Tom Nousaine'a latest pop music adventures.

As I get older I have to reflect on life. One of my most profound musical disappointments was K.D. Lang with the DSO at Orchestra Hall late in June. The show (seats 9 and 11 row H) started fine.... the DSO did a 25 minute set of nicely non-aggressive music and then K. D. appeared. She had a microphone in her face and was fronted by a standard pop-music group (two guitars, bass, and drums) presented to the audience with stacks of PA speakers to the left and right of the stage.

So far so good; but then her voice was delivered over a monitor sent from Hell--steely, boxy, and heavily colored. So much so that I couldn't stop hearing the sound of the speaker. It wasn't until the encore that I was finally able to disregard the sound of the speaker for just a heartbeat.... but that may have been because she was finally singing with enough power to overcome the PA system.

Part of the problem was that K.D. didn't really get in to the performance until the obviously planned encore ("Three Cigarettes in an Ashtray; Patsy Cline.) For example she milked Roy Orbison's "Crying" instead of letting her voice go. What a disappointment to pay nearly $60 each for these tickets six months in advance and still got a horrible PA delivery of the best voice in popular music in an acoustically great hall. On the other hand, it was true that hearing protection was not needed.

So what was next? My 4th attendance at the 16th annual Bayfront Blues Festival at Duluth Minnesota. This year the big names were Little Richard, Gary US Bonds, and Koko Taylor plus 32 other acts spread out over 3_days. Let's get to the bottom line first. Koko Taylor was a bust. She looked like she had lost 50 to 100 pounds (good) but her show was a flop. Missed notes, missed screams, grunts and those things that blues Mommas are noted for.

Little Richard explained that he was going to be 72 in December and put on a short but spirited show. My salesman at Full Compass told men on the phone that his girlfriend is a flight attendant in Minneapolis and Little Richard now travels through the airport in a wheelchair, being quite accomplished at 'directing' the people who were helping him. So I was expecting a depressing show with him sitting down thoughout.

Think again. He gave a spirited performance featuring, believe it or not, "Old Time Rock-N-Roll" which I associate with Bob Seger, although it was written by George Jackson. Anyway Lil' Dick started the show sitting but then stood and paced the stage from left to right. His stride became shorter as did the songs as the show drove on (a 1.5 hour set turned out to last only 50-minutes.) But nonetheless I was surprised, impressed, and pleased.

I missed Gary US Bonds on the last day. BUT that didn't stop me from recording some SPL measurements with my new NTI Minilyzer and MiniSPL microphone. I took measurements from a paced 60 yards from the near stage (there were two, one at each end of the open harbor) 15-yards to the right of the dead center sound-tent. And then again from a Kentucky thumb-windage 120 yards from the other stage at the far end of the open space. This time, of course, I was just to the left of the far stage sound tent still seated close to the near stage sound tent. I also took measurements next to the closer stage about 5-yards from the right speaker stack.

These measurements were roughly averaged over about 2 minutes and are typical of the performances. There weren't any acts that appeared to be noticeably louder than this, although some were softer when you take the material into account.

In other words, this was the maximum SPL delivered but the loudness was fairly consistent act to act (about 3 dB) and varied downward only with softer material. Pretty damn loud, don't you think? Use a minimum of Etymotic Research ER-15s Foamies. ER-25s will be needed when you're close to the stage.

Stay tuned for more sound pressure readings as time wears on. Protect your hearing.

Here's the damage:

5 yards 60 yards 120 yards

Max SPL            122 dB   113 dB       111 dB
Avg SPL
dB-unwtd           114 dB   109 dB       106 dB
dB-a wtd            92 dB
Frequency Peak   50-80 Hz   125-160 Hz

--TAN