I know this now. The fact that this is needed just further illustrates my point. We first blast music above safe levels and then expect people to compensate for that with hearing protection. That's just insane.
First, we don't exclusively experience a concert through our ears. The reason people use words like "thumping" to describe bass is because it's felt as much as heard. That experience is important to many forms of music, and it isn't possible to get it at low volume.
The second is that the relative volume of different instruments is usually more important to the sound of a song than the absolute volume at the listener. Given that modern instruments have a huge range of loudness (drums are irreducibly loud, electric guitars very quiet), it's clear that you are going to have to amplify up to around the loudest noise to get the mix correct.
Third, sometimes it's just about range. Large concert halls, amphitheaters, etc need to get the mix right across hundreds of yards. Just as you would have to bellow to hold a conversation with someone on the other end of a football field, so a band has to be made loud to do the same.
So, sorry if you have to wear earplugs to cuddle the speakers-- but this really is done to a purpose.
The problem with small venues is that often you really need a lot of volume on guitars, vocals, etc to get the mix right with the drums, and then there isn't any space to soak up that energy. Instead it winds up reflecting off the walls and causing havoc, in addition to just being loud as hell.
Of course, that's not to say that there aren't bands that would play a full stack in a closet, but most of the time they're just struggling to get the mix right and give people the experience they want.
Delay towers make sure that everyone suffers equally in most really large venues.
In the end, if you want to stay at volumes that are safe for your ears without protection you will need to select your style of music, band, venue, and location in that venue with at least a modicum of care. Personally I prefer to wear the earplugs.
I remember being pleasantly surprised when I saw Porcupine Tree (a post-progressive/metal act) in concert about a decade ago. I was near the stage yet the volume was so eminently reasonable I didn't even need the earplugs I brought. (No doubt this is related to Steven Wilson also being an audio engineer.)
In sharp contrast, I saw The Mars Volta – similar genre – around the same time. Unenjoyably loud even with good-quality earplugs.
There are also small venues that specialize in these kinds of grown-up music shows. Again talking Atlanta here, the one I'm thinking of is Eddie's Attic.
Idea is to pick the venue first, then select which acts you'd like to see there.
There's no reason other people should have to compensate for your sensitivity and lack of willingness to wear hearing protection.
How many times do you have to go to loud concerts before you buy a set of earplugs? They even sell them at damn near every show I've been to, and disclaimers all over the place about the music being loud...
Besides, I'm not keen on shuffling more costs over to venues or artists. It's a tough business already, and tacking even $100 worth of earplugs onto a concert might wipe out what a small band will get paid to play.
Better to have the music and have to get the earplugs, than have less music to wear them to imo.
People listen to music with earbuds at levels that are driving them deaf, and it's not felt at all.
Jazz groups play too loud, fer cripe's sake.
Restaurants are loud. I took a sound pressure meter to an event at a restaurant, and the crowd noise was above the safe threshold before the band even started playing.
Drums are not irreducibly loud, and in any event, that doesn't explain why events with sound reinforcement are too loud. A competent drummer can play with intensity (even visually) at any volume level. Knowing how to play at an appropriate volume is part of knowing how to play.
I think that volume levels are killing live music.
Just. Music.