[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

I play in a band and volume is always a concern. We often have someone complaining that we are too loud because they can't carry on a conversation while we are playing. To those people, I say that if you want to have conversations, don't go to places where there is live music unless it is a guy sitting in the corner with an acoustic guitar playing background music.

We had some people that were interested in hiring us come to a gig to hear us. One of them asked, "Do they always play this loud?". We heard that and asked many of the people who were at that gig what they thought and not one of them thought we were too loud.

Most people at our gigs like to dance and very few have ever complained about our volume.

We did do a few gigs at a country club where the owner or manager kept coming over and complaining that we were too loud. Of course it was one or two people who want to have a conversation. The thirty or so people that were up dancing loved it. We don't play that place any more because frankly we are not interested in being harassed while we are trying to entertain your clientele.

I frequently attend meetings of acoustic guitar clubs. I've seen a woman at several of them who has walked out because she thought it was too loud. I'm thinking that she must have incredibly sensitive ears because I can't imagine that a room full of acoustic guitars is too loud. At these clubs I basically can only hear myself because the sound of my guitar so close to me blots out all the rest of the guitars in the club.

Some people want to sit and have a conversation. They shouldn't go where there is live music. Some people have overly sensitive ears. They shouldn't go where there is live music. And yes, most musicians, especially those in our age group have some degree of hearing loss. That is why we have sound engineers who tell us what sounds good and what doesn't.

Having said that, I've been to a few concerts in large venues where the volume was just too much. But of the hundreds of concerts I've been to I can only remember one or two where the volume was uncomfortable.