give your ears a break by ensuring that there will be quieter times during your day when hearing protection isn't necessary.This may involve changing your routine. Use soft masking noise and light music (not using headphones) to avoid "silence" where tinnitus is most noticeable.

4. Don't stress about stress. Tinnitus newbies are forever being told that the thing which makes tinnitus worse is stress. But while it's true that how you are feeling at a particular moment can make tinnitus temporarily louder, it won't have a lasting effect. But prolonged loud noise exposure can make tinnitus permanently louder. So don't stress about stress - but do be concerned about noise.

Why would you take that risk and make your tinnitus worse?

Sometimes it is live and learn. Don't touch! That is hot! I told you. Very sad.

 

[linearb]

I've been to a decent number of concerts since my tinnitus got bad, with no problems, always using at least foam plugs.

The thing is, with seated shows -- you have a lot less control. Shows are usually mixed to be 95-102db at the soundboard, so seats right at the soundboard would probably be too loud for me, if they went on more than a couple hours. This also means if you happen to be right in front of a speaker stack you'll get more noise (though in reasonable, well-mixed venues, the odds of volume peaks anywhere exceeding 110 are not that great, and you're definitely not dealing with sustained volumes in that range).

So, I like unseated shows because I can move around and find a spot where the volume & visibility are decent. You won't be able to do that at a seated show, but it could still be fine; if it were me, I'd probably go, use a meter to figure out average and peak volumes at my seat, and then bail if it was more "too loud" than "awesome, fun!"

The average concert is 110-120 dB

Some shows can certainly be that loud, though 120 (even as peak spl) has to be on the rare side, and is going to be in violation of applicable regulations more or less everywhere.

My experiences at mid-sized venues around here (~600 person capacity) is that volume towards the back tends to be 80s average with peaks into the 90s, totally fine for me with plugs. Moving up to the center of the venue where the sound board is, the average tends to be more like low 90s with peaks into the high 90s, and the loudest I was able to get the meter to register by holding it right towards a speaker was about 104.

Whether "close to the front" is bad or not really depends on how the speaker setup is. Sometimes there's a wall of stacks in the air mid-way back, such that people who are 2/3rds of the way back get dosed a lot harder than people right up front. So, I hate seated shows because of the uncertainty, plus the uncertainty about whether the person in front of me is going to decide to smoke DMT constantly and keep falling backwards into us (yes, this is a real thing that happened, at a Shpongle show at Red Rocks, Colorado...)

Here was the setup for a Kurt Vile show we went to a couple months ago. From here we had a pretty good view, great bar access, and volumes under 90.

When I was young, I liked to hear music blarin'
And I wasn't carin', to neuter my jams with earplugs
But these days I inhabitate a high-pitched ring over things
So these days, I plug 'em up

 

[Greg Clarke]

Best precaution? Not to read the advice here.

 

[PeteJ]

Wait for someone to film it with their phone. There is often decent video footage uploaded to YouTube. Else, listen to a recorded version which will eventually be released or surface.

It's a better option for all the reasons expressed previously.

 

[Bill Bauer]

Best precaution? Not to read the advice here.

Any justification for your advice above?

Or are you just hoping to use your Mind to Will your view of the world (that everything is safe and that we don't need to worry about anything) into existence (in spite of all of the evidence of your view of the world not coinciding with the real world)?

 

[Flamingo1]

This guy does concerts all the time.

Sugar Ray singer Mark McGrath reveals he's losing his hearing https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/sugar-ray-singer-mark-mcgrath-005609261.html

 

[erik]

Best precaution? Not to read the advice here.

Perhaps but not very helpful

 

[Alexandra Lehman]

You have a history of loud noise exposure that in all likelyhood caused your tinnitus.

View attachment 28570
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...innitus-started-when-i-was-8-years-old.33484/


Why would you take that risk and make your tinnitus worse?

They're my favorite group and this may be their last tour, and I would want to see them at least once before they disband.

 

[Alexandra Lehman]

I'm occasionally near percusive drilling and large turbo charged diesel equipment. My goto are 3M taper fit 2 ear plugs. They have to be fully inserted for protection, so practice before you need them.

Thank you!

 

[Bill Bauer]

They're my favorite group and this may be their last tour, and I would want to see them at least once before they disband.

don't worry you will habituate living in the hell

 

[Greg Clarke]

"Any justification for your advice above?"

"Or are you just hoping to use your Mind to Will your view of the world (that everything is safe and that we don't need to worry about anything) into existence (in spite of all of the evidence of your view of the world not coinciding with the real world)?"

Are you really asking me that? You know I go to shows all the time and continue to perform and record. Just balancing out your negativity on the topic is all.

 

[Greg Clarke]

@erik

Surely you'll agree a lot of the initial advice isn't helpful either. Scaring people into not having a social life. So yeah, I say ignore advice from people who don't do it themselves. I'm not telling anyone what to do myself, just giving positive experiences , up to individuals to make up their own minds.

 

[Drone Draper]

2hrs of fun vs. a lifetime of worsened T.

I don't want to be the Bad News Bear, but that is what's at stake.

If you go - earplugs, go outside or leave if it starts to hurt.

 

[Raphael7713]

This is a strange one. At one hand you don't want to worsen you tinnitus. On the second hand you do not want to stop living and do things that you enjoy in life. Maybe people won't agree with me on this one, but I will say go to the concert with the best ear plugs you can get a hold off. Buy something that really is bullet proof and can protect your ear from noise trauma, and enjoy the concert.

If you notice that it is too much and too uncomfortable, then just leave. Don't limit yourself.

If it's possible, try moving further back from the speakers. Not being too close to the speakers and with protection, I can't see why your T would getting worse.