Second, most of the US cranks the volume stupidly high. Wear earplugs so you can still hear your kids when you turn 50. And put earplugs in their ears.

(As a preface to the rest of this, I should mention that I’ve worn earplugs at almost every concert I’ve seen after Page & Plant in the summer of 1998 when I didn’t hear right for 4 days afterwards. I’ve had my hearing tested by an audiologist recently (2011) and thankfully I still have “above average” hearing.)

I saw Bob Dylan open for a Phil & Friends (a Grateful Dead offshoot) at the Civic Arena in 1999. It was the most awful sounding show ever — a muddy, unintelligible assault on my ears. The backslap in that building was astoundingly bad. I concluded that the Civic Arena just had irreparably awful acoustic properties (which it probably did). I had to wear earplugs, and the sound was so bad that I actually considered leaving the show (but didn’t.)

Then, four or five years later, my housemates offered me a ticket to go see the Rolling Stones in the same building. I was blown away by how good the sound was. I took my earplugs out, and found it very comfortable to listen without them. The volume was entirely reasonable, still extremely present, and very listenable. There was NO detectable backslap at all, and every instrument was easily identifiable with great separation and clarity. Of course, the sound system that the Stones toured with was way oversized for that room, which is one part of it (it’s always better to have an oversized PA than an undersized one). But it also had clearly been deftly tuned to compensate for all the room effects.

There’s good news and bad news here. The good news is that the march of technology increases the “quality per dollar” of sound systems. Some acts will take advantage of that to put on shows with better sound. The bad news is that many others will take advantage of it to cut touring costs and boost their touring profit margin. I suspect that truly awesome sound will continue to be limited to top-eschelon touring acts and stationary installations (like big festivals, etc.)

They played in the UC at CMU when I was a grad student. I had never heard of them before going to the show, but my friends assured me they were good.

Now, the show was a lot of fun — everyone in the room got jumping up and down, and we learned what it was like to destroy a sprung ballroom dance floor (while it flexed up and down by 4″ or more…). But the musicians in the band? I’ve heard better amateurs. They had trouble singing in tune, and could barely pick out a simple melody. Doug B. played one of their recordings for me after the show, and I didn’t recognize the songs I had just heard — their recordings are way better than anything they did live.

That is, except for the bass player. He was a ringer, and quite skilled. In one song they made the mistake of giving him a solo — and he started thrashing, totally schooling the other members of the band. Until the lead singer glared at him, and he switched to cheesily picking out a variant of pop goes the weasel as his solo.

And I *was* at that final LCD Soundsystem concert. Madison Square Garden is a shitty venue in so many ways, but it was still hands down my best live concert experience last year. I went to more than 60 concerts in 2011 and it easily trumped them all. (Runner up: the first Wild Flag show at the Black Cat in DC, before their album came out and the audience didn’t know what to expect.) I’m eagerly looking forward to their concert film as well as this documentary, but they’ll supplement rather than replace my memory of that experience.