EAGLES OF DEATH METAL Take Part In Experimental 'Quiet' Concert

April 11, 2005

The Associated Press is reporting that EAGLES OF DEATH METAL took part in an experimental "quiet" rock concert Monday, when about 100 people at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame wore miniature radio receivers to hear unamplified music.

The crowd at the concert was advised to wear earplugs attached to a radio receiver about the size of a cell phone and tune into a certain frequency.

EAGLES OF DEATH METAL played two songs without any amplification, and the drums were digital. The music could hardly be heard in the setting inside the Rock Hall's spacious lobby. But the audience reacted mostly with smiles to the adjustable sound in their personal receivers.

The band followed with three amplified songs on speakers, as it normally performs. Many in the crowd more openly reacted, jumping, dancing and waving their arms.

Two officials of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, in Rockville, Md., monitored the show. They measured the unamplified sound at 62 decibels, a normal sound level, and the amplified sound at 124 decibels, which they said is like a jet engine.

John E. Thom, who runs the Web site HearingUSA in San Antonio, said some movie theaters offer customers headphones with volume control, but he hadn't heard of a way to do it for big rock concerts.

Ernie Petrus, spokesman for St. Louis-based Energizer, said the battery maker started a hearing loss education campaign a year ago and planned the quiet concert to help persuade people to seek professional help for hearing problems. He said Energizer has no plans to market rock concert receivers.

"It was interesting how it worked," said Kent State University senior Ben Schreckengost, 21, a former member of a rock band and who usually wears earplugs at rock concerts, said the demonstration was interesting but the quiet concert didn't impress him much.

"I've never really seen anything like that before, but I would think live is better," Schreckengost said. "I like to sing along. You don't feel the bass and the drum. I didn't like the electronic drum sound because it sounded synthesized and gave it a different feel altogether."

But Cleveland State MBA graduate student Yulia Kokhan, 26, enjoyed the muted tones.

"I don't like loud," she said.

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