Rock ‘n roll and heavy metal concerts are terrible. They have always been terrible and they’re getting worse. They’re so loud you can’t hear anything except a prescribed hours-long barrage of semi-dizzying percussive blasts, which are caused nearly as much by the guitars, bass, and vocals as by the drum set. If a person doesn’t wear ear plugs, his ears are ringing for the next two or three days—perhaps longer. If he does wear ear plugs, everything comes across sounding muffled and unarticulated.

How the hell did it become acceptable practice to wear ear plugs to music performances anyway? Isn’t that the same as strapping on leg braces before going skiing, or ordering non-alcoholic beer at a brewpub? Don’t people go to concerts to experience the music? If the vast majority of people cannot properly experience the music, with or without earplugs, how could they possibly be enjoying themselves?

There are also a lot of sweaty, stinky SOBs at these concerts too… and the tickets can be absurdly overpriced. Here’s a prime example: it costs between $145 and $366 to see a geriatric version of AC/DC . This is a band that hasn’t released a good rock ‘n roll album since around the time John Lennon was assassinated, yet people are willing to blow a car payment and risk a case of tinnitus for one more chance to “hear” classic songs from a bygone era resurrected in a live setting. Crikey!