[kj] OT: MAKE IT STOP!

[TB]

"Alexander Smith" wrote:
>
> Cheers, Carl -- and everyone else who has responded. As I like to
> remind myself, there are people in this world with *real* problems,
> and I happily consider myself not to be among them, but this a
> FUCKING BOTHER to put it mildly, not least for the nagging suspicion
> that I brought it on myself out of sheer stupidity.

Nahhhhh, stupidity is wrecking your hearing at a fuckin' Foreigner concert.

Back in '84 or '85, whenever Foreigner was touring behind their "4" album 
with the "Jukebox Hero" and "Urgent" singles, I managed to score a pair of 
front row seats through Ticketmaster. I had planned on giving them as a gift 
to my girlfriend and her sister since they weren't my kinda band (obviously) 
but she got sick a couple days before the show and gave them back to me so 
my buddy and I went.

It turned out the seats were front row alright, but way off to the left side 
so that the wall of speakers was right in front of us. Because we had to 
face a bit to the left to see center stage, our right ears bore the brunt of 
the speakers and although I can say even up to that point I'd experienced 
some notoriously loud bands (Motorhead, Roth era Van Halen, The Clash, etc) 
this was outta the ballpark. By the encore, we decided to leave because we 
were both in pain, and gave our tickets to a pair of girls hanging out in 
the arena lobby (who practically shit their pants) and left. We both worked 
a midnight shift in an aircraft manufacturing plant so we had to go straight 
to work that night stone deaf. I had pain and ringing in my right ear for 
about 6 months afterwards. Our job tested their employees hearing every six 
months due to the nature of our work and we both lost something like 10 
percent of our hearing in our right ears when we were tested a month after 
that night

T.B.