Sunday, May 30, 2010

Tinnitus, anyone?

I'm not usually a concert-going kind of gal ... I think about going to concerts every so often, but as a general rule I end up not going to them. Partly because I'm so slow to get my ass in gear, but partly because I know that I will rarely enjoy it as much as I imagine that I will. The stress, the crowds, and not least the noise. I really noticed this last part on Tuesday and Friday in the Arena. Especially on Tuesday, for some reason - weird, because we were sitting further back then, but maybe it had something to do with where the loudspeakers were placed? See, I go to concerts so rarely that I don't even know that. ;-) But the point is that when I got home and went to bed I had a hard time sleeping, because my ears were still ringing, so to speak. Fortunately it was gone again by the next morning. But I really noticed it ... and that was just after a couple of hours. I was almost pretty happy I wasn't going again on Thursday as well as on Friday.

And continuing with that train of thought, I'm a little appalled by what's going on right now. Not in my neighborhood, although you might be excused for thinking so. I live not too far away from the open air arena Valle Hovin here in Oslo ... when I say not too far away, think a 5 to 10 minute drive. There's a big event there tonight - AC/DC are playing, wooh. So not my cup of tea ... you'd have to pay me to be there. But I'm sure it's sold out. And anyway, I don't have to be there - I can hear the concert just fine from here. With no windows open and even the balcony door closed. I can almost tell what the lyrics are. o_O

If my ears were ringing after two hours in the Arena with a selection of more & less trashy europop, what's this going to do to people? Yes, the Arena is enclosed, and Valle Hovin is open air, but still. It can't be healthy. o_O I know that professional musicians are one of the groups that is most over-represented among tinnitus sufferers. No wonder. o_O

I'm soo glad I'm not at Valle Hovin right now. I hope everyone there is having fun, but seriously, I wouldn't if I was there. :-)

2 comments:

Paz said...

I think the likes of ACDC have a little more to worry about than Tinnitus ;), I am sure there are other things in their lives that might have medical side effects

Elin said...

I was there. I've liked AC/DC since... I don't know, I was 11 or 12 or something. Maybe even longer. (And I'll be 36 in October). They actually handed out ear plugs for free at the entrance, and I had mine in during the whole gig (which only lasted for a bit more than an hour, due to them being late). In my opinion, the worst thing about the concert was the freaking BLUES CD they played while we were waiting. :-P