Loud music at concerts

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Hello!

I was wondering if anybody else finds concerts to be extremely difficult due to the sound level?
I can never fully enjoy the thought of going to see a band I love due to the anxiety I suffer from knowing how loud it's going to be and this is even though I wear protective earplugs, i'm just terrified of damaging my hearing and of course you can still "feel" how loud everything is even with earplugs in... Or maybe i'm just weird. Does anybody else find this to be as big of a problem?

I've had this problem too. I can really enjoy a pub/bar sized gig every once in a while, even really raucous punky music. But bigger concerts seem to just have a competition going on to see who can have the loudest PA. The last big gig I went to, I noticed loads of people using earplugs, and they can't all have been sound-sensitive autistics - so what's the point of making it so loud? I spent most of the gig sitting on the steps out in the foyer instead of in the crowd because it was so oppressive, and I decided that I'll stick with smaller concerts from now on.

With modern PA equipment, the sound can be spread much more evenly around the venue than in the old days, so it's not even much of an excuse saying that it's for people at the back to hear it better. I would much rather have a quality sound where I can clearly hear all of the instruments and words than just sheer volume and the feeling that my insides are being liquified.