When did that all start to change? I've only ever been to one large arena show (U2 at the Staples Center in L.A.). The one time I was at a large theater type setting with room for several thousand +++ (The Wiltern in West L.A.) the sound was sh*t even though we sat, like, two feet behind the sound guys. Maybe it would've sounded better if I would have been smart enough to wear my earplugs.

90% of the time I go to these low-down holes-in-the-wall... where these dudes are blasting half stacks (and oftentimes full stacks, just because they can) in a place where the opposing wall is twenty feet from the stage and there's thirty people standing around on the floor. You pretty much have to wear earplugs to even be able to hear anything decently (or else your eardrums rattle so violently that it's almost like standing next to a jet plane taking off)... the PA system is usually drowned out totally (only for vocals... usually a pair of '12 speakers), you can't hear the bass drum hardly at all, etc. Well, some places are a little better than that... but much of the time....

I think if I get this musical project I've got in the works off the ground I'll maintain my own PA system... i.e. 1,000 amp powering a pair of '15 woofers and an '18 subwoofer. That way they could hear every foul word of my rantings and mumblings over the half stacks, at an extremely high volume... and become afraid.