Imagine my surprise when I sat in my living room a quarter mile from the heart of downtown this past Saturday night and could distinctly hear every note and every word of the fest (whichever one of the many this one was) music. The music was so clear it was if the performance stage was set up just down the street and the volume level equal to that of the garage band that occasionally practices across the street.
It’s not that I’m against amplified music but give me a break when it comes to making it way too loud. The fest sound guys amped it up so loud that it must have been ear-shattering downtown if it was that loud at my house
Then perhaps I’m overly sensitive. I thought so until I talked with a woman who lives in the Old Mill area and she reported being able to hear everything clearly including enough bass thump-thump that seemed to shake her small house.
Undoubtedly she and I are in the minority on the volume issue and just not smart enough to know that loud equals good, louder equals better, and really loud equals the best possible music.
A musician I mentioned my volume concern to just laughed. “The fest sound guys over-amp all the music. You could have a string quartet playing Mozart and they’d have them cranked up as if they were a head-banger metal group,” he said.
Perhaps the fest folks might reconsider who does their sound, or have a talk with the current play-it-loud-and-proud audio engineers have ask them to tone it down just a bit.
Won’t happen, but it’s a thought.
This article appears in Sep 16-22, 2010.
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Normally I would start this rant with, “shut up old-timer…”, but you are RIGHT! The last two public venue shows I have gone to in the Bay Area have SUCKED because the sound guys jacked the sound too far!
My theory is that these guys all have permanent hearing damage so they think it is normal. Try and say something to these idiots and all you get back is the old record-store-desk-jockey dumb look, “like,hey maaan, I guess you aren’t hip enough to know that this music neeeds to be played real loud.”
Someday a great opportunity will hit these guys, but they’ll be too deaf to hear. That’s karma for you.
I love music. This was loud. I live over a mile from downtown (1.8 miles from the front door of the D&D!) and I could hear it. I can’t say it was clear, but it was clear enough to identify vocals and instruments!
Between the summer concerts at The Schwab, the performances at the seemingly endless downtown fests and Munch ‘n’ Music, Bend residents are bombarded year-round with high-decibel noise. (Technically it’s called “music,” but at those amplification levels it’s just noise — sorry.) I like music and I like outdoor events like these in general, but this is really overkill. I guess it helps keep the tourists entertained, but what about the needs of those of us who actually live here and pay the taxes?