[jtmckinley]

I've not heard the band you're referring to, but I really hope that bands will in general begin to eschew the "gotta be loud to rock" mindset. You need to play loud enough to be heard in whatever venue you play in, but I really hope the "crank it up!" mantra is given up, at least for bands that are serious about music. It's no longer necessary to ruin your ears to get a good sound IMHO. A personal anecdote: I had some friends over to my house to jam a while back and (given that I have a Roland TD-20 for the drummer to play) we played at levels that we could sing full voice without mics and could hear ourselves just fine. We still used mics to add "some love" for reverb etc. but it was gratifying that I didn't have to piss off my neighbors and we were still able to jam until 5 am. With the PA systems like the Bose PAS-1, the Roland TD-20 and things like the Line6 PODxt it's really not necessary to play at loud volume in order to get a good sound IMHO. In the past, one has always been at the mercy of the level the drummer needed on an acoustic kit, but nowadays that's not even necessary IMHO. And even if the TD-20 doesn't give you the sounds you want as a drummer (maybe), you can always use the MIDI out to trigger something like BFD of DFHS. Anyway, I'm hoping the days of sticking cigarette butts in my ears is nearing an end LOL...