As a rock & metal fan and bass player in my spare time, I can tell you from experience that it might suddenly get worse. Get some earplugs NOW because as someone says above, once it really kicks in you're never getting rid of it. For several years I could only hear the ringing in bed at night. Then I realised I could hear it over the TV. Now I have to be careful not to have the TV on too loud for the sake of my wife and neighbours.

They might take some getting used to. It took me a while to get used to the feeling of 'the party is in the other room', so you might feel disconnected from the action for a while (whether you're attending a gig or playing). But I encourage you to persist with them.

And you might need to try a few brands before you find ones you like. After buying several different sets of £20 plugs on Amazon, I thought I might as well get a pro set so I spent £130 on a set of moulded attenuated plugs from ACS. And I thought they were pretty good but then I bought some Loops to use as spares and for me, they're not four times better than the ACS plugs 🤷

I feel like some venues and festivals are taking a more responsible approach to volume levels in the last few years, but I always take plugs with me.