Question: What’s the loudest gig you’ve ever been to?
Scott Brigham (The Flatliners)
Toronto punk vets the Flatliners launch their new record, Cold World, on May 8 via Equal Vision Records.
A: I believe the loudest gig I ever attended was Fu Manchu at the Opera House in Toronto back in 2004. I would have been around 16-17 years old at the time, and I’m pretty sure I had to borrow my older brother’s ID to get into the 19+ show. I remember being very excited to see them play, and then instantly fearful that I was going to go deaf as they absolutely blared through the speaker. The bass was so loud that I started feeling convulsions in my chest and thought I was going to die. Fantastic show!
Obsession: I recently watched a live performance from Beck where I was just floored by his guitar tone, so I had to dive in. Not sure if he was actually using this, but my quest ended with me obsessively looking up articles and videos of the Foxx Tone Machine fuzz pedal. Just such a fantastic ’70s octave fuzz sound that I realized was probably used on a lot of my favorite records growing up. I would have to sell a body part to get one of the original pedals now, but there seem to be more affordable retro-minded options out there that I’m excited to explore.
Richard Bienstock, Editorial Director
A: Appropriately, the loudest show I’ve ever seen came courtesy of one of this month’s featured artists—and no, not José González. It was, of course, Sunn O))), what I believe was a late-night CMJ set at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City, sometime in the early-to-mid 2000s. I’ve looked for information about it online and can't find anything, so if any of those details are wrong, I blame Messrs. O’Malley and Anderson for melting my brain that evening, as intended, with their sub-atomic Sunn amp transmissions. It was almost unbearably loud, but the low end also gave the feeling of both levitating you and piledriving you into the ground—mesmerizing, transporting, and, again, as intended, fairly nauseating.
Ted Drozdowski, Contributing Editor
A: Slayer, on the Clash of the Titans tour in 1991, along with Anthrax and Megadeth, at the Great Woods amphitheater in Mansfield, Massachusetts. I was in the 13th row when Slayer took the stage. They were absolutely blistering and inspired, but so loud that the double-kick drum was vibrating my nasal septum—hard! It freaked me out and I decided to fall back to the safety of the lawn, where the show was still a mighty, muscly spectacle.
Ted’s latest songwriting inspiration, Annabelle.
Obsession: Dogs are a constant obsession. I wrote a song for my dear late dog Dolly when she was still with us in 2020, called “An Old Dog’s Love.” Now I’m about halfway into one for her successor, Annabelle. As people in the music biz might say, she has great ears.
Boyd Holbrook is a fan of “Dueling Banjos.”
Photo by Leo Jacob
