New Study Warns Over 1 Billion Young People at Risk of Hearing Loss • Page 2

I didn't wear earplugs at shows as a youth (I also didn't wear sunscreen ever at warped tour, RIP me) but I wear the eargasm ones for every show as an adult and my friends make fun of me but idgaf. And now if I take them out for a sec at shows it sounds so loud and bad to my ears. Much prefer the earplugs.

 

100% this. AirPods with noise cancellation have been a huge game-changer for me at shows. Getting to listen to my own music or podcasts between sets is an added bonus.

 

Saw Panic! ~15 years ago and I couldn't hear after the show - partly due to the volume and also partly due to all the teenage screaming lol

Been wearing earplugs (EarPeace) ever since. They aren't noticeable and I take them out between sets ... usually. Going to sleep without your ears ringing is a pretty nice feeling.

 

Back in February I had a sudden sensorineural hearing loss. On superbowl sunday i woke up with this weird pressure in my ears (like on a plane but I couldn't pop them), quickly followed up by feeling like there was pounds of cotton in my ears muffling everything, and within two weeks I was near deaf. I remember sitting in the front seat of my car and picking up my four year old from preschool and when I asked how his day was I couldn't hear his answer, and he was at most three feet behind me. I broke down because worse than losing music was not being able to hear my kids voices.

I found a BADASS ENT and immediately began aggressive treatments that focused on popping holes in my eardrums and flooding my middle ear with a specialized steroid medication so it could soak through the membrane and into my cochlea. That shit worked pretty well, and I'd say I'm back to about 95% of where my hearing previously was.

The song "Running in the Night" by FM84 is a song I love and at the peak of my loss when I would listen to it, it sounded like an absolute jumbled mess. The low bass notes would rumble through my ears and all the mid and high frequencies would be gone. I would then switch to "In Your Honor" by Foo Fighters and when all the guitars come screaming in at the beginning... I couldn't hear any of them- only the opening hum/feedback and then an odd version of the vocals. It was hell.

All this to say please PLEASE take care of your ears and do your best to protect them. I'm incredibly lucky that I was able to recover as well as I have, but not everyone is that lucky. I'd rather live in a world where I look weird at concerts with ear plugs than return home and not hear my kids voices or listen to any music.

 

For those thinking of "investing" in protection: just go for it. Plugs are not expensive at all. Brands like Eargasm, Etymotic Research, Hearprotek or others advertised as "high fidelity" earplugs do the job pretty well.

 

Yeah, like others have said, tinnitus sucks. I remember being "too punk" (haha, who the fuck was that kid?) for earplugs growing up and playing music and going to shows. I can recall more than one occasion of seeing dried blood on the ol' Q-tip after a good cleaning. As someone who is already anxious enough, tinnitus can heighten my anxiety and anxiety can heighten my tinnitus. Fun! But, yeah, earplugs at shows now.