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WINNIPEG -- There is nothing more piercing than a young girl's scream.
Now try being with 11,500 of them at once and you've got the potential for some serious hearing damage.
We took a Radio Shack decibel metre to the sold-out Hilary Duff concert at the MTS Centre last night, and even before the 17-year-old superstar took the stage the sound in the arena was as loud as a jackhammer at close range, registering just above 100 dBs when opening act DJ Wyze asked for a bit of noise.
EAR PLUGS
That's a level worthy of some good ear plugs.
Duff emerged at 7:40 p.m. with The Girl Can Rock, a declaration to her naysayers that there is more to the wholesome Lizzie McGuire star than just a pretty face and a dazzling smile. The decibel meter shot way up to 110 dB.
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Duff was dressed like many in the crowd with brown tweed pants and a black shirt covered by a pink sweater, keeping her "just a regular girl" status intact. She was backed by a five-piece band and three back up vocalists on a simple stage featuring a raised platform, a video screen, two side ramps and an extended front satellite stage, allowing Duff to get a little bit closer to her glow-stick waving fans, who were predominantly female and averaged about 10 years old.
With two multi-platinum albums of lightweight pop-rock under her belt, Duff had more material than most teen idols to choose from.
The lesser known songs registered lower on the decibel meter, with Weird and Anywhere But Here only generating 91 dBs worth of screams, while the meter shot up over 100 dBs for singles like Come Clean and So Yesterday.
TEEN THEMES
The meter also peaked whenever Duff addressed the crowd, which she did often.
"Thank you for coming, this is so great. So many people made signs too. That's great. Thank you," was typical of the evening's dialogue.
Her songs are almost just as nice as Duff seems and don't really give parents anything to complain about subject wise. They fall into three teen-themed categories:
-Believing in yourself and being the best you can be.
-Liking a boy who doesn't like you.
-The elation you feel when you're with a boy you like who likes you back.
She's missing the one about parents not understanding you or your fashion choices, but it's still early in her career.
Whichever topic she's on, the tunes are all catchy, cavity-causing pop ditties. There isn't much substance to the majority of it, but that's not really the point. They are meant to be fun for her target audience, and most of them are.
Even the song that veers from the formula, the Lindsay Lohan inspired Haters, was turned into a positive lesson, with Duff explaining hating was just "negative energy and stuff that's just not necessary."
CONSTANTLY IN MOTION
That got enough screams to cause me to put my fingers in my ears when the decibel meter shot back up to 110.
Thankfully the crowd only opened their vocal cords before and after each song instead of yelling through entire songs, saving some wear and tear on the ears of the adults in the room.
Duff is best known as an actress but she's a pretty capable performer in a live musical setting, too. She didn't appear to have acid reflux so had no reason to lip synch -- although it appeared her vocals were doubled at times, especially noticeable on Do You Want Me?. She was constantly in motion and sang to every corner of the room.
She was a perky bundle of energy all night and got the crowd dancing with songs like Why Not and Party Up, both which got the decibel meter jumping as high as her fans.
She wrapped up her main set after one hour with Rock This World and her latest single, Fly, before returning for an encore of The Who's My Generation.
It was just enough Duff.
According to our chart, hearing loss at 105 dBs can occur after an hour.
GETTING AN EARFUL
Just how loud was Hilary Duff's show last night? Well, let's compare:
- Breathing: 10 dB
- Conversation: 50 - 70 dB
- Screaming child: 90 dB
- Power tools: 110 dB
- rock band: 120 dB
- Air raid siren: 130 dB
- Jet engine: 140 dB
- Rocket launch: 180 dB
The higher the decibel level, the shorter the recommended exposure time. At 100 dB, exposure should be limited to two hours; at 110, 30 minutes; and at 120, 7.5 minutes.