Edit: saw the O))) in berlin in a theater! Story/review

[DarkAxel]

Yeah, I was. Does it make any difference in the mental effect it had on me?

[goroth]

Cool review DA!

Your bus trip mirrors mine from Berlin to Prague in 2004. Sucks.

[waltdogg]

Didn't wear earplugs one time I saw Sleep. I cant imagine it being as loud as Sunn, but that was a bad fucking choice.

You're a fucking trooper, I would have lost it with all that travel time.

[DarkAxel]

I still think it was worth it as an experience

I have to say... I did put the earplugs in only after a while to avoid fatigue, but to be honest, they didn't seem much louder than Swans and that's different frequency-wise. Sunn is a lot about those subs and mids, not too much piercing treble unlike Swans with the cymbals and all, you know different kind of noise. Sunn surely moved more air, but weren't as hard on the hearing

[fuzzonaut]

Nice review!

No need to see them again, that's exactly what I thought after the first time I've seen them - and after every other time I've seen them since.

Best bone marrow massage ever.

Did they have the "quadrophonic setup"? (PA column in all 4 corners of the place?)

[D.o.S.]

I still think it was worth it as an experience

I have to say... I did put the earplugs in only after a while to avoid fatigue, but to be honest, they didn't seem much louder than Swans and that's different frequency-wise. Sunn is a lot about those subs and mids, not too much piercing treble unlike Swans with the cymbals and all, you know different kind of noise. Sunn surely moved more air, but weren't as hard on the hearing

To this, I actually don't think Swans were that loud.

[DarkAxel]

I still think it was worth it as an experience

I have to say... I did put the earplugs in only after a while to avoid fatigue, but to be honest, they didn't seem much louder than Swans and that's different frequency-wise. Sunn is a lot about those subs and mids, not too much piercing treble unlike Swans with the cymbals and all, you know different kind of noise. Sunn surely moved more air, but weren't as hard on the hearing

To this, I actually don't think Swans were that loud.

I saw Swans in a small-ish club and it was loud as fuck. At one point the bass made me sick Sunn didn't much worse...

Nice review!

No need to see them again, that's exactly what I thought after the first time I've seen them - and after every other time I've seen them since.

Best bone marrow massage ever.

Did they have the "quadrophonic setup"? (PA column in all 4 corners of the place?)

no they didn't. I actually think the PA might have been a bit too small for them to have the full effect? especially regarding all y'all's comments on the loudness

[D.o.S.]

Yeah, no, I saw swans in a similar place -- like a 500 cap venue -- and they were not that loud at all.

[DarkAxel]

Sounds about the same yeah... I guess it depends on your opinion of what's loud. I haven't seen Boris or Juicifer which are supposed to be really loud, so it's hard for me to judge, but Sunn and Swans seem about the same to me. Which might be good or bad for either of them

[univalve]

Nice review
Thanks.

[casecandy]

I find most bands aren't as loud as they're purported to be?

Boris was legitimately loud. It was a large venue, too (Bowery).

I've never seen Jucifer though so no comment.

[D.o.S.]

Boris were loud, but Cave In was louder -- although the Cave In dudes had the advantage of being local so they could pile in as much gear as they could in order to be louder than Boris (they were like a one-off support for that show). It worked.

A lot of it obviously has to do with venue size. Most of the time when Amp Bands get large enough to tour outside of their local area they're playing caps that are too big to really do the claustrophobic volume thing. OTOH I've never seen Sunn, so.

[krlpuretone]

Mogwai was way louder than Sunn o))) when I saw them, but the loudest band I've ever seen was Pearl Jam at the UMass-Amherst ballroom.

Big venue PA in a small room...I left with a ruptured ear drum!
There were people running into the bathroom to shove wet paper hand towels into their ears it was so freaking loud....

[daseb]

Sunn's thing isn't just about volume, it's about that spread of low frequencies thing. I've seen louder bands (MBV and Swans on the same bill in a massive indoor sports center) but none that had all kinds of weird vibrations going on that Sunn had. Saw Boris with Sunn at the same show and they were loud but not like, feel it rattling in the base of your skull loud. I saw Om in the same venue and they were loud and so bassy you couldn't make out actual notes over the sound of every fixture in the room rattling, but it still wasn't like, glasses bouncing off my face / pressure on my chest volume.

Then again I had cracked ribs when I saw Sunn at that show so that was...interesting.