A few decades back, Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy did a concert in Seattle. My wife and I went with a couple of friends.

It was held in an auditorium at the University of Washington that seated maybe five-hundred people. Like an amphitheater, not a bad seat in the house. And in actuality, a PA system was unnecessary. Good acoustics and the place was not that big.

But—the PA system was turned up so loud that it verged on the painful! At first, I thought that somebody had goofed and that it would be turned down, but no! After about the third song, we were thinking seriously about leaving. And several people did get up and leave. But we stuck it out. My ears rang for about three days afterward.

Good concert, I think. I don't remember much about it except how bloody loud it was.

I don't know what the sound folks were thinking, jamming the needles against the pegs like that. Bloody non compos mentis! Or, for that matter, Makem and Clancy for allowing it.

Don Firth