[goda90]

I've gone to two rock concerts that the volume was so loud that is was distorting the music. Of course my ears hurt, so I took to covering them a bit. My friend often goes to concerts and wasn't phased at all. I imagine the people in charge of sound have already lost some hearing, and they don't care if it sounds great or not.

[pas]

Use party earplugs, even the low grade ~20 bucks version is night-and-day.

Some concerts/parties/clubs are definitely purposely too loud. Yes, many people going are already hearing-compromised.

[dzhiurgis]

Soundsystem parties are designed to have so much base it vibrates your body.

If you go there without earplugs someone will offer you napkins as otherwise you’ll get tinnitus.

[ResidentSleeper]

I've had this exact problem attending most concerts (only classical music seems mostly fine). The music sounds very distorted (like a damaged speaker or an audio recording with heavy clipping) and after a while it gets physically painful to listen. Movies are sometimes uncomfortable, but the volume level is less constant which helps a lot. I've asked around and nobody seems to share this experience. I didn't use to go to live events often and it actually took me years to realize that my hearing's at fault.

[waterhouse]

A similar data point: I carry earplugs everywhere, and usually wear them when I'm at the movie theater (which is kind of rare) and at parties where there's loud music or talking; I do this because sooner or later I notice my ears hurting from the noise. The earplugs I have are flesh-colored ("Hearos"), and I don't think most people notice them unless I point them out.

I'm not sure whether I'm an outlier in terms of hearing sensitivity, or if it's just that I somehow wired myself to interpret certain stimuli as pain, or what. I also find bright sunlight and spicy food painful, and when I've gotten massages, usually I prefer a much lighter touch than what appears to be normal. I guess smell is the remaining sense; I guess I have evidence that (some) smells bother me more than they bother others.

[vagab0nd]

Same. I've had this happen to me twice. Once I was sitting in the back and farthest away from the sound source, but it was still so bad I had to leave. Now I don't go to any concerts without a pair of ear plugs.

[adultSwim]

Concerts are loud for a reason. It needs to drone out talking. This is why evening book/poetry readings in bars are universally horrible.

[radus]

Depending on the particular band it's possible that they use distortion as part of their sound..