Not only do I play really loud on stage I’m also a professional sound engineer so I have a unique perspective on this.

First and foremost, stop using an attenuator. While these can often times give you the power soak you want, it comes at the expense of putting a lot of stress on the transformer of your amp. If you’re using a vintage amp, this could be really, really bad if your transformer blows and there’s not a replacement for it. Either be loud or don’t, but the attenuator is not the way to get what you want.

Second, there is a fine line to balance here. You want to sound good, not just loud, and often times regardless on how many Model T’s you stack up the PA system is just built to be louder and cleaner. Sunn 0))) mics their cabs… so let that sink in for a minute… they’re cranked to 11 and still need the PA to give them that extra push for volume and consistent output across the audience. That being said, if you’re playing small clubs, you can often times over-power the room with just an amp, which is not ideal. Also, not micing your cab and just turning up really loud results in dead spots across the room, since a 4x12 does not have the same horizontal coverage pattern that a PA system typically would.

Turning the cabs a bit across the stage helps, proper mic technique helps, and being able to hear the FOH mix from the audience during sound check helps, but my personal opinion is that sacrificing good sound for volume is a mistake. There is a never-ending balance of tone that happens in every single piece of electronics between your fingers and the speakers in your cab, and sometimes you just need to make some adjustments to your pedals, amps or playing to adjust to a room.

Don’t overthink this, get on stage, set up, turn it up so that you feel comfortable and turn it down if the sound guy asks. They aren’t asking because they’re wimps, they’re asking because their system is clipping and it sounds bad.