why I wouldn't attend an arena concert

[calimac]

As for the music, the low-frequency kick of the bass - amplified by the subterranean setting, contained within SoFi's steep sides, and ricocheting off the E.T.F.E. roof - was crushingly loud. It penetrated to the bone. A friend who'd joined me ... retreated from the volume and sat in a chair next to the congealing remains of a spread of wings and sliders, her head in her hands. I sought refuge in the suite's private bathroom.

- John Seabrook, The New Yorker, 12/8/25

And this was a Beyoncé concert. Beyoncé. Not a heavy metal band or anything like it, the sort of thing I wouldn't listen to regardless of the volume.

I would not have sat with my head in my hands or sought refuge in a bathroom. The moment this assault on the sense of hearing began, I would have stood up and walked right out of the stadium. Then, if possible, I would have gotten in my car and driven home.

The one time I actually heard a performer in an arena was back in the '90s when B. was working for AMD and they were riding high, so Jerry Sanders rented the local hockey arena for a big corporate party and put Faith Hill in it. The sound wasn't as bad as the above description, and the music as such was not at all objectionable, but I lasted about two minutes.

Comments

[sturgeonslawyer]

I recently heard a not-entirely-ridiculous claim that (a certain type of) opera is (a certain type of) metal music, only without the electricity. Wagner was mentioned several times.

Also: I have been in a not-quite-arena sized theater where very powerful bass pedals (something like the bottom part of an electric organ) were used in a way that I could feel as pressure in my chest -- making breathing not difficult, but different, in a way that was neither pleasant nor un. This was not a metal concert of any variety; it was Genesis during their more "progressive" days, at a climactic moment of a twenty-minute song.

H'mm. Here's a pretty good demonstration of how Genesis used bass pedals similarly in the intro of another song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRbQD9TGY8U

[calimac]

There is a practice known as "landsmanship," which is claiming as members of a class things that don't quite fit, which you can make an argument for their legitimacy by stretching a point, but people viewing them without context would probably not think of them that way. Calling Lucian of Samosata the first SF writer is a fine example of landsmanship, and putting opera in the class of metal music would be the same. (Wagner actually had a scene scored for the rhythmic striking of anvils without accompaniment.)

When I say I wouldn't listen to heavy metal regardless of the volume, I'm thinking of when a friend sent me a link to Led Zeppelin's "Since I've Been Loving You." I turned it off after five seconds.

As for Genesis, I've seen it argued that prog and metal are closely akin and that some songs, especially pioneering ones, can be classified in both genres. This doesn't surprise me, as folk and country have a similar relationship. Yet I love folk and detest country, so I see a definite line between them, but that line is very thin.

[bibliofile]

I will say that the Grateful Dead were known for trying to get the best sound in any venue, including big arenas. I haven't seen that many arena shows, but the Dead ones always had pretty good sound.

[sturgeonslawyer]

That line is thin indeed; in fact, there is a subgenre called "progressive metal" (typified by bands like Dream Theater and Tool) and one called "symphonic metal" which frequently features classically-trained singers (best-known example here would be Nightwish).

I'm not surprised you didn't like Led Zep. I dislike them myself. Robert Plant's shrieking vocals turn me right off. (Vocals are the thing most likely to turn me off in a metal band; there's a whole school of what I think of as "cookie monster vocals" that send me running to the toilet.)

Genesis, however, is not generally terribly close to metal; they are -- or rather were before their turn to pop music -- mostly -- more melodic, frequently even pastoral and/or autumnal.

[sturgeonslawyer]

Good, yes, but the two Dead shows I have seen were both far louder than I was happy with. One of them was a Day on the Green where they were the first act (of two) and the second was The Who: The Dead were louder (even though, as I understand it, The Who used The Dead's PA system).

[andrewducker]

Oh yes, there's no need for the volume to be as high as they take it.